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#2 international language is...? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 9 of 19 07 February 2012 at 12:01am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
It depends on what you mean by "isn't going to happen" and "no one", I suppose. I severely doubt Esperanto will ever have a billion speakers, but it does have somewhere on the order of a million. It's unlikely to get widespread political support; among individual people, I see a lot more disinterest or mild positivity than rooting for their native languages when Esperanto comes up. Esperanto isn't "an intellectual pan-European linguistic experiment". It has European word roots, but was created by an oculist (who did not only speak or have exposure to Indo-European languages). It's fairly popular in Brazil, Russia, and China. The State-owned "China radio international" even broadcasts in Esperanto. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6471 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 10 of 19 07 February 2012 at 12:27am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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As we speak, 128 people from 28 countries are attending university-level courses taught
in Esperanto in Hainan, China, which is trying to get the name "Esperanto island". http://esperanto- insulo.info/universitataj.htm There is already an "Esperanto town", in Germany, Herzberg. Edited by Sprachprofi on 07 February 2012 at 12:27am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 11 of 19 07 February 2012 at 12:50am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
So it ranks right up there with Godwari and Kurukh. I stand corrected...
In hypothetical theory, yes. But ask these people how many of them would like to implement Esperanto as part of the standard curriculum in their schools nationwide, or how many would study it themselves for several years...
The personal identity of L. L. Zamenhof is irrelevant. The language itself, and the fact that it is much easier to learn for those who speak Indo-European languages, remains.
Then again, it also broadcasts in Kirgiz and Sinhalese... The fact that Esperanto was created by a single individual and now has a million speakers and 128 people studying it on a small provincial island of China is certainly impressive and admirable, but in a world of 7 billion people and a $62 trillion dollar economy, a fringe activist movement like Esperanto (which is, unfortunately, what it is) doesn't really belong in a thread titled "#2 international language" (beyond the fact that that was its intended purpose, of course). Edited by nway on 07 February 2012 at 2:12am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| akprocks Senior Member United States Joined 5287 days ago 178 posts - 258 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 12 of 19 07 February 2012 at 1:20am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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While I personally don't feel like learning Esperanto at the moment you have to admit that it is a pretty miraculous thing. A poor Russian guy with not many important connections pretty much pulls a language out of his ass and within the space of a hundred years, some how gets thousands of people to learn it. You can't discount it simply from an inherent dislike for the language.
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| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 13 of 19 07 February 2012 at 1:36am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
I do not have any "inherent dislike for the language". I'm not even sure how that could be possible. I'm just saying that in a world where Lady Gaga's most recent album sold 8 million copies, YouTube videos of Susan Boyle's performance amassed over 100 million hits, and Bengali and Indonesian each have roughly 230 million speakers, a mere million here or there doesn't really mean much on a worldwide level, which is precisely the level a language like Esperanto is meant to function on. Edited by nway on 07 February 2012 at 1:47am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gerund Newbie United States Joined 4805 days ago 12 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Swedish | Message 14 of 19 07 February 2012 at 1:58am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
A not unreasonable point, although the international reach of Esperanto is astounding given the relative dearth of individuals who actually speak it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6471 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 15 of 19 07 February 2012 at 11:43am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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The current number of speakers does not mean much - look at how comparatively popular
Icelandic is among language geeks, yet it has only 310,000 speakers. Shouldn't they all be studying Kurukh (2 million) or Bengali (215 million)? The answer is no. Icelandic can offer you a lot more than Kurukh can, and Bengali's appeal is completely different from Icelandic's; nobody would seriously suggest learning Bengali to someone who wants to learn Icelandic. It's by the same token that you cannot suggest either Kurukh or Bengali to someone who is interested in Esperanto. Esperanto's culture and community is unique, and the language appears to be a magnet for awesome language geeks, if you look at how many of the most respected forum members know Esperanto, and how many more you randomly meet at Esperanto events. As for any future prognosis: more than 100 documented languages (and how many undocumented ones?) have become extinct since 1900 and the vast majority of the rest are now severely endangered, with 90% of all known languages slated to disappear before 2050. That is more than 6000 languages that would be happy to see a total speaker number of 1 million, and who'd be celebrating a miracle resurrection if they had had an increase by 1 million in the past 100 years. Esperanto is going strong against the trend. That is all the more astonishing considering that some of the most terrifying regimes have specifically tried to eliminate Esperanto by systematically murdering or exiling Esperanto speakers. There is no data on which to extrapolate the odds of its success. A lot will depend on how keen everyone is to learn Chinese, as knowing Chinese is increasingly becoming a condition for doing business with China. Edited by Sprachprofi on 07 February 2012 at 11:49am 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 16 of 19 07 February 2012 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
Teaching Esperanto in schools was in the top 3 most popular petitions on change.gov for a while.
It's easiest for polyglots who know at least one Romance language. People who already know the roots used in Esperanto have an advantage - but Esperanto is designed to need less roots than national languages. Monoglots often seem to have more trouble with it, regardless of what language they speak; the first language one actively studies is a bit of a hurdle. Esperanto grammar is not substantially easier for people who speak an IE language already (as contrasted with those who do not speak an IE language already; the grammar itself is simple, but not particularly IE). One can argue that it's best to have a language which is equally hard to learn for everyone, by using entirely invented word roots. As it is, something which makes a language easier for some people and no harder than it would otherwise be for the rest isn't the end of the world. Plenty of Asian Esperanto speakers say that they find Esperanto easier than any other language they've tried to learn. One of the first books I read in Esperanto was by a Japanese man who teaches English, but isn't comfortable speaking or writing it.
I would agree, but for that the original poster introduced the topic with several questions about Esperanto. It should be two threads, really. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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