Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.politics.ec
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!swrinde!pipex!uknet!festival!edcogsci!iad
From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: One point against Esperanto
Message-ID: <D5Mso7.Ds7@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <3jq7ch$jr0@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> <D58p4K.5IG@spss.com> <3k1f06$3a2@nz12.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 1995 10:19:16 GMT
Lines: 24

In article <3k1f06$3a2@nz12.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> s_salomo@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Thierry Salomon) writes:
>[...] in Esperanto one letter (? Character) is always pronunced
>the same way :
> 1 letter = 1 sound
>Which is not the case in any other European language.

Two reasons for which this is nonsense:

(1) Esperanto is not a European language; or, if the concept of
   `European language' is extended so as to include it, then it
   will also include several dozen, if not several hundred,
   other conlangs in which that is the case;

(2) there is no shortage of natural European languages in which
   that is the case; Finnish, Latvian and Serbian come to mind,
   and if Esperanto is written with digraphs instead of accents
   (which has always been legitimate), then it is outdone by
   quite a few others.

-- 
`"Na, na ... ah mean, *no wey*, wi aw due respect, ma lady," stammers Joe.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk)    (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
