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From: neal@druny.UUCP (Neal D. McBurnett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Making Esperanto Universal.. (non-western word roots)
Message-ID: <33@druny.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Nov-85 00:47:19 EST
Article-I.D.: druny.33
Posted: Sun Nov 10 00:47:19 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 22:09:04 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 46

> Is there anyone `in charge' of the language?

As with all living languages, the users of Esperanto are in control.
While Esperanto does have an "Academy", it is only somewhat more effective
than the French Academy: i.e., the typical Esperanto speaker doesn't pay much
attention to it.  It usually either debates refined points of grammar which
are of little practical interest, or votes to accept new words as "official"
only long after they have in fact been used by a wide variety of writers,
and appear in many dictionaries.
Thus, the way to go about adding words to Esperanto is the same as in any
other language: you use them yourself, preferably by writing a "best-seller".
Currently almost all the new words are for specialized fields, like
computer science or religions.  Most of the word roots taken from
non-european languages refer to local cultural or religious practices,
or local flora, fauna and foods.  For example, "mosque" is "moskeo",
"couscous" is "kuskuso".

Two of the words you suggest have already been dealt with:
zen		zeno	(your suggestion "reno" means "kidney", (from Latin))
 zen buddhism	zenismo
 humane		humana
 humanism	humanismo
Tao		Tao ("The indefinable, impersonal principle, inherent in the
			universe, which causes it to move")

For the rest of the words, I will give an Esperanto translation of your English
translation.  I assume that in fact there are other untranslated nuances
present in the Chinese words, and I would love to hear a more complete
definition.

virtue		virto
cosmos		kosmo
venerable	respekteginda (amuzingly, your suggestion "la^ua"
			means "in accordance" in Esperanto)
ancient		antikva, praa, maljuna
frog		rano


> Adding noneuropean terms would seem to seal Esperanto's promise
    to become the international language this planet needs so badly.

I think it is more important for Esperanto to hold on to its established
literature and body of speakers than to try to incorporate a lot
of words from non-european languages.

-Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal