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From: mentat@gismo.gun.de (Sven Sommerfeld)
Subject: Re: Single European language: *NOT* European english
Date: 24 Nov 1996 15:21:00 +0200
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In article <badger.848117683@phylo.life.uiuc.edu> Jonathan Badger  <badger@phylo.life.uiuc.edu> wrote:

> klaus@diku.dk (Klaus Ole Kristiansen) writes:
>
> >badger@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (Jonathan Badger) writes:
>
> >>John L Grantham <jgrantha@hildesheim.sgh-net.de> writes in regard as
> >>why he does not consider Esperanto to be a "living language":
>
> >>No. My facts are facts. Esperanto *is* a living language.
>
> >It is a fact that by your definition, it is.  It is also a fact that
> >by JLG's definition, it isn't.  Which definition to use is a matter
> >of opinion.
>
> The problem is that JLG defined one of the features of a "living
> language" as requiring it to be spoken by an ethnic community in a
> particular geographic location.  Therefore any non-ethnic language
> cannot be consided living. Hardly a logical argument -- it is just a
> word-game. And one can't excuse his assertions that there was no mass
> media broadcast in Esperanto (also a requirmement by JLG for a living
> language) or that there were no native speakers of the language
> (another requirement) as anything but a failure to check up his
> facts. In no way shape or form are these anything but verifiable
> facts.

You're right. The problem is how you define a "living" or "dead" language.  
At university we consider any language "living" with at least _one_ human  
speaker who is capable of speaking it correctly (=he has the *competence*  
to do so and he knows (unconsciously) the *grammar*). Therefore esperanto  
would be a living language.

Sven Sommerfeld
(student of linguistics)


"Erfahrung ist die Summe aller Dummheiten, die man machen konnte, ohne
dabei umzukommen."
