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From: brg@netcom.com (Bruce R. Gilson)
Subject: Re: Single European language: *NOT* European english
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References: <3273663A.3C0A@pp.inet.fi> <elnaE0IKzp.2rE@netcom.com> <847643297.3094.0@ppp10.sgh-net.de> <elnaE0qJ04.Hu6@netcom.com>
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Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 16:14:47 GMT
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In article <elnaE0qJ04.Hu6@netcom.com>,
Esperanto League N America <elna@netcom.com> wrote:
>jgrantha@hildesheim.sgh-net.de writes in a recent posting (reference <847643297.3094.0@ppp10.sgh-net.de>):
>>
>>Though I have to note that, judging from other posts that I see about
>>Eo, some seem to think that it isn't quite so easy.
>
>I have seen this kind of claim from only *one* person, a Chinese 
>gentleman who seems to enjoy railing at the perceived Eurocentrism
>of the Esperanto word-stock, while doggedly ignoring the non-IE
>features of the grammar and the advantages of E-o's potential as an
>introduction to IE languages in general.
>Learning *any* language is difficult; nobody would ever claim that
>Esperanto can be learnt without effort. Yet I claim without fear that
>E-o is *much* easier to learn than English, Russian or Japanese, 
>especially for a Chinese person whose language is little related to any
>of the four.e

Esperanto may be easier than the national languages with which it is compared
by the ELNA representative. However, most of the languageswhich have been
constructed since then are incomparably easier.

Esperanto has two features which I (not the aforementioned Chinese gentleman)
have commented upon on the conlang and auxlang lists, on sci.lang, and in
print. They are the inflected accusative, used in a way that is not even like
that in other languages that utilize case inflections, and the requirement
for noun/adjective agreement. The invariant adjective of English would, I'm
certain, be easier for a Chinese or Japanese to learn than Esperanto's
bona/bonan/bonaj/bonajn; note that I'm not saying ALL of English is easy, but
only that this feature of Eo does not make for ease of learning.

Again, the subtle distinction between "en la domo" and "en la domon" in Eo is
not going to be as easy for a Chinese as the English distinction between "in
the house" and "into the house." 

I am *not* advocating English as a world, or pan-European, IAL. I only mean to
say that the simplifications, inspired by languages like English, that have
been adopted in later IALS, such as Ido, Novial, and Eurolang, make them far
better candidates than Eo.


                                Bruce R. Gilson
                                email: brg@netcom.com
                                IRC: EZ-as-pi
                                WWW: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3141
                                (for language stuff: add /langpage.html)
