Hello Salix World!

Introduce yourself, create test postings or talk nonsense
marcxjo
Posts: 27
Joined: 1. Apr 2014, 18:56

Re: Hello Salix World!

Post by marcxjo »

mimosa wrote:I don't speak Esperanto, but I do have a nodding acquaintance with some other Indo-European languages, so some light shines between the words.
That's awesome! I have a huge fascination with IE languages (mostly Romance and Germanic, but I'm slowly branching out to other families and beyond the IE realm), which was a huge part of why I got into Esperanto in the first place. Most auxiliary languages provide their own built-in crash course in the inherited lexicon of Latin, too, which is a perq if you're into that kind of thing.

I'm also just into auxlangs on their own, though. I don't really buy into the whole "global second language" thing they all claim to strive for, but the communities that the bigger ones have cultivated are always full of awesome people. I dare say the spirit of most of those communities has a great deal in common with the spirit of most Linux communities -- high motivation, intellectual curiosity, a love for free culture, and interestingly, both are often full of very talented programmers. Very cool stuff!
User avatar
gaucho
Donor
Posts: 116
Joined: 23. Dec 2010, 19:12

Re: Hello Salix World!

Post by gaucho »

mimosa wrote:I don't speak Esperanto, but I do have a nodding acquaintance with some other Indo-European languages, so some light shines between the words.
Hi, mimosa,

With your language talent, Esperanto (or Interlingua, or Ido) would be dead easy! Esperanto certainly has the largest community and largest body of published literature. I'll second marcxjo's observation that Esperantists tend to be well-educated, open-minded and tolerant. You might find it interesting that there is a large Esperanto movement in Brazil; much of its support comes from Spiritist (Kardecist) groups, which actively promote learning Esperanto for a variety of reasons.

Interlingua is fun, "uber-Romance and highly Latinate. My experience was that it was very easy to read, but difficult to write ... although YMMV. (When I was studying Interlingua, I sent a sample text to a former classmate of mine from grad school whose native language is Italian. Her response was something like: "What kind of strange language is this?! I'm getting a headache trying to read it.") Its community is considerably smaller than Esperanto's; however, they have been active in producing online resources. Also, it's interesting that Interlingua is taught in Scandinavian schools as a gateway to Latin and the Romance languages.

I've only dabbled with Ido, a version of "reformed" Esperanto. (Ido literally means 'offspring'). Because of the way that Louis Couturat presented his conlang project, some Esperantists consider him to be a Judas-like figure and Ido to be "heretical." He did away with Esperanto's circumflexed letters (^c, ^g, etc. also known as the "^capelitaj literoj") and the accusative case ending. One thing I've read about Ido that I believe is true: almost all Idists know Esperanto, because they are either former Esperantists, or they actively use both languages (such as Portuguese writer Gon,calo Neves).
Registered Linux User # 442201

Dell Latitude E4300 laptop: Intel Core2 Duo P9400 CPU, 8 GB RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD, Intel Wireless 7260
Post Reply