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From: antony@cix.compulink.co.uk ("Antony Rawlinson")
Subject: Re: One point against Esperanto
Message-ID: <D4y103.7Ew@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Organization: ABC                           
References: <794201221snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 1995 01:19:15 GMT
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Lines: 42

> > > While they're at it they could also abolish the -n accusative
> > > ending, and adjective agreement using -j.
> > 
> >   Yes, they =could=, but what would the reason be?  What would be 
> > =gained= by these losses?
> 
> Objectively: it would make the language easier to learn, because
> there would be less complexity (less endings to learn).

Esperanto was made easy to learn by eliminating the pointless obstacles 
that exist in other languages, not by leaving out genuinely useful 
features.
 
> ...
> Subjectively: I personally don't like the -n ending. Its only benefit
> is that it allows one to put the object before the subject.

Consider the English sentence: 

        "He loves his father more than his brother".
        
There is no way of knowing whether *the subject's love for his brother*, 
or *his brother's love for his father* is being compared, without adding 
clumsy qualifiers.  In Esperanto the sense is neatly expressed:

        "Li amas sian patron pli ol sian fraton",
or      "Li amas sian patron pli ol sia frato",

as appropriate.  This sort of situation is common when expressing any 
kind of complexity.

> ... Adjectival agreement is also superfluous.

I can't at the moment offer a similar example, but I really think these 
changes would serve only to trivialise the language, and confirm some of 
the ill-informed statements that have been made about it in the 
newsgroups.  Esperanto is easier to learn than any national language, but 
that doesn't mean that you can learn it without doing any work.

> Phil Hunt...philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk

regards, Antony Rawlinson.
