Do you think it would be better, if Esperanto was the official world language?

Question

I guess that English will never be the language for the whole world. It is too complicate for speakers of non-European languages, even for speakers of Romance languages! Esperanto has (approximately) a balance, it is neutral regard to politics, religion and social matters, and it is easy to learn (I needed 2 months). Maybe there is also somebody else who speaks Esperanto. Bonvolu, partoprenu kaj respondu al mia demando!

Answer 1

First, let me be very clear about this.
The idea of a common planetary language, especially if it is arbitrarily chosen or worse, would be next to useless. This is assuming by 'official world language', you mean the sole language.
If however, you refer to its intended purpose of being an AUXILIARY language, intended to bridge the gap between cultures by providing an easily learnt method of communication then yes. It would open the world up to far more in the way of understanding.
Let's exam the first example where each linguistic group would resent the fact that any other language was forced on them, and NOBODY would agree on ANY language since they would all want their own.
Esperanto is making headway in becoming an AUXILIARY language, yet people reject it out of hand because they all fear the loss of their tongue and a single language spoken by all, which of course is exactly what Esperanto is trying NOT to do.
As a common SECOND language you and you and you have no need to sink years into study of a language that you will most likely NEVER fully assimilate like a native. The choice would be yours. With Esperanto you can be comfortable talking to your neighbour in your native tongue and just as comfortable talking to Ming Lu across the waves on an equal footing in this easily learnt language. It's like a neutral handshake, because each participant invested an equal amount of effort to learn this easy language. (16 gramatical rules... NO exceptions!)
Believe it or not, Esperanto represents the best chance for the survival of the multitude of dying languages since it's purpose is to forestall the monopoly of any one National tongue to the disadvantage of another.
So will it some day become universal (which by the way doesn't mean that EVERYBODY in the world speaks it, just those that want it / need it)?
Well, the $600 million USD spent yearly on translation services at the UN (six official languages) and a similar amount in the EU says, sooner or later something is going to change, and this is the cheapest and most effective, proven alternative.
NOBODY has to give up their mother tongue, nor should they.
So, long answer shortened, NO. I wouldn't accept a single language for the world. Esperanto as an auxiliary language however would be wonderful.

I encourage everybody to research and draw their own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 2

Well esperanto grammar is much easier than English grammer. English has one of the most difficult grammers of the major languages. -------- Interlingua is probably more of a valid artificial language than Esperanto, since many educated speakers of Latin languages can understand an Interlingua speaker without any training. -------- BASIC english as a universal language was greeted with a lot of enthusiasm when it was developed in the 1920's. It uses a radically limited set of English vocabulary words, and a very simplified grammer. A standard English speaker immediately understands a BASIC English speaker although it sounds odd. However, a BASIC English speaker may not understand a standard English speaker. People felt that someone could learn BASIC English with as little as 200 hours of instruction over a 7 week course. -------- BASIC english was envisioned as the key to global communication and world government. It's developers believed that most of the world would be speaking it by now. However, far more people are familiar with the pseudo language developed by Aldous Huxley in his book "Brave New World". Huxley's language of "doublespeak" intentionally mocks the ideas of BASIC english.

Answer 3

Yes, I think it the world would be better if everyone in the world spoke a common easy-to-learn second language. I wouldn't want anyone to be forced to give up their cultural language, but if everyone knew the same second language also, it would really make communication easier, and this is exactly what Esperanto was created for.

Answer 4

On the plus side, without ever having studied Esperanto or having looked anything up, I think I can translate your sentence: "Please take part and answer my question," but that's probably because it's built almost entirely on romance roots. It should also be noted that most of those roots are present in some form in English.

On the negative side, I don't know what use a single word is for Greek speakers trying to learn it, nor what other mixture of etymologies is in its vocabulary, with no benefit to the speakers of non-romance languages.

I'm also aware that Esperanto has been around for 120 years without passing out of a very limited number of speakers. This may be because no artificial language has an established base of native speakers, but also, I think, because of a difficult, even though consistent, grammar. All those vowels at the end have some function, but I don't know what it is. That is, while I might understand the sentence, I could never reproduce it.

If an artificial language is at all feasible, I suggest it might be better constructed on the basis of a single language like Latin -- which in Europe was once close to the linguafranca you want -- but of course without Latin's absurdly complex grammatical structure and countless irregularities.

Otherwise, I reckon we're stuck with English.

Answer 5

Mi estas E-isto ankaŭ!!
I have some doubts about all this. Esperanto is an a posteriori IAL. this means it is not completely neutral. Fortunately, it is easy enough for ANYONE to learn it (i am including Americans :p j/k).
What i'd like to see is... Esperanto as a REAL IAL, while we keep our mother tongues.

[A little comment: it should be "respondu miaN demandoN" ;) ]

Answer 6

it would better that Chinese (Mandarin) should be an international language due to the country's popularity.

it is very discriminate for you to say that English will never be the language for the whole world.

I wish that English and Cantonese was both an international language

Answer 7

if an already well established language cant do it, like you said, what more a newer one?

Answer 8

English and Thai will do me thanks.