Newsgroups: alt.uu.lang.misc,sci.lang,alt.language.artificial,soc.culture.europe
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!cam-news-feed3.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!howland.erols.net!ix.netcom.com!brg
From: brg@netcom.com (Bruce R. Gilson)
Subject: Re: Naturalismo e schematicismo, un problema in linguas auxiliar
Message-ID: <brgE4u744.93v@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom
References: <32d22fb6.4656355@news.mindspring.com> <5ashvn$phk@acmey.gatech.edu> <32ed9ce4.7077997@news.mindspring.com> <E4t0EE.Er1@cruzio.com
Distribution: world
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 19:50:28 GMT
Lines: 75
Sender: brg@netcom17.netcom.com

In article <E4t0EE.Er1@cruzio.com>,  <dfb@bbs.cruzio.com> wrote:

[...]

>Earlier, I proposed an Esperanto with an English-derived vocabulary--
>an Angla-Esperanto. Another possibility would be a combination
>of Chinese gramamar (but without the classifiers) with English-
>derived vocabulary. As you probably know, English & Chinese
>are remarkably similar in word-order. English & Chinese are
>also, of course, the biggest languages. English, with its
>lack of endings, especially lends itself to that isolating
>grammar. I suggest that such a combination would please
>lots of people.

>Someone pointed out that Volupuk (sp?) was based on English,
>and didn't succeed, and so my suggestion has already ben
>tried. But did that language have as simple a grammar, and
>as phonetic a transcription of English as what I'm proposing?
>Also, English is much bigger than it was then.

>Someone pointed out that Basic English failed, but Basic
>English was based on a trade of lots of illogical idioms
>for lots of words.

>By the way, a 3rd possibility, in addition to those I mentioned,
>would be to start as a simplification of English, phonetic
>& grammatical & orthographic. But Pei pointed out that English
>grammar is much more arbitrary than most of its speakers realize.
>Maybe, in order to get rid of that arbitrariness, one would
>have to go all the way to a Chinese-like total generality.
>I find that appealing & elegant. Also, it makes for great
>flexibility for adding more grammatical distinctions
>in the form of optional particles. Someone suggested such
>a language with provision for the optional expression of
>the distinctions familiar to each people using the language,
>but maybe that's over-ambitious.

>Anyway, whether it's Angla-Esperanto or Chinese grammar with
>English-derived vocabulary, it seems to me that English
>is the kind of vocabulary that people want to study, based
>on available statistics on 2nd language study.

>Someone named Edmundo, on s.c.e., got quite angry when I suggested
>on that newsgroup that a version of E-o with a different vocabulary
>would have better success. 

>And even when I carefully explained the motivation for that
>proposal, I was accused of just wanting to to make it easier
>for myself, by using English words. No, I'd prefer something
>fairer, but winnability is much more important to me than
>fairness. The main thing is to actually have a genuine
>universal 2nd language, whether or not it's neutral.

>And if enough IAL advocates really disliked the use of
>English words, then at least Interlingua's vocabulary could
>be a next best possibility, due to the number of words it
>has that are close to English. But I feel English would
>be the most winnable, with a world public that wants to
>study English. 


An interesting idea of that sort was Ruby Olive Foulk's "Americai Speak"
(1937). It used a somewhat expanded alphabet of 28 letters to write a
more phonetically spelled English. And the grammar was, at least in intent,
extremely simple. A little of the material I have on it is posted on the
Web (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3141/amerspek.html).

Anyone who reads my webpage and has further questions can post here or email
to me.

                                Bruce R. Gilson
                                email: brg@netcom.com
                                IRC: EZ-as-pi
                                WWW: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3141
                                (for language stuff: add /langpage.html)
