Esperanto proves resilient as the movement celebrates 120 years

[Kephart, Ronald]

On 1/15/07 9:39 AM, "Harold F. Schiffman" <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
Wrote (quoting an article on  the benefits of Esperanto):

> [...] Esperanto, they say, is a passport across linguistic borders, an
> easy-to-learn language...
> 
Hmmm.... I've looked at Esperanto a couple of times, and I can sort of
figure it out, mainly (I think) because I happen to know both a Germanic and
an Italic language, not because there's anything inherently "easy" about it.
If I only knew say, Aymara (which I¹ve studied a bit), I suspect it would be
totally opaque to me.

I'm curious: Have any lgpolicy listers whose first languages are not
Indoeuropean looked at Esperanto, and how ³easy² do you think it is?

Also, I  recall reading somewhere that dialectal variation in Esperanto has
developed as it has spread out. Anyone know if this is true?

Anyway... I¹m skeptical of the idea that being able to communicate in a
shared language has much potential for peacemaking. Yanomama in Venezuela
attack other Yanomama villages and kill their occupants, despite their
speaking the same language.

Ron
(aka ³Grumpy²)


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