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From: donh@netcom.com (Don HARLOW)
Subject: Re: International Language.
Message-ID: <donhD2F2C6.CFn@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <1995Jan9.215743.1541@midway.uchicago.edu> <D26yA6.vD@actrix.gen.nz> <3eu3mf$5ah@expert.cc.purdue.edu> <1995Jan11.014303.7491@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 22:26:30 GMT
Lines: 33
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang.translation:710 sci.lang:34340

deb5@midway.uchicago.edu skribis en lastatempa afisxo <1995Jan11.014303.7491@midway.uchicago.edu>:
>In article <3eu3mf$5ah@expert.cc.purdue.edu> buttrcup@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Buttercup) writes:
>
>[much deleted]
>>As some of you have said, Esperanto is naturally sexist against females 
>>due to its -IN- suffix. However, it is not sexist unless one intends it
>>that way. We all know Zamenhof didn't intend this -- but intended a far
>>smaller base vocabulary by using his affix system which was, to state
>>simply, ingenious.
>
>Do we?  I'm not familiar with his writings (and I don't suppose he was
>ever called upon to defend his decision to derive specifically feminine
>nouns from specifically masculine ones instead of vice versa, or instead
>of deriving both from a noun of common gender).  It would have been
>very hard for him not to have adopt a prejudice shared by the vast
>majority of his contemporarie.
>
One would suppose that he would have had to defend it at least to his 
wife, a lady known to have strong opinions, who financed the publication 
of his first textbook... :-)

Z is also remembered (though not often) as the translater of Eliza 
Orzeszko's _Marta_ into Esperanto. _Marta_ was not one of his best 
translations, and in terms of literary staying power (in any language) 
it is probably the least important work that he translated. _Marta_ 
is an early middle-European feminist novel. Supposedly he had some 
reason for choosing that particular book to translate...

-- 
Don HARLOW			donh@netcom.com
Esperanto League for N.A.       elna@netcom.com (800) 828-5944
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/el/elna/elna.html         Esperanto
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/do/donh/donh.html 
