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Esperanto | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| sumabeast Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6930 days ago 212 posts - 220 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 13 26 October 2006 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering how would Esperanto be classed? as a Romance language? certainly looks and sound alot like Spanish and Italian, or Portuguese.
But Esperanto has declensions like German. If someone learned Esperanto well would they also have a passive understanding of Spanish or Italian? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6894 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 2 of 13 26 October 2006 at 8:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I've always thought of Esperanto as a cross between the Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages, although I personally don't know enough about the language to make an educated comment!
I've had a look at Esperanto and while some words look vaguely familiar, I personally would not class it as a Romance language (it's an artificial language anyway) and don't think that knowing Esperanto will give you a headstart with Italian or Spanish vocabulary. If Esperanto is your first foreign language, though, I can imagine that it might make learning another European language a little easier. This, however, is subject to debate. EDIT : I've just taken a look at the Wikipedia article on Esperanto and it does indeed have vocabulary from the Romance and Germanic languages while its phonology is from the Slavic language family. Edited by lady_skywalker on 26 October 2006 at 8:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6772 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 13 26 October 2006 at 9:02am | IP Logged | ||
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You'd have to classify Esperanto an isolate, since it's not descended from any other language in the normal sense.
Many linguists don't consider Esperanto a language at all, since it has not developed naturally as human speech and may not be complete in the way a natural language is. Additionally, no native speakers of true Esperanto exist. Those who have learned it from childhood through immersion inevitably speak a creolized version, filling in the "blanks" with grammar and vocabulary from their first languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sumabeast Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6930 days ago 212 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 13 26 October 2006 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do know that Esperanto is a conlang, but if one were to attempt to class it in terms like that, would you put it in the Romance family? Germanic? or what?
English too has huge amounts of French and Latin (Romance) words but it's still considered a Germanic language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6772 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 13 27 October 2006 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Languages are always classified according to their origins, regardless of where they borrow words from. English is a Germanic language because it evolved from Old German, even though at least half its vocabulary is French or Latin.
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| T0dd Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6553 days ago 17 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: French | Message 6 of 13 20 December 2006 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a very interesting article on the question of the classification of Esperanto, by one of its most distinguised writers and spokespersons, Claude Piron: Esperanto: European or Asiatic language?
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| sumabeast Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6930 days ago 212 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 13 21 December 2006 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||
No English is classified as a Germanic language because despite the vast number of French and Latin borrowings , it's grammar and structure are still Germanic in nature. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| T0dd Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6553 days ago 17 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: French | Message 8 of 13 21 December 2006 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||
What Bergen documented is that native Esperanto speakers, in childhood, speak a somewhat creolized version of Esperanto. He points out that in many such cases, the children speak Esperanto only with one parent, usually the father. This is actually not very surprising, since a similar effect would be expected in other situations where a child speaks a language with one parent and no one else. It's well documented that when there is multiple L1 acquisition, one language will usually be dominant, and the child will be less fluent, and more error prone in the other(s). Whether such a child counts as a "native speaker" of a non-dominant L1 is beside the point. As you'd expect, some children who learn Esperanto under these conditions forget all about it when they grow up; others learn to speak it "properly." 1 person has voted this message useful |
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