Anyone knows him ?

What is your comment ?

Why esperanto supresses diversity

EoMy:Anyone knows him ?

What is your comment ?

Why esperanto supresses diversity

A kabeisto with a HUGE sour grapes issue. Pay him no mind.

EoMy:Anyone knows him ?

What is your comment ?

Why esperanto supresses diversity

I think I heard his name before, but I didn't know the text.

IMO his point of view is a little black and white. For example he's saying the krokodilado is considered inappropriate. However in my experience krokodilado is only if two Esperantists of the same mother tongue are using their mother tongue when there are other Esperantists around that do not understand this particular language. I would also call it inpolite when two Germans speak German when there are nongerman-speakers around, for example.

Anyway I strongly recommend to any Esperantist to read "Esperanto sen mitoj". But I wouldn't see things that black/white like Christopher. Even Ziko, the author of "Esperanto sen mitoj" remained an active Esperantist.

There is a lot to critisise concerning UEA, but one ought to stay away from this black and white point of view. If you think that Esperanto is threatening language diversity, take a look at the activities of E@I. They are setting up an internet site like lernu.net for the Slovak language, a minor language in Europe.

But also get rid of all the myths about Esperanto that are around.

Johannes

I read a prediction by a linguist that it won't be long before there are only 20 languages left in the world that are actively used.

I wouldn't expect Esperanto's contribution to this process to be significant.

At the moment, the enemy of language conservation would seem to be English.

sudanglo:At the moment, the enemy of language conservation would seem to be English.

Pfft (to the linguist's predictions). Hardly a new threat compared to Chinese of the past and various other major languages (Oh no, they Chinese killed Kenny Tocharian!).

Of course, one big problem now is that language creation and revitalisation and cultural identity are much more intense that not very long ago. If the celtic languages grow in popularity it may result in them eating away the spiritual head of the English language in the UK. The US has Spanish becoming increasingly popular, but that's more because Spanish is another behemoth dangerous to native languages too. Australian English has evolved stupidly fast in the last 100+ years, New Zealand English can already be incomprehensible to some of us (I mean the virry thuck eccints), and South African English is another paradigm shifter.

If the Anglosphere isn't careful (from the point of view of a person who wants to keep the language together), English may split into a Northern version, a Western version, and a Southern version with a african variant and an far east variant.

Similarly, other major languages face other challenges. Mandarin Chinese is catering to a massive population, and is attempting to increase its global influence. This may challenge the traditional idea of a Mandarin dialect (The official dialect) vs. the regional dialects, and may bring a new international dialect into the scheme of things.

Anyway, if you need an idea of a country that will NEVER run out of languages, look at Indonesia .

And all this is well before we factor in things like the WWF study that we'll need more 'earths' very soon to support our over-consumption (which I'll admit is starting to become apparent). Interplanetary colonisation will probably change the way languages are used forever (if it ever happens).

So, basically, an increase in language revival projects, conlanging, cultural identity, linguistic separation in the anglosphere, international political activity and human migration should probably ensure linguistic diversity remains very high.
And we can always use the expansion of the classical languages as a model with which to base predictions on - Latin grew, devoured many celtic and non-PIE languages with it, incorporated parts of them and split. Same with Chinese and many others.

Chris Culver is very well-known in the Esperanto community for his activities. He used to be a friend of mine, way back when.

He created a huge uproar when he left the movement. Some people created a new word; not kabei, but "kriĉji". You can read about it at Esperanto wikipedia

A public rebuttal was written for his article on language diversity. You can link to it (in original Esperanto and in English translation) from that wikipedia page.

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Incidentally ceigered, you really do enjoy beating the drum of "English is gonna split into a bazillion different languages", don't you? However, if it hasn't happened yet, I don't really see it happening now. We all consume much of the same media (music, films, etc) and written text is still very important, which keeps us unified. American and British TV programmes are shown all over the English-speaking world, and I've noticed that British TV seems to show a pretty good number of Australian programmes.

I think that obscure dialects have always been difficult for people to understand, but today, people have more exposure to different dialects and are more able to understand different ways of speaking. The more foreign accents you hear, the easier it is to understand them. I also think that dialects have evened out in the English-speaking world more than they have spawned new dialects that are even more difficult to understand. When my great grandmother moved from the south of England to the north, she couldn't understand the people, and she had to find someone to "translate" for her. I have never heard of this happening to someone who moved from London to Leeds in the modern day.

ceigered:New Zealand English can already be incomprehensible to some of us (I mean the virry thuck eccints)..

I tested this theory a few years ago by asking an old friend from NZ to say the name of a well-known delicacy in the Anglophone world. He replied "fish and chips", not "fush and chups".

Miland:

ceigered:New Zealand English can already be incomprehensible to some of us (I mean the virry thuck eccints)..

I tested this theory a few years ago by asking an old friend from NZ to say the name of a well-known delicacy in the Anglophone world. He replied "fish and chips", not "fush and chups".

erinja:...I have never heard of this happening to someone who moved from London to Leeds in the modern day....

Not wanting to take this topic too far from its origins but I have to say, as an Englishman who emigrated to the USA, the language barrier is very much a one way door. Due to the flood of American TV shows in the 70s and 80s, I grew up pretty much fluent in Hollywoodish-American but yet even today I find Americans who are stymied by British TV shows (and sometimes by things I say) because the cultural-language did not flow so much in that direction. My mother, who did not watch as much American TV found the language here (New England) to be often foreign and ambiguous to her. Blimey!

I'd agree about things being foreign and ambiguous, but not to the extent that you'd call it a whole other language that you had great difficulty understanding.

I've certainly experienced it myself, even with my excessive consumption of British television. Expressions and turns of phrase used by my relatives in the North of England (all well-educated, speaking with mild regional accents but definitely not full-on regional dialect) are for the most part not well represented in the British media I consume.

But then again I've experienced a degree of confusion over terminology even in visiting other areas of the US. It's not a difficult hurdle to overcome, but it's noticeable.