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From: wombat@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: Any esperantists out there? - (nf)
Message-ID: <2406@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Jul-83 05:52:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2406
Posted: Wed Jul 13 05:52:39 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Jul-83 12:32:28 EDT
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#R:burl:-23200:uicsl:8600009:000:1333
uicsl!wombat    Jul 12 23:18:00 1983

	I've always thought Esperanto was a neat language. You can
get a book called "Teach Yourself Esperanto" and learn the grammar
in spare time in less than a week. (And that's *all* of the grammar.)
>From then on, all you have to do is build up some vocabulary.
There are people all over the world who can speak "esperante."
They have magazines written in it, as well as original literature.
International pen pals abound; they meet through the magazines or through
Esperanto conventions. Some families share only Esperanto as a common
language; this has been going on long enough for children to be
brought up with Esperanto as a first language. A physics professor
here teaches a course called "Non-Western Linguistic Structure" which
consists of a history of constructed languages and a quick course in
speaking/reading Esperanto. Is interesting subject.
	Esperantists would like to see the language become a sort
of lingua franca. They consider it a "neutral" language (though
Asians don't see it that way). It also has an easily learned grammar.
Words are built up from lots of smaller roots -- it's acceptable
to make up a word from roots you know if you don't happen to know
another word for something. And it's perfectly regular. None of
English's "i before e except ..." nonsense.
						Wombat
					pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!wombat