Re: Esperanto and Interlingua

In article <87k5xd44s4.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
LEE Sau Dan <danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"John" =3D=3D John Swindle <jcswindle@xxxxxxx> writes:

>> Too much towards European languages.
John> Esperanto isn't badly weighted down with English yet.
>> When will there be some Far East elements, then?

John> One may hope.

I don't.

Zamenhof put the language together from those he knew.


John> No. I don't know about that. Creoles seem to thrive as
John> isolating languages, but that wasn't what I was getting at
John> here. Zamenhof found himself at the center of a world that
John> was disagreeing with itself in lots of mutually
John> incomprehensible languages.

Northern US once disagreed with Southern US to such a degree that they
had a civil war, even though they spoke the same language.

One can have misunderstandings which are not linguistic.
Is there any reason why people who can understand each
other should be in the same country? I can think of many
reasons against it.

Czechoslovakia broke apart in the 1990s, even though they speak
virtually the same language (at least mutually intelligible).

OTOH, the different Cantons of Switzerland has been staying together,
even though they speak many different languages (officially, four).
Belgium still hasn't split apart into a French-speaking subcountry and
a Dutch-speaking one, with the former joining the French Republic and
the latter joining the Dutch Kingdom.

I have been told by a native Belgian that it is close to
being two separate countries, and it is not just linguistic
differences, but religious ones, which are at work. There
is an officially Dutch speaking part, and an officially
French speaking part, with a few "joint" regions, mostly
major cities.

Why?

Zamenhof's idea that the language barrier is the major cause of
disagreement is simply naive and groundless.

Change "the major" to "a major".

John> He listened to the languages he heard echoing around him
John> and constructed his international language accordingly.

Showing his ignorance and Self-centric thoughts. He didn't even learn
about languages spoken on the other side of the globe. And the he
naively believed his designed -- based on his confined surrounding --
to be good enough for international use. Totally ignorant and naive.

I doubt if he considered any of the languages he knew to
be inadequate for international use. His aim was to produce
a relatively simple adequate language. For his time, he did
a fairly good job.

John> Zamenhof's main intention was to promote peace through
John> mutual understanding.

But that doesn't require a common language. And it doesn't help to to
introduce yet another brand new language.

This is unclear.


John> Has Esperanto done that?

No. It's a complete failure.


John> Does knowing a shared language do that? Maybe.

I don't think so. See above. Explain to me why civil wars can exist,
and why multilingual nations are possible.

There are few successful multilingual nations. Switzerland
is a notable exception, and I pointed out the questionable
success of Belgium. Canada is close to breaking up.

Switzerland was founded by a group of cantons, each with
its own language, joining in rebellion against the Holy
Roman Emperor (neither holy nor Roman nor an empire).
The cantons themselves are largely monolingual.


John> Not a linguistic question, I think.

Socialpolitical questions. That means, a language is not going to
solve it. Zamenhof hit the nail not on the head.

--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
.

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