Greetings to all. At one time (but I do not remember where), I read what was apparently a translation of a quotation from Zamenhof himself regarding stability. In this quotation (if it was to any degree accurate), Z said that even if Esperanto had/has errors, discrepancies, or shortcomings, it is more important to leave the language alone and stable than to change things and make the language unstable, because instability can be fatal (as the histories of so many constructed auxiliary languages have shown).

Does anyone know if Z actually wrote/said anything like this? Is there a source for this statement? Thanks very much.

bartlett22183:(snip)
Does anyone know if Z actually wrote/said anything like this? Is there a source for this statement? Thanks very much.

There is a section on wikipedia that says something similar here though it is not a Zamenhof quote.

regards
Guy

ap

bartlett22183:Greetings to all. At one time (but I do not remember where), I read what was apparently a translation of a quotation from Zamenhof himself regarding stability. In this quotation (if it was to any degree accurate), Z said that even if Esperanto had/has errors, discrepancies, or shortcomings, it is more important to leave the language alone and stable than to change things and make the language unstable, because instability can be fatal (as the histories of so many constructed auxiliary languages have shown).

Does anyone know if Z actually wrote/said anything like this? Is there a source for this statement? Thanks very much.

Perhaps you are referring to the Declaration of Boulogne.
Read the part under "Evolution of the Language"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Esperanto#...

For a laugh:
-Read this
http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/fundamento/gr...
-Then ask why those who are most "enthusiastic" about accepting nothing contrary to the Fundamento use the "x" convention which is clearly contrary to the "h" convention as described in the Fundamento.

Bemused:

bartlett22183:Greetings to all. At one time (but I do not remember where), I read what was apparently a translation of a quotation from Zamenhof himself regarding stability. In this quotation (if it was to any degree accurate), Z said that even if Esperanto had/has errors, discrepancies, or shortcomings, it is more important to leave the language alone and stable than to change things and make the language unstable, because instability can be fatal (as the histories of so many constructed auxiliary languages have shown).

Does anyone know if Z actually wrote/said anything like this? Is there a source for this statement? Thanks very much.

Perhaps you are referring to the Declaration of Boulogne.
Read the part under "Evolution of the Language"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Esperanto#...

For a laugh:
-Read this
http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/fundamento/gr...
-Then ask why those who are most "enthusiastic" about accepting nothing contrary to the Fundamento use the "x" convention which is clearly contrary to the "h" convention as described in the Fundamento.

Neither the "h-sistemo" nor the "x-sistemo" is Fundamenta per se. Ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, and ŭ are Fundamenta. Z himself said the "h-sistemo" was only a workaround if the proper typeface was unavailable.

The North American Review has an interesting essay by Zamenhof on the topic of language reforms (with a short introductory text in English that could have been written today, though it was written more than a hundred years ago).

Zamenhof suggests that "reforming" Esperanto is a bad idea; rather, it evolves through the process of introducing neologisms, and other words becoming archaisms. This is pretty much what has been happening, in my view. He warns against making changes that "break" the language (seems like he is referring to make it no longer "backwards compatabile" )

"Ĉar per serĉado de plibono, pri kiu ni fantazias, ni povus facile perdi la bonon, kiun ni posedas" -- Because in searching for the 'better' that we fantasize about, we could easily lose the good that we possess. A smart guy, Zamenhof!

orthohawk:Neither the "h-sistemo" nor the "x-sistemo" is Fundamenta per se. Ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, and ŭ are Fundamenta. Z himself said the "h-sistemo" was only a workaround if the proper typeface was unavailable.

"Remark. ― If it be found impraticable to print works with the diacritical signs (^,˘), the letter h may be substituted for the sign (^), and the sign (˘), may be altogether omitted."
(source: The Fundamento)

The thoughts about stability are to found in the introduction to the Fundamento as quoted be Clarence666.