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[b]What is Esperanto?[/b]
From [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto]Wikipedia[/url]
[quote] Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto (Esperanto translates as 'one who hopes'), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that transcends nationality and would foster peace and international understanding between people with different regional and/or national languages.
Estimates of Esperanto speakers range from 10,000 to 2,000,000 active or fluent speakers, as well as native speakers, that is, people who learned Esperanto from their parents as one of their native languages. Esperanto is spoken in about 115 countries. Usage is particularly high in Europe, East Asia, and South America. The first World Congress of Esperanto was organized in France in 1905. Since then congresses have been held in various countries every year with the exception of years in which there were world wars. Although no country has adopted Esperanto officially, Esperanto was recommended by the French Academy of Sciences in 1921 and recognized in 1954 by UNESCO (which later, in 1985, also recommended it to its member states). In 2007 Esperanto was the 32nd language that adhered to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)". As of October 2011, the Esperanto Wikipedia had the 27th highest count of Wikipedia articles. Esperanto is currently the language of instruction of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino. There is evidence that learning Esperanto may provide a superior foundation for learning languages in general, and some primary schools teach it as preparation for learning other foreign languages. On February 23th, 2012, Google Translate added Esperanto as its 64th language.[/quote]
Esperanto isn't your average language. The grammar is extremely simple and can be learned very quickly, and there's no irregularities.
[b]Useful links for Esperanto:[/b]
[url]http://www.lernu.net[/url] - a great place to start and a great Esperanto online community
[url]http://www.kurso.com.br/index.php?en[/url] - A great software for learning Esperanto
Ĉu vi parlolas esperanton? Parlolu en ĉi tio fadeno!
it sounds pretty much like spanish to me
[QUOTE=Pace.;35782013]it sounds pretty much like spanish to me[/QUOTE]
It's much easier than Spanish though, and is actually closer to Latin with some influence from Russian, Polish, and German.
I really want to learn this. How long do you think it would take?
Doubleplusgood.
[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;35787581]I really want to learn this. How long do you think it would take?[/QUOTE]
Probably a year, but you have to keep at it.
Has absolutely no practical value and you'd look like a hipster.
"Sorry, can't go out tonight, I'm learning this vague language called Esperanto. Oh, it has hints of Latin, Spanish and some European languages."
Thumbs up for the agglutinative morphology and such, but I've found that for a good deal of small short words which should be regular are not, like adverbs ending in aux. It just seems that a good deal of the problems in the language don't make any sense considering that every aspect of it is technically by design. Not to mention, it seems to carry the misogyny from languages similar to it for absolutely no reason.
And for some reason, a good deal of ambiguities arise out of the repeated use of several syllables to connote different meaning:
Filino can mean "a daughter," or a "contemptible piece of flax."
Alterni can be said to mean "to sneeze at," or alternately "to alternate."
Dignagxo can mean a "swim in a dike" or an "age of dignity."
[QUOTE=Mr. Sun;35832075]Has absolutely no practical value and you'd look like a hipster.
"Sorry, can't go out tonight, I'm learning this vague language called Esperanto. Oh, it has hints of Latin, Spanish and some European languages."[/QUOTE]
Stop pulling things out of your ass.
Esperanto is used in translations (easier to translate English > Esperanto > Japanese), and it helps you a lot in learning other languages.
Plus you can learn the grammar in two hours, it definetely is worth it.
[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;35787581]I really want to learn this. How long do you think it would take?[/QUOTE]
As I said, likely two hours for the [URL="http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/librejo/en-gramatiko.pdf"]grammar[/URL] and some more time for the vocabulary (get a [URL="http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/librejo/avortaro.pdf"]dictionary[/URL], [URL="http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.html"]read[/URL] [URL="http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/librejo/DuaLibro.pdf"]some[/URL] [URL="http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/librejo/poemoj.pdf"]books[/URL] and practice [URL="http://lernu.net"]it[/URL] [URL="http://www.reddit.com/r/Esperanto/"]online[/URL]).
Not warez, since it isn't copyright anymore.
Any questions, just ask.
[QUOTE=Mr. Epicness;35846813]Stop pulling things out of your ass.
Esperanto is used in translations (easier to translate English > Esperanto > Japanese), and it helps you a lot in learning other languages.
Any questions, just ask.[/QUOTE]
How is it easier to translate into Japanese if the words, orthography and grammar are derived entirely from European languages?
[QUOTE=Krinkels;35847485]How is it easier to translate into Japanese if the words, orthography and grammar are derived entirely from European languages?[/QUOTE]
They aren't.
Even if they were, it would still be easier than English.
[editline]6th May 2012[/editline]
I mean, it is easier for the Japanese to learn and translate Esperanto than English. Also each word has one meaning, while in English some words have more than 10 meanings
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