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This article is from the Red Dwarf FAQ, by Patrick M. Berry pat@interpath.com with numerous contributions by others.

07 What does "LEVEL NIVELO" mean? (Red Dwarf)

Red Dwarf is a bilingual ship, with English and Esperanto as the two
official languages. "Nivelo" is the Esperanto word for "level". The signs
in the corridors of the ship simply indicate (in both languages) what level
you're on.

Esperanto is a real language, developed in the the 1880s by Polish
ophthalmologist L.L. Zamenhof. The episode "Kryten" establishes that
Lister, Holly, and Kryten all speak at least some Esperanto. Rimmer doesn't
seem to have mastered the language yet; he's shown trying to learn it from
a videotape without much success.

The name "Esperanto" means "one who hopes," a fact that is alluded to in
"Back to Reality." (It's a blatant clue, innit?) If you would like to know
more about the language, http://www.esperanto.net is a good place to start.

 

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