From: Gerry Reinhart-Waller
Message: 826
Date: 2000-01-10
>--
> Hello luri and gerry,
>
> Andrew here.
>
> It's a bit hypothetical to argue about what second language a benevolent
> dictator would impose on the world, since we don't have a benevolent
> dictator. But I would guess one reason why esperanto is difficult to learn
> is because it has no native speakers (precisely Iuri's reason for likeing
> it). If I want to improve my French, I stay in France for a fortnight, and
> my (spoken) French improves in leaps and bounds. There's nowhere I can go to
> improve my esperanto in the same way - at least not while enjoying such a
> good holiday!
>
> I still hold out the hope that in another millenium we might have a European
> lingua franca which somehow hybridises features of existing languages.
> Unfortunately, I don't think this is very likely to happen, but it would
> resolve Iuri's concerns about discrimination.
>
> My wife has taught English as a foreign language, and she tells me our
> absurd spelling system is a major obstacle to foreigners trying to learn the
> language. Some languages (eg French) retain spellings from the way words
> were pronounced a few hundred years ago. English spelling, however, is far
> worse, seeking to reflect spellings of cognates in other languages, up to
> 2000 years ago. Moving to a phonetic system would help millions of people.
>
> How have other languages (eg Geeerman, Polish) managed to end up with a more
> phonetic system? Have the language pronunciations been more stable over
> time? An alternative explanation, that standardised spelling is only recent
> for many languages, would imply that in 200 years these languages will be as
> hard to spell as French, although, I hope, they can never get as bad as
> English!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gerry Reinhart-Waller <waluk@...>
> To: cybalist@egroups.com <cybalist@egroups.com>
> Date: 09 January 2000 02:21
> Subject: [cybalist] Re: The 2nd language issue
>
> >Hi Iuri,
> >What you say is correct to an extent. Esperanto turns out to be a
> >difficult language to learn. In concept, Esperanto is ideal; in
> >workability, quite forboding. The reason I like the use of English as a
> >common language is because it seems to be one in which many folks on the
> >web can communicate -- perhaps if it weren't for English, you and I
> >would NOT be able to email. As well, English is also the language of
> >the .com companies in Silicon Valley (which helps boost the stock
> >market) and for the most part, English just might be the language of
> >"peace".
> >
> >gerry
> >
> >Iuri Gaspar wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello!
> >>
> >> >And this is how I would like to see the languges
> >> >(and folks) of the world -- having BOTH a personal language(s) and a
> >> >common language.
> >>
> >> That's my opinion also.
> >> However, I'm against the trend which claims that English should be
> >> that 2nd language. Nor any other ethnic language.
> >> Some languages were created for that purpose, as you should know.
> >> Of those I had the privilege to learn and use Esperanto, which
> >> I'm very fond of. Of course I defend Esperanto as the 2nd language
> >> for all, but I accept other thoughts.
> >> The thing I profoundly disagree is the usage of a language which has
> >> native speakers as a 2nd language for all the human beings in world.
> >> That, in my opinion, is language discrimination, and I'm against it.
> >>
> >> Once again sorry for any mistake, but the thing is I can never know
> >> when an english word has one or two "d" or "l" and so on ;-)
> >>
> >> Friendly,
> >> Iuri Gaspar
> >> iuri@...
> >> UIN 1376369
> >> http://www.terravista.pt/Guincho/1458
> >> http://members.xoom.com/gaszpar/
> >>
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> >--
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> >Gerald Reinhart
> >Independent Scholar
> >(650) 321-7378
> >waluk@...
> >http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com
> >
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