Newsgroups: sci.lang,soc.culture.esperanto
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!hunter.premier.net!news.uoregon.edu!calliope.wln.com!news.scn.org!scn.org!lilandbr
From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Re: How many words in certain languages? (Kiom en...?)
Message-ID: <DstGDL.AFq@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <4pak0e$i0s@newsbf02.news.aol.com>  
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 03:29:44 GMT
Lines: 37


In a previous article, wesarnold@aol.com (Wesarnold) says:

>
>How many words are there in French?
>How many words are there in German?
>How many words are there in any other language you may know about?
>Do you know the source for the above?
>       Thank You,
>                        Wesley Arnold

Dear Wesley:

(1) I would be interested in receiving any responses anyone gives you; 
forward (if you have time and opportunity) to <lilandbr@scn.org>.
(2) If anyone makes a hard and fast specific assertion as to the answer 
to your question, take it with a grain of salt.  At least as far as 
living languages (such as French, German and Esperanto) are concerned, 
there can never be any great degree of precision to the count, as new 
words are *constantly* being created and/or imported, old ones are 
(probably somewhat more slowly) dying--and no one is in a position to say 
with finality how French le weekend has to become before it slips out of 
franglais into franc,ais, etc.  (We Esperantists who hang out in 
soc.culture.esperanto have recently weathered a little squall over the 
use of "pink" as an Esperanto word-root (yes, to name a color); "roza" is 
standard Esperanto for "pink", but some Esperantists, not all of them 
anglophones, sometimes say "pinka" (or write it).

>Let Love and Kindness be the standard of human conduct.
>
... Bonega ideo!

--
Liland Brajant ROS'            Se vi ne komprenas, lernu ESPERANTOn!
P O Box 30091                USONA ANTOLOGIO Baptista Esperantistaro
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono         Eldonejo Cigneto F*A*L*D*E F^E^O ktp  
Tel. (206) 633-2434                 English, especially under duress
