Sinergy
Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004 Status: offline
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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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"There is a fine line between clever and stupid" David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap" "Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle
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