On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, Marcos Franco wrote (small excerpt):
> On Tue, 27 Jan 1998 23:28:41 +0200, Allan Kiviaho
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote (excerpt):
> > For a constructed language like
> >Esperanto with its ugly diacritic signs and still uglier "kaj", "jes",
> >-aj, -ajn, -oj, -ojn etc?
>
> Well, why not Ido, then?
One might argue for Ido over Esperanto on various grounds. As
a matter of practicality, the E-o accented letters are somewhat
problematic, although in this age of computerized typesetting and
electronic communications, they should be less of a difficulty.
Some of the other complaints often lodged against E-o I believe
to be without merit insofar as E-o may be considered as a *global*
auxiliary. (Yes, Bruce, I know that you and I disagree over this
matter.) Many of the things considered "ugly" about E-o are simply
the victims of local biases. To a non-Indo-European speaker, whether
a conjunction is "kaj," "e," or "blarf" may not mean much, because all
of them will be equally "strange" to his/her native language habits.
Similarly with plurals, and so on.
Whether or not a feature is "ugly" is so personally-biased that I
think we need not give much consideration to it, unless one can show
that it is so contrary to the native habits of so many people that it
becomes a stumbling block for just aboput everyone.
I have read complaints about the "Slavic" features of Esperanto.
Is this a bias against the Slavs and their languages? Why is a -j
plural somehow intrinsically inferior to an -s plural, say, to a native
Semitic speaker?
Paul <[log in to unmask]>
..........................................................
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