Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!newstand.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!feed1.news.erols.com!insync!uunet!in2.uu.net!uucp1.uu.net!xyzzy!nntp
From: Mike Dana <mike.dana@boeing.com>
Subject: Esperanto as a First Language? (was Re: What is "international"?)
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: 144.113.83.47
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Message-ID: <32E7F44A.24CD@boeing.com>
Sender: nntp@news.boeing.com (NNTP News Access)
Reply-To: mike.dana@boeing.com
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Organization: The Boeing Company
References: <01bbf5d5$21448b40$9f5f47cc@jhoward.vvm.com> <7fzpy2c923.fsf_-_@phoenix.cs.hku.hk> <853948732.30763@dejanews.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 23:29:14 GMT
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win16; I)
Lines: 40

steng@dorit.ihi.ku.dk wrote:
> 
> In article <7fzpy2c923.fsf_-_@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>,
>   sdlee@cs.hku.hk (Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~}) wrote:
> [...]
> 
> > According to my Oxford dictionary:
> >
> >       international (adj.) -- of, carried on by or existing between
> >                                 two or more nations
> >
> > Obviously,  this is  the interpretation   of  the morphemes  "inter-",
> > "nation" and "-al".  OK... I'm convinced.  Perhaps, I should have used
> > the word "global" instead.
> >
> > Now, with this   definition of "international", I  can   tell you that
> > Chinese is also an international language, because there are more than
> > 1 country  with Chinese as an official   language: China and Singapore
> > and (if you count it a nation) Taiwan.
> >
> > Chinese is  indeed highly international.  In  many many countries, you
> > can find cities with a Chinatown, in  which many people use Chinese to
> > communicate.  :)
> >
> > Then, what's so special of Esperanto?  It's just a minority language.
> 
> That's exactly what's special about it.  And it's probably going to stay
> that way as long as the majority of people automatically use the word "just"
> in combination with "minority" -- any minority, that is.
> 
> Jens S. Larsen

Regardless of it's "International" usage/non-usage (name two Countries
who officially interact in Esperanto...), How many people speak it as
their First Language:  their "native tongue"?
-- 
Mike Dana
Everett, Washington, U.S.A.
Views expressed by me are mine, not my employer's.
"Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt"  -- Julius Ceasar
