Newsgroups: uk.politics,alt.politics.ec,sci.lang,talk.politics.european-union
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!news.mathworks.com!news.ultranet.com!news.sprintlink.net!noc.netcom.net!netcom.com!elna
From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Language as basis of Friendship  
Message-ID: <elnaDAMw45.7t8@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <DACGpx.G2@cwi.nl> <3s9bti$ku6@seralph9.essex.ac.uk> <HINSENK.95Jun21171533@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA> <DALEop.I4M@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 16:21:41 GMT
Lines: 53
Sender: elna@netcom3.netcom.com

iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) writes in a recent posting (reference <DALEop.I4M@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>):
>In article <HINSENK.95Jun21171533@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA> hinsenk@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA (Hinsen Konrad) writes:
>>In article <3s9bti$ku6@seralph9.essex.ac.uk> whean@solb1.essex.ac.uk (Wheatley N) writes:
>>   It also has a certain religious feel to it:  you should plan where
>>   you go and stay so that you can communicate with other initiates ...
>>
>>I'd rather think of it as visiting friends on your itinary.
>
>Friends?  You call a stranger a friend just because he speaks Esperanto?
>Wheatley N was quite right.  There is something highly religious about a
>movement whose members think of one another as friends just because they
>are in it.  Do you really think that there is no more to friendship than
>a shared hobby or, for that matter, a shared language?
>
Imagine a Greek man who has been away from his homeland for a long time, and
feels a longing for his countrymen, their customs and language. If he were 
to meet a Greek-speaker, would you think it unusual that he would instantly
consider him a friend? An Esperanto-speaker feels a similar desire to spend
time with people who share their language and culture, and bring friendly
feelings to most such encounters. Is this strange?

Of course there is more to friendship than shared hobbies or shared languages.
But I hope you recognise that shared social activities are a common basis for
friendship. My parents go to square-dance conventions, and often try to plan
their travels to co-incide with certain dances, where they make new friends
based on this common interest. Some of my friends are musicians, whom I met at
music camps and the like, and it is common that musicians give phone numbers of
other players of the same genre (language?) with the idea that they might get
together when passing through town. I see nothing unusual about a relationship
between friendly sentiments and common interests.

>As for me, I'd rather have 4 friends than 400 000 samideanoj.
>
Why not both?  Keep in mind that "same-idea-person" is the literal translation
of the word which Esperanto-speakers use to refer to one another. We know the
difference between "amikoj" and "samideanoj" but the concept is foreign to the
English language. Much social distinction is lost in translation.  

>(And what on earth is this thread doing on sci.lang?)
>
The intersection between linguistics and sociology (two pseudo-sciences)
produces a curious hybrid "science" of language called "sociolinguistics"
which deserves a home here as much as other language sciences ekz. 
paleolinguistics, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, etc.

>-- 
>`I'll gie ye a purple jaiket [...] an mebbe I'll make ye prime meenister.'
>Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk)    (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)

I have always enjoyed Ivan's sig. quotes from the Scots' language. Keep 'em
coming!


