world language Esperanto

[Alan]

Hi,

I've just heard today that the British Esperanto Society is holding a conference this weekend in the north of England. There will be delegates worldwide and from the UK reaching a total of 80. The President reckoned that although English was doing quite well as a world language, they wanted Esperanto to become the next world language in the future rather than Chinese - ooh - er - just imagine ESPERANTO-TEST.NET

What a thought!

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Conchita]

[Spencer]

I dont think something like this can be forced by some "big shots".
People speak languages if they like them for something, not because someone decided that to be your next language.
The more people speak a language the more popular it becomes,that's the reason why english, chinese, spanish are the languages people would like to speak first.
But how many speaks esperanto?
20?
Spencer

[Jamie (K)]

There are about 2 million people who speak Esperanto. There are also Esperanto publishing houses, the largest of which are in China. A Chinese classmate of mine in graduate school had had a choice of only two foreign languages at her undergrad university in China in the 1980s -- English and Esperanto.

In Michigan, there is even at least one native speaker of Esperanto. Native speakers of Esperanto exist generally because two Esperantists with no other language in common fell in love and got married (this usually starts with a penpal correspondence), and when they set up their household, they just continued speaking Esperanto.

You may think that's weird, but remember that 100 years ago, there were no native speakers of Hebrew. Now there are not only native speakers, but you can easily identify someone with a Hebrew accent. There are quite a number of languages in the world that went or nearly went extinct and had to be artificially reconstructed. Hebrew is one of them, and the modern Czech language is also largely an artificial reconstruction.

The Esperanto language actually works quite well, and because it's got no irregularities a person can learn it extremely quickly. I learned it as a sort of "experiment", and I got the general grammar and vocabulary down to a useful level in only four days -- I'm not the only one. I discovered later on that you can write or say as much in Esperanto as you can in any other language.

In my opinion, the only thing that's stopped Esperanto from more general use -- considering how easy and functional it is -- is that Esperanto organizations are run by nuts who've attached an ideology to it. They run around saying that speaking a mutual language will lead to world peace. Well, the Iraqis and Kuwaitis, among many, many others, know this isn't true. One president of the World Esperanto Association decades ago admitted that the language won't succeed unless they somehow solve "the crank factor".

[Spencer]

How many languages do you speak,Jamie?
I guess five,or more.
Why don't you speak esperanto then? (I mean you said you had learnt, but didn't say you speak it)
Or anyone else in this forum?
How many people speak english?
I consider it as an idea that was good, before this many english speaker showed up suddenly.
But who knows, You might be right as well, you are the expert, not me, I just don't think esperanto could ever take a place of English, or any other of these languages.
By the way, really, how many people speak english on the world?
(not only natives)

[Jamie (K)]

I don't think Esperanto can take the place of a natural language either, mainly because natural languages are natural. And besides that, as I said, the Esperanto movement is full of strange characters who promote the language on naive assumptions.

There are, however, naturally developed Esperanto-like languages that are even the official languages of some countries, namely pidgin and creole languages. In New Guinea, for example, government affairs are carried out in Tok Pisin, which is a type of pidgin English.

I was very fluent at writing and reading Esperanto, but I never spoke it, because in the pre-Internet age I had no one nearby to speak it with.

[Jan]

the Esperanto movement is full of strange characters who promote the language on naive assumptions

I don't think this is a reason why Esperanto had not been developed in the world.
Esperanto was just an idea ,I have to admit it was the logical and fair idea but unfortunately people were seldom fair and logical .
Few years ago my American friends were sure the best investment for their kids is to learn Spanish right now on top is Chinese after few years will be next language ,maybe Hindu,maybe Arabic

I think it is all about money , yes it is all about money, money, money ....money (and of course sex, fashion and power).
regards
Jan

[Jamie (K)]

[Jan]

The Esperantists and others claim that if just the number of speakers were the important issue, then everyone would be learning Chinese. However, those massive numbers of Chinese speakers live mainly in only one country and are not spread around the globe, as speakers of English and Spanish are.[/quote]

Number is one factor, range and influence are others,
I believe everything is countable and has its natural position.
Math is still Queen of The Science and she will dictate all
conditions.
Dr.Zamenhof has started somebody else will need to complete.
It is a matter of time when cultural conflicts increase.
Canada is the good example French had been recognized
as official language next to English - second choice was
independence of Quebec.
You can't do the same worldwide but you may give people
new Esperanto
Had somebody seen the movie "Beautiful Mind" and the story about blond girl in the pub?
Justice is good for business is good for everybody.
By the way, real "nuts" have started to create USA
they have been called Freemasonry and surprise for everybody
USA has survived and is still growing in amazing pace (whatever anybody wants to say about it).
regards
Jan

[Jamie (K)]

I once read an article by an Esperantist who said that the way to get world status for Esperanto was to have everyone press for official status for their own languages at international bodies like the UN. Once even Icelandic and Tok Pisin are offical UN languages, along with hundreds of others, the translation bureaucracy will become so unwieldy that the organization won't be able to function, and they'll have to choose one "international language". So went the man's theory. But who's to say whether they'd choose Esperanto, Interlingua or even Volap?k.