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http://www.spellingsociety.org/media/items/cost_of_spelling

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Replying to
Bai Ren Dec.14 2009

“One of Esperanto’s great problems is its “eternal beginners”, who acquire a smattering and never progress, , but feel good about themselves because they are supporting this wonderful project to bring peace and mutual understanding to humanity.”

As one of those wicked-great-problem-causing-smatterers… and on behalf of others… T’was 1942, I was 11yrs old. Choice had to be made : Latin plus either German or English. My father told the head-mistress : ESPERANTO, the only way to prevent such frequent wars. – NO ! In german-occupied France teaching Esperanto was not permitted.
After a heated argument, my (french) father decided i should study german. His argument : France and Germany are at war every 20 years, it is about time we learnt to understand each other. What a difficult three years for us “children of collaborators”, Boches lovers, finding swastikas on our clothes, desks, etc., being tripped and harassed. I certainly wished we had all been studying Esperanto…
A few years later, as an immigrant in Australia, i sure wished for Esperanto as a universal second language. ..

Work, children… Swiftly went the years. Much later, in retirement, i had the joy of meeting Esperantists. After much wear and tear, and a light stroke, i enjoy reading and writing Esperanto, but speak it, indeed, as an eternal beginner. But i would feel good if i could hope that it will help the following generations.

Replying to Mankso Dec. 13 That is NEAT ! Concise but precise . May I print it for showing to non-esperantists ? please ?

Replying to Siu Yee Dec. 25 Dear Siu Yee You said : “It would certainly be easier for someone to pick up Esperanto if that person had already known some English and European languages” Sure. However, being phonetic is a great time-saver. What language would you suggest as better suited for global direct communication ?

Replying to Siu Yee Dec 27 what are ‘other constructed languages’ and how many of them in the world? I am not being unfriendly here, but I am just expressing my feelings and thoughts
Here are a few http://www2.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~jrk/conlang.html and there are more .

Agreeing with Henry V. Janoski Dec 28

” Dr. Zamenhof realized at an early date that he must provide a standard form of Esperanto in his Fundamento to prevent continuous suggestions for change, rather than using the language as he presented it. A vote was taken by the Esperanto speakers at that time and the vote was in favor of this decision. But Zamenhof said that if a responsible “government ‘agency wanted to make necessary changes that had been suggested over time, they could do so prior to its official adoption by that government. Zamenhof gave up all “his rights to ‘the language he invented, giving it freely to all humanity for their use. In the meantime, the Akademio de Esperanto is the arbitrator of the purity of the Esperanto “language and ‘decides what new words are to be accepted as they are submitted for new ideas, inventions, etc. as they occur. All this was done in response to the creation of Ido “by one of his ‘followers, which tried to immediately replace Esperanto in 1907. For a list of auxiliary languages that have also tried unsuccessfully to do this see “‘http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constructed_languages .”

The above reminded me of recently reading the following : from VIVO DE ZAMENHOF de Edmond Privat – which i am inserting for non-english speakers (practically similar to the above from Mr. Janoski)
“Granda estas la diferenco inter homo-infano kaj homo-viro, granda eble estos la diferenco inter la nuna Esperanto kaj la evoluinta Esperanto de post multaj jarcentoj… Iom post iom konstante aperas novaj vortoj kaj formoj, unuj fortigxas, aliaj cxesas esti uzataj. Cxio farigxas kviete, senskue, kaj ecx nerimarkeble. Nenie montrigxas ia diferencigxado de nia lingvo laù la diversay landoj… Nenie rompigxas aù difektigxas la kontinueco inter la linfvo malnova kaj la nova. Malgraù la fakto ke nia lingvo forte disvolvigxas, cxiu nova Esperantisto legas la verkojn de antaù dudek jaroj kun tia sama facileco, kiel Esperantisto tiutempa.”

En Ameriko Zamenhof klarigis pli detale sian penson. Se iam aùtorita delegitaro de diversay regnoj volus iom sxangxi Esperanton, antaù ol gxin oficialigi, kiel gxi agus ? Por akcepti kelkajn utilajn vortojn, por limigi l’akuzativon aù cxesigi l’akordigxon de l’adjektivoj en multnombro, cxu taùgus subfosi la tutan laboron de duoncentjaro kaj rekomenci cxiun sperton per alia vojo ? Suficxus, ke la Lingva Komitato rekomendu la forlasojn aù aldonajojn en uzado cxiutaga. Post kelka tempo, kutimo ja farigxus sen ia rompo, se gxi montrigxus tre praktika. Se ne, ecx decido la plej alta falus morte. Efektive la sperto baldaù montrus cxu tio, kio sendube estas pli facila en u z a d o, ne igas tiom pli malfacila la komprenadon.

Therefore, although esperantists are occasionally considered “inflexible”, L. Zamenhof himself was open-minded to future needs. Bai Ren may wish to join and/or partake in the Akademio (if not already there???) I’ll admit that i find difficulty in learning the verbs which are not a priori obviously transitive or intransitive. naski = to give birth – naskigxi = to come into the world -
“naskigi” i cannot find in the PIV, could it be used to describe the function of the midwife ? – akvo bolas = water is boiling, would not “boligxas” be easier,since “boligas” = to cause to boil ?

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I think Eva understood WHAT is your point of view. But (I didn’t really read the whole thread…), I think she (like to many people) is a little uncertain about the effectiveness of it…
Actually, the dominance of english took such a manner to succeed, that very few people have awareness of it.

It’s very difficult to plead for an alternative, because our point of view seems “exagerated”.
It’s almost the same process than neoliberalism… Do you know the “frog’s fable (parable)”?
If a frog is put into hot water, it tries to escape, and jumps out of the water.

But if you put it into cold water, and warm it gently… the frog don’t realize the danger, after a while the water becomes more and more hot, and when water becomes really hot, the frog is boiled.

The linguistic situation is similar.

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With regard to your statement ” ‘The use of English does not, and will not, damage other languages and cultures’ is an illusion…or…a lie.” Je suis d’accord. It would be interesting if someone from Ireland would be willing to comment on this. I understand that only a tiny minority of the Irish people, perhaps 50,000 out of more than 4,000,000, use the Irish language as their daily language. This is due to the long-term presence of the English conquerors in Ireland over the centuries. Unfortunately, the spelling of Irish is as bad as that of English, making it difficult, even for Irishmen, to learn the Irish language.

The Irish have a saying: “Tir gan teanga, tir gan anam (A country without (its) language is a country without a soul).”

The Germans tried to do the same thing in Poland. But fortunately Poland was under German rule for only about 125 years, whereas the English have been in Ireland for many centuries.

Henriko

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More details about that: I already met people from Spain or Italy, who said to me (in their language: “Oh! Do y really listen that YOU, Frenchs, are bad in speaking english??? I though we (italians, Spannish) were the most incompetent in Europe!!!)

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