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  • carbohydra [des/pair]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I repeat: there is no such thing as a universally simple language. "non Portuguese speakers" is a comically large group that includes everyone from Spanish to Cherokee speakers. Can you guess which one of those will have an easier time learning either Portuguese or Esperanto?

    Esperanto removes some complex features, but keeps others, like consonant clusters, case conjugations, multi-syllable words, etc. (not to mention the vocabulary which is 99% Euro). Those features exist in most European languages but are completely or mostly absent in other parts of the world, and to them seem completely exotic and alien. So no, "taking from every language" would just make it slightly harder for you, but make it easier for everyone else.

    The argument against English being the world language is that it gives an unfair advantage to native English speakers. Why should we then give an unfair advantage to European language speakers by adopting specifically Esperanto? Why should we privilege people who were taught colonial languages earlier? You seem to ignore this large group of monolingual people in the global south. What makes them less important?

      • carbohydra [des/pair]
        ·
        3 years ago

        English becomes less daunting when you accept the fact that it's actually 3+ languages in a trench coat.

        My point is that Esperanto, even if it has no internal irregularities, has a lot of arbitrary features like conjugation at all, when many natural languages don't. It's more complicated than it needs to be, but these features don't present problems for Europeans.

        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The conjugation is incredibly regular and simple to pick up on honestly, it’s not really a complex system and it’s about as simplified as it can be and still be called conjugation. And their nouns, verbs, and adjectives are labeled to a degree it almost makes some words kinda weird, but at least you know what type of word you’re looking at when you see it

          To me a better irreconcilable issue for Esperanto as an interlang is basically it’s phonemic inventory is just straight up a mess if your goal is to have it be universal.

    • fed [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The argument against English being the world language is that it gives an unfair advantage to native English speakers.

      No one is making that argument? It’s stupid and asinine. Why do you care about “advantage”? Like what the fuck ROFL

      • carbohydra [des/pair]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Sorry, you're the one trolling now. What is the reason we shouldn't just use English then?

        • fed [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Because it’s hard to learn?

          Some aesthetic reason like “its the language of colonialism” is just dumb. a global second language should be easy to learn for a large % of the global population and be easy to learn read and speak

          • carbohydra [des/pair]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Non-English countries have to spend a considerable amount of time and resources teaching and translating English (which is vulnerable to delays). It's not only about aesthetics, it's about information speed and quality