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Esperanto


Miss Betsy

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With a good keyboard, such as my present fr-BE for openSUSE Linux, which can use the circumflex dead key on consonants: Ĉĉ Ĝĝ Ĥĥ Ĵĵ Ŝŝ, Esperanto is a breeze. And for ŭ (or without a "good" keyboard) I can use the abcTajpu extension to Firefox, or paste from the gvim editor. Or (on a French keyboard) I can use ù which is not "exactly the same" but is similar enough to have been used for 120 years on French typewriters which didn't have the breve sign.

IMHO, the effect of the Internet in general on the Esperanto can only be positive, since the Esperantist people are a diaspora, living few and far between but all over the world, and such peoples are kept together, when they are, by communications. (The Basque or the Estonians can walk or drive to each other's houses, but we Esperantists rely on long-distance snail-mail, phone, and now email, blogging and chat.)

I thought that the effect of the Internet on Esperanto would be positive, but what I was specifically wondering was whether text messaging - u no what I mean - or however they abbreviate words - would affect 'classic' Esperanto. I have noticed that people sometimes post using those abbreviations of words. Since what I remember of Esperanto, it already is phonetic to some extent, but is it adaptable to text messaging?

Miss Betsy

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...I thought that the effect of the Internet on Esperanto would be positive, but what I was specifically wondering was whether text messaging - u no what I mean - or however they abbreviate words - would affect 'classic' Esperanto. I have noticed that people sometimes post using those abbreviations of words. Since what I remember of Esperanto, it already is phonetic to some extent, but is it adaptable to text messaging?...
Any responses will be interesting. For a somewhat glum precis of the language in later times
...What has happened to Esperanto in recent years? Has it flourished and become the international language of choice? Well, not exactly. After the heady days of the 1970s, scholars turned their attention elsewhere, and interest in Esperanto, if not dwindling, is growing at a painfully slow rate. There was talk of making Esperanto an official language of the new European Union, but this has not happened.

Instead, English has become the closest thing to an international language. Close to a billion people either know or are learning English, a language with idiosyncratic syntax and grammar, nonphonetic spelling, and attendant cultural biases. How could this bastardized form of low German achieve such stature? What about the dream of a neutral, standard, planned language?

Esperanto, despite its intellectual appeal, was simply not practical. It was no one's mother tongue; finding other speakers outside conventions was nearly impossible; and it wasn't even a true standard, as unofficial words appeared and spread. English, on the other hand, is the contemporary language of science and research, financing and investment, music and movies. When the Berlin Wall fell, English flowed over the rubble. Even on the Internet, which some consider the only true vehicle of international communication, English is the language of more than 80 percent of Web sites, while only relatively few Esperanto pages exist. Esperanto retains a certain cerebral charm, but English is far more practical.

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free English/Esperanto translation maŝina traduko por Esperanto

I have enough of a problem with English and it's my native language.

Mi havas sufiĉ de problemo pri La angla kaj estas mia denaska lingvo.

I have sufiĉ from a problem about English and is my denaska language.

{sigh} Not as bad as Babefish's Korean-English-Korean though:

Help me, I am an amateur proctologist!

나를, 나 있는다 아마추어 prXX돌오g잇t 돕십시요!

It will carry, multi amateur prXX pebble five g Is t Dob ten:00 bedspreads which are B!

Conclusions:

  • Proctologists - of all kinds - might be well advised to avoid Korea
  • Machine translations have a way to go
  • The surprising popularity of Dr. Dob's Journal in Seoul is unexpectedly explicated

But I digress. Bringing it forward once more

I thought that the effect of the Internet on Esperanto would be positive, but what I was specifically wondering was whether text messaging - u no what I mean - or however they abbreviate words - would affect 'classic' Esperanto. I have noticed that people sometimes post using those abbreviations of words. Since what I remember of Esperanto, it already is phonetic to some extent, but is it adaptable to text messaging?
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