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Sinergy -> RE: Tower of Babel (4/6/2007 11:44:26 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kiyari
Esperanto was not proposed as a REPLACEMENT for one's native tongue... rather, as a second language which could provide humanity a common means of communication... not a foreign concept to readers of Sci-Fi
I am not disputing this, kiyari.
There are distinct cultural differences between language A and language B. A person probably will not use a language that does not fit their culture.
As one example, Japanese has 3 words for "give," which are (if memory serves) sashiagemasu, agemasu, and naremasu.
The first one is used when one gives something to a superior, or God, or a woman or child giving something to a man.
The second is used when people give things to people on the same social level; man to man, woman to woman, etc.
The latter is used when God, a superior, or a man gives something to a woman or a child.
These cultural nuances are hard-wired in the child by the culture they grow up in.
The language of the internet, computer programming languages, and most business, happens to be English. I imagine Esperanto was proposed because somebody got their knickers in a twist about having to learn a language (English) spoken by people in a culture they despise.
Just me, etc.
Sinergy
p.s. the cruel irony is that I took my first semester of Japanese at the same time as Feminist Theory, and the ingrained sexism of the Japanese language irritated the hell out of me.
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