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DJ4PG > ESPERANT 06.10.03 06:16l 143 Lines 6357 Bytes #999 (999) @ WW
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Subj: Interlingua/Esperanto, details
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Sent: 030130/1707z @:DB0SM.#NDS.DEU.EU [JO32QR, Meppen] bcm1.53 LT:999
From: DJ4PG@DB0SM.#NDS.DEU.EU (Hans)
To: ESPERANT@WW
To the question of G0TEZ if any other artificial language
than Esperanto is in use, and especially re Interlingua.
Dear Ian,
as Axel, DL4IAX, said, linguists list many projects of
artificial languages. All did not succeed, with exception
of Esperanto, which works quite well, considering, that politicians
do not want it, due to egoistic and national reasons.
With good reason both Stalin and Hitler sent Esperantists to
concentration camps and killed them. What would be, if
soldiers could speak easily with the human beings in the
opposite trench?
The reason for success of national languages was always power,
economic or military. Culture, beauty etc. have by far minor importance.
The reason for success of an artificial language is quality.
The best in quality should win. And to my opinion that is the case.
Among the many projects Esperanto clearly won, due to its quality.
Quality of Esperanto:
1. It is strictly regular.
1.1 phonetics: one letter for one sound, one sound for one letter.
Extremely better than English, with its rather chaotic use of the
latin alphabet.
2. grammar
2.1 noun: only one gender, one declination, (similar to English)
no irregular plural
2.2 adjectives: all end in a
2.3 verb: only one conjugation, no irregular verbs
3. vocabulary
3.1 it uses many internationally known words, about 70% from latin
origin
3.2 it has an a.m.a.p. regular, logic system of derivations. Instead
of learning them, you can derive many words.
Compare English: steward, stewardess
rapid, rapidly, rapidity
react, reaction, reactionary, reactor,
While derivations in English are applicable occasionally,
and irregularly, in Esperanto derivations are regular and can be
used in every case where it makes sense. By this, you save 80%
(factor 5 again) in learning time. You can read your first
novel after few months.
Due to above, even Chinese and Japanese find Esperanto an easy
to learn language.
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Other projects:
Volapük
The basic idea was good and well accepted, but it was too complicated,
died with the appearence of Esperanto.
Ido
It was said to be a reformed, improved Esperanto. But it was less
regular, thus less easy. Had some advantages, some disadvantages.
It gained only a few thousand speakers, now a very small group rests.
Interlingua
This project raised big hopes. It was constructed by a group of
professionals, professors of linguistics, who during two decades
worked on it. Some scientists tend to praise it due to that. They
assume, that it is "of course" better than the project made by
Dr. Zamenhof alone (1). But very few studied and practised it, to see,
if that assumption is true, maybe just 30 only, maybe 100.
(1) Zamenhof gave Esperanto free for development. And that took place.
Some details taken from "Interlingua, a grammar of ... 2nd edition 1955"
Quotations start with # and page number.
The numbering goes in parallel to the above "Quality of Esperanto"
Quality of Interlingua
1. It is far less regular. It is going more "natural".
This means, irregularities taken from "natural" languages as Latin and
English are taken over. Those who do not know Latin have the disadvantage.
1.1 phonetics
spelling and pronounciation are partly irregular:
# p.3 " c before e,i,y ist pronounced like ts in 'hats' (or , optionally,
as c in 'city'); otherwise like c in 'cats'; ch like ch in 'echo, chrome'
h as in English (or, optionally, silent); after r and t, silent
j like z in 'azure' (or, optionally, like g in 'gem' or like y in 'yes'"
There are 6 more letters with such "options"
"There are orthographic changes in derivation."
Have a lot of fun with guessing!
2. grammar
2.1 noun
only one gender, (as in English + Esperanto)
irregular endings, more irregular plural endings
Interlingua English comment
singular plural
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tabula tabulas table
homine homines man, human being
uxor uxores wife as in Latin
roc roches rook, castle due to c, ch to pron. k
generation generationes generation
lied lieder song as in German :-))
addendum addenda as in Latin, English
hepatitis hepatites ?
paracolpos paracolpos bumper
2.2. adjectives
# p.12 "... end in a vowel or a consonant. The former group ends
almost without exception in e, the latter in l,n,r,c
Since other words can have the same endings, these do not identify
adjectives, which can only be spotted by the function they perform in a
sentence or at times by a suffix which happens to occur with no other
part of speech." WOW!
# p.13 examples
parve small; blau blue; equal equal; dan danish; cyclic cyclic; bon good
2.3 verb
3 conjugations, i.e. 2 more than English, almost fully regular,
3. vocabulary
3.1 Interlingua favours the use of international words, same as Esperanto.
But it does not apply a standardized (phonetic) spelling. This helps people
who already know Latin and English to understand a text in Interlingua
before having studied the language. See above uxor, addendum, generation.
On first sight an Interlingua text to such people appears easier than
the same in Esperanto. But do we want an additional language which first
requires the study of two others?
Better study (at least a few pages of) an Esperanto-textbook which helps
to understand the basics than judge on first sight.
3.2 derivations
similar to Esperanto. Less regular
All in all: Esperanto is clearly easier than Interlingua. And that makes its
study more economic compared with Interlingua, and much more compared with
natural languages.
Cost of education is globally very important.
Critics who spent less time than necessary before they pull Esperanto into
pieces, are many. (i.a. Frederick Bodmer, early editions)
If you want a careful judgement, read the book of Umberto Eco
The search for the perfect language, 1994
73! Hans
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