Re: CHAT: Umberto Eco and Esperanto

Jim Henry wrote:

> > The IAL that comes closest in the modern world to anything like universal
> > use is English.  That has vastly more 'people and books' than Esperanto.
> > Does that make English even more perfect?
>
> English is a useful language to know, but difficult to learn.
> Esperanto is also useful (less so in many ways, perhaps) but
> much easier.  Vorlin may be (slightly) easier than Esperanto, but it
> isn't (yet) very useful.
What in particular are you saying is simple about Vorlin?  I don't
know much about the language, but it seems to me that just about
any definition of "easy" is going to meet up with resistance
*somewhere*.

For example, I found Esperanto's case system was a *cinch* --
it was the "hidden" irregularities like those that we've recently
discussed on the list ("kataro", etc.) that I found more challenging.
It's hard for me to tell now, but I also think that when I was first
studying German, it was the quirky wordorder rules that would
throw me off more than the case system.  (Well, the adjective
endings weren't very fun, either).

> Another point I meant to make (but perhaps didn't) was that life is
> short, and any language I put significant effort into becoming fluent
> in will have to have attractions other than the purely linguistic.
> With French and Classical Greek it's primarily books, with
> Esperanto it's mainly people, but other nifty languages like Vorlin,
> Lojban, and Teonaht, with all due respect to Rick Harrison, lojbab
> et alia, and Sally Caves, don't have those attractions.
I totally agree.  I don't think I'd be learning Classical Greek now unless
I thought I could dig into some Homer or Plato (we have already, a little, and
it's not easy, but I like it, and I get a lot out of it).  My own conlangs
are for purely esthetic or creative reasons, not because I think I could
get anything out of them other than fun -- or make people communicate
better through them.

===========================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
AIM: Deuterotom ICQ: 4315704
<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"Things just ain't the way they used to was."
     - a man on the subway
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