Re: unnatural languages


mb wrote:
On Feb 3, 1:06 pm, Christopher Culver
...
Well, it ultimately comes down to the values one holds, which are
rational or irrational depending on whether one agrees or not. But my
major opposition to Esperanto is that it is not a national language,
and the use of national languages is important. Surely many here would
find that sensible.
...
The entire concept of a lingua franca that belongs to no one is
dumb.
...
And when I finally began to travel independently outside
the Esperanto movement--and because I entered the movement in boyhood
I had had few opportunities before, I saw that speaking real languages
with people is so much more fulfilling and interesting.

Amen to all that. Still, it doesn't justify the statement that
"In terms of its value for communication, Esperanto is hardly better
than hand gestures". The language does provide (awkward) tools to
express thought with some precision.

That is more or less what I was aiming at. Chris may be spot on in his
critique of the ideology behind the Esperanto movement (although AFAIK
there are by now several Esperantist ideologies and movements, at
least de facto, and Chris's critique might or might not apply to them
all), but the allegation that Esperanto would in some mysterious way
be inherently inferior to other full-fledged languages (conlangs or
not) reeks of personal grudge.

.

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