Esperanto language

[quicksilver]

I was reading the "SUNDAY PARADE" magazine article on William Shatner and it mentioned he is fluent in french and studied
esperanto. I've never heard of it and searched online Very Interesting!

I took 6 years of language in school and know nothing. Dad speaks italian, but hasn't used it in so many years, has forgotten alot.

I could never grasp it. So I marvel at those who can, in a conversation, switch from one to another. How does that happen. My brain cannot wrap around that. I would love to speak italian,but.

Anyway, has anyone heard of, know someone, learned
ESPERANTO?

 

[Barbara L]

I have heard of Esperanto but have never known anyone who could speak it. I don't know that much about it except that it was a created language, using (I think) elements of the most commonly spoken languages.

Barbara

 

[Barbara L]

I just found this website about it: The Esperanto Language

Barbara

 

[jabbur]

I'm currently taking a comparitive linguistics course for my interpreting degree. We just finished a piece on phonolgy (the sounds used and how they are used). We were asked to compare a natural language with a constructed language. After reading about all this stuff, it is not suprising to find that after more than 100 years of existence, there are only 2 million people on the earth that speak it and I'll bet they don't use it as their first language! There are so many intricacies to language that we are not aware of until a detailed analysis is done and even then, don't know why the brain does what it does. While eaperanto may be fun to learn as a novelty, I cannot see it ever becoming widespread.

 

[Buck]

I took a short course in it in High School. The claim was that it would take over the world.

That was almost fifty years ago. That worked out well!!

 

[justplainbill]

Most anybody who was in the US military during the 60's should have heard of Esperanto.

 

[quicksilver]

I was in tricycles back then jpb.

Buck, I didn't know MARTIANS spoke, let alone esperanto.

 

[mankso]

Esperanto

I have spoken and otherwise used Esperanto almost daily for the past 58 years, and I know hundreds, if not thousands, of people who speak it with varying levels of fluency. Few of these are Americans, or indeed native speakers of English. There is obviously little incentive for people who believe (and are daily told) that they already speak the World Language to become interested in Esperanto. Matters of language equality, or linguicide, are just of no concern to them. But for many others, these are personal matters of cultural survival and mean the ability to communicate with others.

Perhaps jabbur (and others with a theoretical interest in language(s)) should take a few minutes out to consider the 7 points of the Prague Manifesto (Google: 'Prague Manifesto' + 'Esperanto')
to find out what it is that motivates many (most?) people these days to take up Esperanto. It is certainly what keeps me interested nowadays, although my first interest in it as a teenager was purely linguistic. You will no doubt find that many so-called 'linguists' have very strong reactions (usually against) Esperanto, but if you dig further you will find that they actually know very few facts.

Please equip yourself with some basic info, such as is available from
(Google: 'Vancouver' + 'Esperanto')
and if you want to hear the phonology of Esperanto in action, then try listening to one of the daily Esperanto broadcasts from
(Google: 'Radio Polonia" + 'Esperanto')
(similar Esperanto broadcasts can also be heard i.a. from Radio China International and Radio Vaticana).

I hope this might have been of interest, and that you will seriously look into it before 'dissing' it. And by the way, I understand that Shatner learned the Esperanto dialogue in 'Incubus' off by heart, and never really learned the language. The general level of Esperanto in that film is simply atrocious - please don't take it as a model!

 

[quicksilver]

Easy there, Mankso. And welcome to DC, I think.
You should be welcoming someone's interest in something you feel passionately about. Don't feel so defensive.

As I stated, I have a hard time with other languages, but have tried and admire those who can think and speak in more than one. So why the attitude?

Whether Shatner had bastardized it or not, I wouldn't know, obviously. As I've stated, I just heard about it; esperanto. And...
what film? And who's dissing it? I am sorry about that. Obviously it has not caught on as a second language. What have you done about that?
Me thinks, I am not as political as you thinks me to be.
I am not. Nor is this the place if I were.

I was innocently asking a question about something new I learned very little about to the level of, "am I that much a dinosaur?"
No one here has commented in the negative.
So instead of turning us off, being so anti-whatever, share.
What is your personal experience? pleasure?
You state "daily" for 58 years, and levels of "fluency". When you speak with these others in "your" language are you dissing us, speak about "esperanto" (if that's the correct term) or just speaking?
Like "us", who "speak the "World Language" and talk about daily life and COOKING - like in this FORUM?

We are a family here. We unit in our commonness. Not our differences. Although we do do things differently and have different interests and "levels of fluentcy" than each other, our prime purpose is to UNITE in something we enjoy, and SHARE our knowledge.
Not condemn.

HAVE A NICE DAY!!!

 

[mankso]

Esperanto

@ Quicksilver:
You asked a question. I thought I answered it - that's all, and gave some pointers for further info, should anyone be interested. And you have managed to read an awful into my answer. I wasn't looking for an argument, but was just such shocked out of my tree that someone could not have heard of Esperanto, and also that a student of linguistics does not know there there are now native-speakers of Esperanto, and seems not to be aware of the reasons for the language (as stated in the Prague Manifesto). This is, and most certainly never was, not one of those reasons!:

The claim was that it would take over the world.

I realise this is a forum on cooking, so here is info on a cookbook in Esperanto:
de Hess, Clara: Kiel kuiri sen viando. Chapecó-SC: Fonto. Brazil, 1998.
[contains 1001 meatless recipes]

Peace, love and a good digestion to all of you!

 

[DrThunder88]

I tell you, I get mighty flustered when I see all those signs printed in both English and Esperanto. I'm like "Learn English or go back to Esperantia!"[/irony]

I'm kidding. I actually was interested in learning Esperanto a while ago, but I figured I'd be better served learning languages I'm likely to come into contact with.

I was in tricycles back then jpb.

Buck, I didn't know MARTIANS spoke, let alone esperanto.

That makes me very, very angry. Now, where's my illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator?