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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Esperanto as a stepping stone?
Message-ID: <elnaD2A6zA.23t@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <HCANNON.118.2F0F0796@macalstr.edu> <elnaD22xoI.Hwz@netcom.com> <D23yws.FBA@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 07:18:45 GMT
Lines: 74

iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) writes in a recent posting (reference <D23yws.FBA@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>):
>In article <elnaD22xoI.Hwz@netcom.com> elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America) writes:
>
>>But rather soon this correlation between spelling and pronunciation
>>breaks down, what with "silent letters" and multiple potential
>>transliterations of a given sound, etc. In short orthographic
>>impurity of national languages causes confusion.
>
>A few comments:
>
>(1) In the beginning of this article French and English were chosen
>as random examples of European languages.  Now suddenly all natural
>languages are being accused of orthographic idiosyncrasy.  But this
>generalisation is obviously false; English has beyond doubt the most
>lunatic orthography in existence, with French coming a close second.
>A Chinese student of any other European language would face a much
>easier task.  In Finnish the correlation between letter and sound
>is as high as it is in Esperanto.
>

Where did I introduce the notion that "all" natural languages etc.? To
be sure, I chose the two messiest languages as examples, but is Danish
a model of orthographic rigour? Italian? German?  If Finnish has this
high correlation, I applaud it.  I was responding to a simple question
about the potential usefulness of Esperanto as a "stepping-stone". I 
believe that it functions quite well in that task.

>(2) While I agree that it is a good idea for the student to be exposed
>to the Roman script before taking up English or French, I believe that
>reading and writing Mandarin in pin1yin1 is a much more straightforward
>way for a Chinese speaker to get acquainted with it.  (I'm extrapolating
>from my own experience.  My first exposure to the Roman script was via
>romanised Bulgarian, and it worked quite well.  :-))
>
This is a nice insight, for which I am thankful. There are several ways to
skin any beast, no?

>>If the same Chinese student were to preface her study of French or English
>>with a basic course in Esperanto, she would gain a simple, regular framework
>>of the structure of European (dare I say Indo-European?) languages
>

>No, you dare not, though `European' is incorrect also (for the purpose
>of learning the structure of Basque, say, Esperanto is totally useless).
>
Picky, picky, picky! Pardon my not repeating the word "most".

>>which would function well as a skeleton on which to hang the flesh
>>and fat of any national language from that family.
>
>Er, how does the study of Esperanto make dealing with irregular
>plurals easier?  Or with irregular conjugations?  (Btw, Spanish
>has no irregular plurals either.)
>
It does not. It introduces the student to the regular structures which
underlie the grammars of most European languages. It is my understanding
that the very notion of changing the form of verbs to display tense, mood, 
etc. does not exist in Chinese, nor many other languages. Neither is the 
declension of nouns universal. Etc.  

>>I submit that the best preparation for the successful study of any
>>language is a happy and rewarding introduction to the study of languages.
>
>No doubt about that.
>
>>Esperanto provides this by its nature.
>
>Now this is where we have to differ.
>
There are exceptions to any subjective trait. Curmudgeons abound.  :-)

Miko Formiko
MSloper@aol.com

