From John Cowan's list of "Essentialist Explanations", credited to Kapitano Eglefino (http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/essential.html#Esperanto): "Esperanto is essentially English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Latin, and Greek, invented by someone who speaks English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Latin, Greek...and Polish." --