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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Eurocentrism redux 
Message-ID: <elnaE6Bt8D.MCM@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <853605030.2652@dejanews.com> <AF3748C39668760C2@max2-36.hk.super.net> <3313E6C4.6296@postoffice.worldnet.att.net> <7fiv3e51ay.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 18:41:01 GMT
Lines: 46
Sender: elna@netcom20.netcom.com

sdlee@cs.hku.hk (Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~}) writes in a recent posting (reference <7fiv3e51ay.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>):
>    Tom> itself.  It seems you put up these walls of disinterest
>    Tom> because you see something foreign and don't like foreign
>    Tom> things, and so lash out at the concept of inflection rather
>    Tom> than accepting it as a viable and realistic mode of conveying
>    Tom> information. 
>
>It seems  that it's  the other  way round.   You  Eurocentrists aren't
>interested in Asian languages, and do  not make considerations for the
>Asian monoglots  when  you  promote a  language  as  an   IAL.  You're
>building walls of disinterest against the benefits of the Asians.  You
>never try to understand  the Asian languages  and cultures.  Why can't
>you also accept  that isolating  languages are  also an  effective and
>realistic mode of conveying information?
>
Whew!  "You Eurocentrists" 
This strange extrapolation puzzles me. Speaking for myself, I can assure
you that I am deeply interested in Asian cultures, and have learned more
about Chinese medicine, agriculture, technology, history, minority
peoples, poetry, &c. from reading "El popola cxinio" than I could
possibly have learned from American sources. I shall also be travelling 
to Japan this autumn to participate in an Esperanto conference. I count
as friends several Asians whom I have met through Esperanto channels. I
certainly accept that isolating languages function effectively at doing
all the things that languages do.

As I stated in another post, all languages fall into one of the several
categories of isolating, inflecting or agglutinative. Esperanto happens
to be agglutinative. You assert repeatedly that this makes it somehow
"Eurocentric". Other agglutinative languages are Swahili, Turkish, 
Navaho, &c. This is a widely used strategy outside of Europe. Zamenhof
had to make a choice when planning Esperanto, and he did not choose to
use the type of grammar used in Chinese. I understand that it might fit
better with your instincts to utilize an isolating system, but it would
then be counter to the instincts of 70% of the world (not just Europeans!)
whose mother tongue does not use isolating grammar.

You can't please all of the people all of the time. Zamenhof could not
choose some aspects of agglutination, some of inflection, others of
isolating systems. What a mess that would be! 

-- 
Miko SLOPER              elna@netcom.com              USA  (510) 653 0998
Direktoro de la          ftp.netcom.com:/pub/el/elna   fax (510) 653 1468 
Centra Oficejo de la     Learn Esperanto! Free lessons: e-mail/snail-mail
Esperanto-Ligo de N.A.   Write to above address or call:  1-800-ESPERANTO
