On International Mother Language Day, we celebrate the rich linguistic and cultural diversity that defines our Union, as well as the importance of protecting and promoting mother tongues across Europe.
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@jztusk @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission I never said English was no mess. And sure, there were plenty opportunities to practise English in the early 90s while there were hardly any around 2000 for Esperanto.
I later also gave Na'vi a try, though I never succeeded much. I also had French and Spanish in school and I think I'd get by on a very low level if I was thrown into Spain or France, but zhen they also speak English...@jztusk @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission the only time I was completely disconnected was in Korea, where people would know English but considered theif English too bad to bother me with it so they tried Korean of which I only knew a few terms.
Then try to buy an overland bus ticket. -
@jztusk @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission I never said English was no mess. And sure, there were plenty opportunities to practise English in the early 90s while there were hardly any around 2000 for Esperanto.
I later also gave Na'vi a try, though I never succeeded much. I also had French and Spanish in school and I think I'd get by on a very low level if I was thrown into Spain or France, but zhen they also speak English...@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission
I've said that if you study two out of Spanish, French, and Italian you get the third one almost for free.
I think if you've studied Spanish and English, and are a native German speaker, I think you get Esperanto for free.
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@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission
I've said that if you study two out of Spanish, French, and Italian you get the third one almost for free.
I think if you've studied Spanish and English, and are a native German speaker, I think you get Esperanto for free.
@jztusk @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission might be, but I lack the time to put in the effort plus I see no big use of it. If ever I need to understand a text, I get most anyway, but I wouldn'tbe able to produce something myself...
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@kubofhromoslav @jztusk @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission what would be the difference between vide- and rigarde-? Because it looks like just being the same coming from two languages: vedere - Latin and regarder - French
@benny@kirche.social @kubofhromoslav@esperanto.masto.host @jztusk@mastodon.social @proedie@mastodon.green @kinkkong@kinkycats.org @Pare@sociale.network @valhalla@social.gl-como.it @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu ‘Vid’ means ‘see’ and ‘rigard’ means ‘look’. An invisible person is ‘ne·vid·ebl·a’, since you can’t see them even if you’re looking at them. (Inversely, you could say the sun is ‘vid·ebl·a’ but ‘ne·rigard·ebl·a’, since you can see it but can’t directly look at it. Well, you can, but only once.) <img class="not-responsive emoji" src="https://jam.xwx.moe/emoji/Gutkatoj/gutkato_mojosa.png" title=":gutkato_mojosa:" />
There are countless instances where you could have either few words with very broad meanings to cover many use cases, or a single, more specialised word for each single use case. Both extremes have their advantages and disadvantages, and Esperanto isn’t naturally optimised for one or the other. <img class="not-responsive emoji" src="https://jam.xwx.moe/emoji/Gutkatoj/gutkato_kontenta.png" title=":gutkato_kontenta:" />
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@Pare @valhalla @EUCommission @kinkkong, it makes more sense. Europe needs a mutual language to unite, and that will not happen using a national language of one of the big members.
Better would be even more neutral language, like #Esperanto, as it belongs to no specific nation (not even some competitor nation, like English does), so it can unite people and nations of Europe.
@kubofhromoslav @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission @kinkkong I say this as someone who isn't a citizen or resident of any EU country. I would love to see #Esperanto adopted as an official language in the EU. No need to make it the only official language. Just give it a foothold and start using and teaching it officially.
Mi diras tion ĉi kiel persono kiu ne estas civitano aŭ loĝanto de iu ajn EU-a lando. Mi amus vidi se la EU adoptus Esperanton kiel oficiala lingvo. Ne estas necesa fari ĝin la sola oficiala lingvo. Nur donu al ĝi piedteno kaj komencu uzi kaj instrui ĝin oficiale.
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@kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission a truly neutral language would be one that is equally hard for all, which would be some planned language, which would not be used comfortably by the masses, because not many people speak Volapük or Klingon.
English's use is not nationsl communication just like French wasn't national in olden times or Sumerian in even older times.@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission From what I know of linguistics, I don't believe that it's possible to have a language that is simultaneously comprehensible by the human mind and completely neutral. There are too many linguistic features which are common to some languages and not others. Some, we could probably just dispense with, such as grammatical gender, without putting native speakers of the languages that have them at a disadvantage, but some will remain.
While there is considerable acknowledgement that #Esperanto is easier for native speakers of various European languages from which it draws it's vocabulary, it at least presents less of a disadvantage to people coming from other native languages. And the fact that it is built heavily on vocabulary common to many European languages is actual a reasonable argument for using it for international communication within Europe.
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@kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission you consider English harder than Esperanto?
@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission As a native English speaker who also knows #Esperanto, I am completely confident that English is harder than Esperanto. I personally think that Spanish is an easier language to learn than English, and Esperanto is easier than Spanish.
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@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission As a native English speaker who also knows #Esperanto, I am completely confident that English is harder than Esperanto. I personally think that Spanish is an easier language to learn than English, and Esperanto is easier than Spanish.
@ddgulledge @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission I like Spanish, but I would not say it's easier than English. They have a more straightforward spelling system though, butt hoo kairs abowed spelling anyway?
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@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission As a native English speaker who also knows #Esperanto, I am completely confident that English is harder than Esperanto. I personally think that Spanish is an easier language to learn than English, and Esperanto is easier than Spanish.
@ddgulledge @benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission As a speaker of #Esperanto I think the language is quite easier to learn than say something like English.
But then the people come around the corner who think that this language is horrible bad, complicated, eurocentric, inexpressive, a language of "spies", a bad jewish language, a language without "culture" and other chauvinistic nonsense come around the corner.
I think this cosmopolitan language, which always was about peace, connection, internationalism, co-existence of languages, hope, etc. is perfectly fine.
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@ddgulledge @benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission As a speaker of #Esperanto I think the language is quite easier to learn than say something like English.
But then the people come around the corner who think that this language is horrible bad, complicated, eurocentric, inexpressive, a language of "spies", a bad jewish language, a language without "culture" and other chauvinistic nonsense come around the corner.
I think this cosmopolitan language, which always was about peace, connection, internationalism, co-existence of languages, hope, etc. is perfectly fine.
@phantasus @benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission Diri ke Esperanto estas senkultura klare maltrafas kiel homaj grupoj funkcias. Ie kaj iam ajn troviĝas multaj personoj, plurfoje, tiuj grupoj kreas grupajn kulturojn. Komuna lingvo estas perilo de tiuj gruoj kaj iliaj kulturoj. Ne eblas esti alie.
Mi enangliĝos por ne jam samideanoj:
To say that Esperanto is without a culture clearly misses how humans and groups function. Wherever and whenever multiple people are found repeatedly, those groups create a group culture. A common language is a tool for those groups and their cultures. It can't be otherwise.
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@benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission, there definitely are some occasions when Esperanto speakers translate too directly from their native language and others are wondering what it means. That tends to disappear when speakers have contact from other Esperantists from different language families.
I still hear / read it sometimes, but rarely.
@kubofhromoslav@esperanto.masto.host @benny@kirche.social @proedie@mastodon.green @kinkkong@kinkycats.org @Pare@sociale.network @valhalla@social.gl-como.it @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu In practice this also results in a different problem, where some people will introduce synonymous words since their either don’t know other words already exist, or they know but think their word brings an important quality or nuance the existing words are missing. Quality or nuance which isn’t always universally agreed on and often gets dropped in the process of adoption. <img class="not-responsive emoji" src="https://jam.xwx.moe/emoji/Gutkatoj/gutkato_malgaja.png" title=":gutkato_malgaja:" />
So quite often Esperanto will have multiple words for the exact same idea, making it unnecessarily tedious to learn the language. I don’t think that’s a flaw of the language, though, more like an inevitable flaw of humanity that any international language would have to deal with once popular enough. <img class="not-responsive emoji" src="https://jam.xwx.moe/emoji/Gutkatoj/gutkato_ŝultrumas.png" title=":gutkato_ŝultrumas:" />
