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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Steve MacGregor)
Subject: Single European Language
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 03:16:26 GMT
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According to mra@rhea.hut.fi (Marko Rauhamaa):

>I'm constantly communicating with other Esperantists from virtually
>everywhere in the world. There are differences in the use of the
>language, but they don't seem to be regional but rather personal. I have
>never found it the least bit difficult to understand what the Russian,
>Japanese or Hungarian fellow Esperantists are saying.

  Vi pravas, Marko!
  I notice that beginning Esperantists tend to show their linguistic 
backgrounds, because some things I've seen written in Esperanto make no 
sense unless translated literally into some other language (generally 
English).  What else would you expect?  They're still thinking in their 
native languages and translating.
  Quite often, when I'm reading Esperanto articles in newsgroups, I see 
an unusual expression, and look back into the header to see whether the 
nationality of the writer explains the unusualness.  Note, though, that I 
did not call it a problematic expression -- just unusual.  Most people 
who apply themselves at all can learn to read and write Esperanto very 
quickly, but everyone uses it just a little bit differently, and the 
language is flexible enough that this does not cause problems.
  Very often, Esperantists copy each other's expressions when they find 
them expressive and understandable.  Once, I used the word "ekkiam" to 
mean "just as soon as...", and someone wrote to me and said how much he 
liked the word, and asked whether I made it up myself.  I had to tell him 
that I didn't remember whether I'd made it up, or whether I'd seen someone 
else use it, and felt the same way about it.

  There are little contests between words sometimes, and generally, it is 
the more conservative word that wins.
  For a while, some people were using the words "komputoro" or "komputero"
to mean "computer", and I occasionally see them still.  But for the most 
part, Esperantists now use "komputilo", a compound of the roots "komput-" 
(from the verb meaning to compute) and "-il-" (a suffix meaning a tool, 
in a very, very general sense), whereas the other two words are 
unnecessary new roots (basic words, not compounds of preexisting 
Esperanto roots).
  I still see "bajto" for "byte" (obviously just an Esperanto respelling),
but more often I see "bitoko" (a "bit-eight").
  There's been a discussion of what to call the game called "Badminton" 
in English.  Some have called it "badmintono" (a new root), but I saw 
someone use "plumpilko", and thought it described the game better.  It 
means "feather-ball", with "ball" implying a game played with a ball-like 
object.  In this case, a ball with feathers attached.

  I don't believe that Esperanto will grow unwieldly due to borrowings 
from other languages.  Most new borrowings don't last very long, and are 
replaced by standard coinings.  The borrowings that remain are useful 
extensions to the language.

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