2 ms·

Esperanto was always another language to learn. The idea was never that you people would be able to read Esperanto without learning it; that's pretty much impos

by F3nd0 4y ago

Esperanto was always another language to learn. The idea was never that you people would be able to read Esperanto without learning it; that's pretty much impossible, considering the diversity between languages (even looking just at Europe). The idea was to have a language that would be easy to learn and speak, owing to a simple, regular grammar, and using internationally recognisable words where possible. Interlingua may be readily intelligible to speakers of Romance languages, but is its grammar any simpler than Esperanto's? Or is comparatively more complex and difficult to learn? Because that's what ultimately matters for the rest of the world's population who do not speak a Romance language.

PaulHoule 4y ago
English has a lot of Latin in it, plus if you are a cosmopolitan English speaker you probably get exposed to some French, Spanish (if only when you read the wrong side of a brochure at Home Depot and realize you understood it anyway), Latin, Italian, Portuguese, etc. Interlingua doesn’t claim to serve any community outside European language users, but it does succeed at that, I think. Overall interlingua is about as simple and regular as can be. A Chinese speaker might still be better off learning English but I can’t imagine they’d find interlingua any harder than any natural language.
- nmz 4y ago
  FWIW As a non native English speaker, it is a terrible language to learn and understand. I have been using it for 2 decades and I still need subtitles for movies, not to mention all the irregularity and exceptions to rules (Honestly, when you have more exceptions than rules, can you even say you have rules at all).
- Dhghomon- 4y ago
  >Overall interlingua is about as simple and regular as can be. Interlingua never cared much about simplicity and regularity and it shows. Occidental before it has something called De Wahl's Rule that is focused on achieving as much regularity as possible while being easy to read at first sight. Here's how it works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Wahl%27s_rule#Rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Wahl%27s_rule#Rule

by F3nd0 4y ago

PaulHoule 4y ago

English has a lot of Latin in it, plus if you are a cosmopolitan English speaker you probably get exposed to some French, Spanish (if only when you read the wrong side of a brochure at Home Depot and realize you understood it anyway), Latin, Italian, Portuguese, etc. Interlingua doesn’t claim to serve any community outside European language users, but it does succeed at that, I think. Overall interlingua is about as simple and regular as can be. A Chinese speaker might still be better off learning English but I can’t imagine they’d find interlingua any harder than any natural language.

nmz 4y ago
FWIW As a non native English speaker, it is a terrible language to learn and understand. I have been using it for 2 decades and I still need subtitles for movies, not to mention all the irregularity and exceptions to rules (Honestly, when you have more exceptions than rules, can you even say you have rules at all).
Dhghomon- 4y ago
>Overall interlingua is about as simple and regular as can be. Interlingua never cared much about simplicity and regularity and it shows. Occidental before it has something called De Wahl's Rule that is focused on achieving as much regularity as possible while being easy to read at first sight. Here's how it works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Wahl%27s_rule#Rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Wahl%27s_rule#Rule