Esperanto

[Ekolite]

I've been thinking for a long time about learning Esperanto. For those of you who don't know, it's a ''constructed'' language, with a couple of million speakers worldwide. It is supposed to be very easy to learn due to it's regularity. There are no irregular verbs, and everything follows the same patterns. It takes a lot from other European languages which will also help.

I've always wanted to be billingual, and while I studied French in high school I don't really have the motivation to try to learn it any more fluently. I mean, srsly why would I want to speak to french people?

Thing is, nobody really speaks it. So there is an element of what's the point? about it.

It does however appeal to my sense of optimism. I hope that one day it will be taught in schools across Europe to become a shared second language for us all, as it was designed to be.

So what are people's opinions on Esperanto? And do we have any speakers on CFC?

 

[Godwynn]

So what are people's opinions on Esperanto? And do we have any speakers on CFC?

While I like the idea of Esperanto, people who want to speak with a lot of other people across the globe learn English.

 

[LucyDuke]

It's a massive failure. Learn Mandarin or Spanish or English.

 

[mangxema]

Meh, I've dabbled in it, but there's not much point to it. I am fond of the universal pejorative -acx- though.

 

[SG-17]

If you want to learn a constructed language, you are better off learning Klingon. More people speak it than Esperanto.


Otherwise learn Latin.

 

[Ekolite]

While I like the idea of Esperanto, people who want to speak with a lot of other people across the globe learn English.

Well I would learn english but I'm a native speaker

And as for Klingon.. Just no.

 

[Godwynn]

Well I would learn english but I'm a native speaker

And as for Klingon.. Just no.

I realize that you already speak English.

My point remains, just move on down the language list.

Which language would allow you to speak with more people and with a more global reach?

Spanish or Esperanto?
French or Esperanto?
German or Esperanto?
Italian or Esperanto?
Greek or Esperanto?

The only advantage Esperanto has over the other languages listed above is the amount of time it takes to learn the language. The problem is, even if you could learn it in a year, what is the chance you can meet someone who speaks Esperanto but not English or one of the above?

 

[Cynovolans]

with a couple of million speakers worldwide.

That number is so made up.

 

[SG-17]

Go for being trilingual.

Learning Latin first will help you learn the other romance languages (Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian). At least it did for me.

 

[Bill3000]

No. It's a horrible constructed language that fails flat in its face in its purpose of being an international auxiliary language.

I mean come on. The phonology of the language is that of his own native Polish dialect, (bahahaha that's so universal bahahaha) it has way too many consonants for an IAL, he actually kept grammatical gender, the language is even sexist as masculine is the default gender, and even though he has gender he doesn't even bother to put it on the damned article (probably the place to put grammatical gender if no where else!), the language doesn't have any phonotactics (other than vague claims of "euphony")

And no it's not particularly "easy" - as said before it has way too many consonants, no phonotactics, and diphthongs for a "world" language and there's a surprising amount of irregularity in the language. Passivizing sentences is particularly complex, too. When it comes to natural languages being hard, they're hard in the sense that they involve different ways to form the same meanings, not in terms of absolute difficulty; it would be like calling pool hard simply because you know how to play baseball instead of billiards.

 

[warpus]

Well yeah Bill, it was invented by a Polish guy, that's why parts of it are based on Slavic languages. But didn't he try to mix in parts of slavic, parts of germanic, and parts of romance language types, anyway?

And either way, it's a pointless language to learn. Who would you speak it to? The only people who speak it are probably snobby linguistic profs.

 

[schlaufuchs]

And either way, it's a pointless language to learn. Who would you speak it to? The only people who speak it are probably snobby linguistic profs.

Or residents of Riverworld....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverworld#Resurrectees

 

[Babbler]

Well yeah Bill, it was invented by a Polish guy, that's why parts of it are based on Slavic languages. But didn't he try to mix in parts of slavic, parts of germanic, and parts of romance language types, anyway?

But is that good enough for an international auxiliary language? That leaves out lots of languages outside the big European languages, like Chinese or Arabic.

 

[warpus]

But is that good enough for an international auxiliary language? That leaves out lots of languages outside the big European languages, like Chinese or Arabic.

I'm not saying it is. I think his theory was to combine the major 3 European language types into 1, thus making it universal-like. *shrug*

The Universal business and media language is English. Aside from that, it's a regional issue.

Want to speak to people in South and central america? Learn Spanish. Want to speak to people in Northern Africa and the middle east? Learn Arabic. Want to speak to people in the rest of Africa? Learn French. Want to speak to people in Europe? English should do, unless you're in France or Belarus. Asia? Mandarin.

 

[Bill3000]

Well yeah Bill, it was invented by a Polish guy, that's why parts of it are based on Slavic languages. But didn't he try to mix in parts of slavic, parts of germanic, and parts of romance language types, anyway?

Only really in the most shallow part of language, the vocabulary.

 

[kulade]

Esperanto is a huge waste of syllables and hardly and international language. Given that you already know the most widely known language in the world, you should go for Mandarin, its heir apparent. If you want to learn something a little easier for fun in your off-time, try another romance language or Latin itself!

 

[gangleri2001]

Esperanto is only useful if you want to travel for free

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasporta_Servo

 

[mangxema]

Esperanto is a huge waste of syllables...

I'm not sure about that... if you mean that it's useless in general, okay, but usually when I say 'waste of syllables' I mean 'that's really inefficient to say' in which case, from what I've seen, it's actually pretty good. You may have long multisyllabic words, but they are very regular and specific.

 

[Traitorfish]

It's a noble idea, but it doubt it'll ever catch on. Some sort of reformed, rationalised and standardised version of English seems preferable to me, given that it's various existent forms are the closest thing to an international language there is. This would probably use American English as the basis, but the vocabulary would problem remain fairly malleable, for those that prefer their own.

Given that you already know the most widely known language in the world, you should go for Mandarin, its heir apparent.

I wouldn't say that this is the case; as English becomes increasingly international, it is becoming increasingly internationalised. It's widespread status may have it's roots in the influence of certain nations, but it is beginning to take on a life of it's own, detached from any native-speaking nations. It's quite possible to find places online in which only a handful, if any, posters are native English speakers, but English is the communal language of choice. People do not speak English, it is becoming because they all want to talk to English speakers, it is becoming increasingly true to say, but because they want to speak to each other, regardless of native tongue. Just look at India- English is a second national language, and the Times of India the most widely circulated English-language paper in the world, in a nation in which very few people speak English natively. That is the essence of a lingua franca, and it is not a niche which Mandarin is in any way poised to fill.

Edit: Jesus, I butchered that middle bit. That's what I get for posting at 2am.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Forget Esperanto. If you already know French, Spanish should be just as easy and is spoken by IIRC 350 million people.