10 ms·

I agree about the framing of the problem. I would say that esperanto does offer some inherent reasons to learn it. It's very easy to learn, relative to natural

I agree about the framing of the problem. I would say that esperanto does offer some inherent reasons to learn it. It's very easy to learn, relative to natural languages. That's what it was invented for. It's fun to make fast progress, and I think this is the biggest motivator for people to learn it. It's also useful to learn a second language, because learning a language makes it easier to learn languages. There are some school programs teaching esperanto for this reason. It's part of their path to learning english. Besides that, there's linguistic interest & idealistic interest. You're right though, that it's all about the inherent reasons. There are no books to read or people to talk to. That's one hell of a downside. I think klingon and dothraki are good reference points. People learn those for no practical reason.

mumblemumble 6y ago
But then, think about what's implied by those being the big reasons to learn the language. They implicitly relegate esperanto to the status of a toy language, comparable to the Lox programming language from Crafting Interpreters. You don't learn it because you actually want to speak esperanto (or program in Lox); you learn it as a simple model you can use to learn the techniques you'll use to accomplish some other goal, such as learning how to learn languages. It's definitely different if you really like the ideal of a language that doesn't belong to any one group of people. But I'm guessing that, nowadays, that's a compelling motivating factor for fewer people than, "I really like Star Trek," is. Klingon's rich cultural history may be a constructed patchwork, but at least it exists.
- dalbasal 6y ago
  That wasn't the goal. Esperanto didn't take. Esperanto was relegated. Those are the reasons remaining, and they are enough to support the language to some extent. It's not the reasons that relegated the language.
Viliam1234 6y ago
> There are no books to read https://dvd.ikso.net/pagxo/en/libro.html https://dvd.ikso.net/pagxo/en/libro.html Note that these are merely the books where the copyright has already expired, so they can be freely put online. There is much more of the fresher content.
- dalbasal 6y ago
  I didn't mean it literally. There are also some people to talk to. Just not many.

mumblemumble 6y ago

But then, think about what's implied by those being the big reasons to learn the language. They implicitly relegate esperanto to the status of a toy language, comparable to the Lox programming language from Crafting Interpreters. You don't learn it because you actually want to speak esperanto (or program in Lox); you learn it as a simple model you can use to learn the techniques you'll use to accomplish some other goal, such as learning how to learn languages. It's definitely different if you really like the ideal of a language that doesn't belong to any one group of people. But I'm guessing that, nowadays, that's a compelling motivating factor for fewer people than, "I really like Star Trek," is. Klingon's rich cultural history may be a constructed patchwork, but at least it exists.

dalbasal 6y ago
That wasn't the goal. Esperanto didn't take. Esperanto was relegated. Those are the reasons remaining, and they are enough to support the language to some extent. It's not the reasons that relegated the language.

Viliam1234 6y ago

> There are no books to read https://dvd.ikso.net/pagxo/en/libro.html https://dvd.ikso.net/pagxo/en/libro.html Note that these are merely the books where the copyright has already expired, so they can be freely put online. There is much more of the fresher content.

dalbasal 6y ago
I didn't mean it literally. There are also some people to talk to. Just not many.