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From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Subject: Re: One point against Esperanto
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References: <D4wsoy.7y3@indirect.com> <HINSENK.95Mar7155741@cyclone.ere.umontreal.ca> <D558u1.98p@spss.com> <3jq7ch$jr0@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 19:36:19 GMT
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In article <3jq7ch$jr0@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>,
Edmund Grimley-Evans <etg10@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote [quoting markrose]:
>> Easier than *any other European language*?  That's quite a claim.
>> In what way is Esperanto easier to learn to pronounce than Italian or
>> Spanish, especially as it has more phonemes?
>
>John Wells wrote an article comparing the difficulties of Spanish and
>English speakers learning to pronounce Esperanto, and I _think_ I
>remember him claiming that Esperanto is easier for an English speaker
>to pronounce than Spanish as well as being easier for a Spanish speaker
>to pronounce than English. Of course this does not imply that Esperanto
>is in general easier to pronounce than Spanish.

Nor does it answer my question; it's just another claim.

>Esperanto has 28 phonemes. I can't remember exactly how many Spanish has, 

22 to 24, depending on the dialect.

>but there are some rather divergent allophones in Spanish as well,
>which Esperanto doesn't have.

Examples?  I can't think of any I'd call "rather divergent".  And the
*non*-allophonic pronunciation of Esperanto phonemes could be difficult
for many speakers of other languages.

>Esperanto and Spanish are probably of similar phonetic difficulty
>for an arbitrary learner.
>
>Italian is probably slightly easier to pronounce than Esperanto, as it
>doesn't have the ^C /tS/ - ^S /S/ and ^G /dZ/ - ^J /Z/ distinctions
>(affricates and fricatives) - if I am not misremembering badly.

Italian does have /tS/, /S/, and /dZ/.
