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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Steve MacGregor)
Subject: Single European Language
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Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 04:38:04 GMT
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According to ehanks@du.edu (Edwin Hanks):

>>  There is something to be said in favor of the complexity of 
    English.  <<

  As an English-speaker, I agree.  The complexity of grammar and 
vocabulary are the spirit of our language.  English voraciously borrows 
words from other languages (and occasionally returns them to their 
original owners).  They say that "the Greeks had a word for it", but the 
statement is even more appropriate for English.
  But there is more than one kind of beauty.

>>  Consider that any constructed language, which by design is very
codified and modular, is bound to be very limited and boring.  <<

   That's easy to say, but it does not conform to observable fact.  Take 
Esperanto, for example; it's not limited, and is anything but boring.

>>  English has the advantage of adaptability, as someone else noted.  <<

   Adaptability is an advantage.  Fortunately for Esperanto, it's at 
least as adaptable as English.

>>  English also has a different word for varied connotations of words, 
so that precision and elegant concision may be exercised.  <<

   And that's the beauty of English, and its spirit, as I mentioned 
above.  Esperanto's beauty comes from expressing the same precision in a 
different way.  Esperanto is not an imitation of English; it is something 
different, and has a different spirit.

>>  English does not demand that these precise words be used.  I could just
as easily have said that English is full of words which have slightly
different meanings so that you can find the right word for the right
meaning and so that you don't have to use so many words to get the point
across.  <<

  Esperanto words have less precise meanings than English words, and when 
precision is required, you just use additional words to pin down the 
meaning.  But sometimes the beauty of Esperanto is that it takes fewer 
words to say something imprecisely than it does in English.
  Here's a real cheap example:
    plumo        --> pen
    krajono      --> pencil
    broso        --> brush
    skribmas`ino --> typewriter
    skribilo     --> writing instrument

>>  English can be well understood from context, even if the exact
word meaning is not plain to an inexperienced user.  <<

  That observation is obvious to anyone who speaks English as a native.  
But to someone who is trying to learn it as a second language, it's 
blatently false.  Some well-formed sentences have to be read twice, 
because it's so easy to guess wrong what part of speech some word is.
  Esperanto's grammar is contained in its words as well as in its 
structure, so mis-guessing a part of speech is actually difficult.

>>  But, aside from being acceptable and learnable (I think) to the general
user, persons who wish to convey more than just a concrete definition, by
the color of their phrasing, can do so.  <<

  But only if they know the language.  There are 250,000,000 people in 
this country.  It seems that only a small fraction of them speak and 
write anything like the language you and I are so fond of.

                                --=<*>=--

  I admire anyone with the tenacity to attempt to learn English, and am 
really amazed by the people who do so well with it.  (Having studied 
multiple foreign languages, I have an idea how difficult a task it can 
be.)
  Imagine a student of English posting a sentence such as, "Please excuse 
my faulty command of your language, but I've only been studying it for 
three months, and feel that I still have much to learn."
  I've seen the Esperanto equivalent of that quite a few times.  Nearly 
faultless command of the written language (probably written with very 
many references to the dictionary) by someone who has just begun learning 
it.  There's some more spirit and beauty.

  All languages are beautiful.  Maybe even Volapuk.

-- 
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            I want to be a non-conformist -- just like all my friends!
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