Newsgroups: alt.politics.ec,sci.lang
From: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!udel!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!peernews.demon.co.uk!storcomp.demon.co.uk!philip
Subject: Re: Languages in the EC
References: <3fdf8r$gqe@nic.lth.se> <3feev2$4df@news.INbe.net> <HINSENK.95Feb2193405@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA> <791833634snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <3he66a$imd@netnews.upenn.edu>
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Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 17:20:45 +0000
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In article <3he66a$imd@netnews.upenn.edu>
           ccardona@mail2.sas.upenn.edu "Maelstrom" writes:
> I dont understand this??? How can proponents of Esperanto say that it is 
> easier to learn and yet a "real" language.  If it were a real language it 
> would be just as complex and thus just as hard or easy to learn.

There are 2 ways in which a constructed language can be made easier to
learn than a natural language.

1. Regularity of grammar. Eg in English many nouns and verbs are inflected
irregularly. Compare be/is/was with esti/estas/estos.

2. Regularity in forming words. Esperanto has a smaller number of base
words than English, so there is less to learn. 

Eg Esperanto has:

   lerni = to learn
   ejo = place

From this you can guess that "lernejo" means learn-place, ie school.

English in particular has a very large vocabulary because for many 
concepts there are words with Germanic roots and words with Romance
roots. 

-- 
Phil Hunt...philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
Majority rule for Britain!
