kyknos Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5498 days ago 103 posts - 140 votes Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, English Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 33 of 351 10 November 2009 at 4:30pm | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
I support it for political reasons. ...
I do not want to speak English with a Romanian, Greek or Portuguese person just because it happens to be the national language of the United States which has been a superpower for a bit over half a century...!
Anyone agree with any of this?
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Well, it is also national language of several EU countries, isn't it? UK, Ireland, Malta. It is also the most useful language in many fields so it is often studied as a second language (almost always in my country).
Esperanto may be easy to learn, but I do not know whether I want to use artificial language as lingua franca on everyday basis (I probably wouldn't survive a single working day without English). Natural languages are more beautiful and... natural. If we should use some neutral European language... I would vote for Latin instead :).
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 34 of 351 10 November 2009 at 4:30pm | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
Anyone agree with any of this?
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I personally would have trouble learning Esperanto unless it became it became a living, breathing, widespread
language (and please don't nitpick about the 1000 or so supposed native speakers out there whose parents are
linguists). However, I agree with all your sentiments, both cultural and political.
People have also proposed neo-Latin as a European auxiliary language. I wonder if that would work. At the crazier
end of the scale are those people who want to revive PIE for that purpose.
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cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5840 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 35 of 351 10 November 2009 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
Oh - I should clarify that I don't hate English or Britain. I quite like both. English as a common language is definitely better than no common language at all...
I just think a new time is dawning for Europe and it would be great to solve the language issue in a better way than what English can offer...
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Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 36 of 351 10 November 2009 at 4:58pm | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
I just think a new time is dawning for Europe and it would be great to solve the language issue in a better way than what English can offer... |
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But Esperanto is widely regarded as being an imperfect conlang.
Esperanto's only advantage over other conlangs is that it has an established base of speakers... which means it's not a neutral language. Geographically neutral, yes, but not individually neutral.
If Europe wants an artificial auxiliary language, there should be an academic grant to write a new one based on solid linguistic principles.
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cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5840 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 37 of 351 10 November 2009 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
If Europe wants an artificial auxiliary language, there should be an academic grant to write a new one based on solid linguistic principles. |
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Interesting proposition! That would surely be the ideal.... That would be one of the most interesting language projects ever to be undertaken... A Euro languages geeks dream project... We should almost start a separate thread about this - it's such a fascinating thought.
I want the new language asap though - not in fifty years when Swedish is near extinction and the EU bureacracy has finished turning...
Since I can't actually speak Esperanto myself I have no particular loyalty to that language - I just think it's the closest to the mark that is currently available.
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Akalabeth Groupie Canada Joined 5521 days ago 83 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese
| Message 38 of 351 10 November 2009 at 7:19pm | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
If Europe wants an artificial auxiliary language, there should be an
academic grant to write a new one based on solid linguistic principles. |
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Isn't
Interlingua kind of that already? It has some advantages over Esperanto, and is very easy
for many Europeans to understand without any prior introduction to the language. I was
trying to find any good resources to learn it, but I couldn't find much of quality. I
definitely think it looks nicer than Esperanto though.
http://members.optus.net/~ado_hall/interlingua/gi/parts_of_s peech/article.html was the
most comprehensive site I could find.
EDIT: If you try to go to that site you might need to remove a space in the link. Won't let me remove it.
Edited by Akalabeth on 10 November 2009 at 7:26pm
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Vinbelgium Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Belgium Joined 5826 days ago 61 posts - 73 votes Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, English, French Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 39 of 351 10 November 2009 at 7:34pm | IP Logged |
People always say that Esperanto is such an extremely easy language.
The difficulty of a language depends on your native language. And for every language vocabulary must be studied. Esperanto learners who know a European language are lucky, but they still have to study the vocabulary. The grammar is a bit simplified, but they still need to study it. To me it's just another language.
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Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5523 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish*
| Message 40 of 351 10 November 2009 at 7:53pm | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
Esperanto's only advantage over other conlangs is that it has an established base of speakers... which means it's not a neutral language. Geographically neutral, yes, but not individually neutral.
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So if a language has speakers, it's off because it's not neutral? Doesn't seem very practical. But why does it have to be neutral? And how do you think a language COULD be neutral?
And Cordelia, why wouldn't Esperanto kill Swedish if you think English will?
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