nornen:I don't think this is an issue in real life. If you can't here the -n in "la pomon mi manĝas" you can still understand what the utterance is about (animacy helps). Take Spanish for instance: the plural ending is -s and many dialects drop final s. Hence, "mi manĝas la pomon" and "mi manĝas la pomojn" sound exactly the same. However there are very, very few situation where this really matters and where the exact meaning cannot be inferred from context.

Thanks, nornen. I will put this in mind at my next E-o renkontigxo. May be its simple antipathy by myself against obligatory to use '-jn' endings in E-o. In Lidepla, its grammar principle, that, if context can offer it, the use of plural endings are not obligatory to use. There its named 'facultative precision'. But for sure I can not do so inside E-o community where everybody expects to use -jn, even for adjectives.

Why are we talking about Lidepla? How another language chooses to do its grammar has nothing to do with Esperanto.

erinja:Why are we talking about Lidepla? How another language chooses to do its grammar has nothing to do with Esperanto.

It seems to me that the discussion is not about Lidepla as such. After all, there were also references to how Spanish and German "do things" in certain contexts. Does that make it a discussion about Spanish or German? No, the thread is a discussion about Esperanto, and references to other languages, "natural" or "constructed," may illuminate a matter.

For a detailed corpus-based analysis of this topic see Wim Jansen's booklet Naturaj Vortordoj en Esperanto.

In his analysis OVS comes out at 7%, SVO reaches 90%.

SVO is even more common when the object is plural.

erinja:Why are we talking about Lidepla? How another language chooses to do its grammar has nothing to do with Esperanto.

At Lernu forum I read that some time ago one person (Attilio) did advertise that other conlang in somewhat agressive manner. So, okay, there could be some kind of irritation here. Just for information, this person died couple of months ago.

bartlett22183:It seems to me that the discussion is not about Lidepla as such. After all, there were also references to how Spanish and German "do things" in certain contexts. Does that make it a discussion about Spanish or German? No, the thread is a discussion about Esperanto, and references to other languages, "natural" or "constructed," may illuminate a matter.

If I got it right regarding side step discussion topic could named that 'context could make use of grammar more non-restrictive'. I.e. 'multa' already implied '-j' plural form. Another examples in Spanish, German and this other conlang were mentioned.