2012年12月20日木曜日

エスペラントの矛盾 If you're reading this, you're unlucky.

僕が感じるのは、下の記事とは違う「エスペラントの矛盾」

エスペラントは橋渡し言語として考案された。
簡単に言語を習得するためには、覚えるべき単語は少ない方がよい。

しかし、知っている語彙が限られると、思考が限られてしまう。
もっと奥行きのあることを幅広く表現するためには、どうしても語彙が必要となり、
やさしいはずの言語がどんどん難しくなってくる・・・。

そうすると、難易度が英語とあまり変わらなくなり、「容易だから」ということで、エスペラントを選ぶ意義は失われる。語彙に関して言えば、巷でどんどん英単語が流入し、日本語化しているわけで(しかもこの傾向はしばらく続く)、エスペラントより英語の方が簡単な単語が少なくない。(たとえば、ストップ・右・左、インターナショナルなど)

第一外国語として、英語に及ばないのなら、
エスペラントは、「容易な国際補助語」というカテゴリーを脱却し、「豊かな国際語」として歩むべきではないだろうか。エスペラント固有の文化をもっと育む方向へ。
Esperanto, celu farigxi kiel la UNU lingvo fruktodona inter 6,000-lingvoj de la mondo.
Por tio bezonas la pli-ricxa kulturo de Esperanto.


io9.com より転載
http://io9.com/5935563/the-strange-quest-for-a-universal-earth-standard-language 
『エスペラントが発展するためには、「意思疎通できる相手がたくさんいるなら学び始めよう」という大衆をどう取り込むのか、という根本的な課題を克服しなければならない。』
If you're reading this, in a way you're very lucky. English is spoken as either a first or second languages by anywhere between 800 million and 1.8 billion people on Earth. This means that you'll be able to communicate with a good part of the world's population. An alternate view is that you're very unlucky. If you're a native speaker you're not that likely to have learned a second language. English has become a candidate for the modern lingua franca not because it has the greatest number of native speakers, but because the greatest number of non-native speakers are willing to pick it up. It has occurred to native and non-native speakers alike that this might not be fair. The pushiness - and ultimate temporariness - of dominant languages has caused people to try to come up with a simple, common language that the entire world might learn to allow for basic communication everywhere. The languages have, for the most part, died on the vine.

EsperantoIt made its debut in 1887, the brain-child of Ludovic Zamenhof, a Polish physician. Zamenhof, who was troubled by the language-based conflicts he saw in his homeland, first wanted to reintroduce Latin or Greek, but he found their idiosyncrasies frustrating. After looking into a few languages, he identified stumbling blocks - irregular verbs, unusual spelling, gendered nouns - and created a languages that eschewed all of the messiness of the natural. Esperanto is phonetic, regular, and grammatically simple. In some ways the negative reaction to the idea of Esperanto fueled its growth. The Russian Czar had dreams of an earthly tower of Babel and banned the learning of it by his people. Eastern Europe and China, wary of the growth of English, saw Esperanto as a way to promote a common language that didn't favor any particular nation. Ironically, the language meant to unite everyone got its first kick due to the politics of resentment. Its peace-and-love spirit wasn't embraced in English-speaking countries until, of course, the 1970s.
Although it's, by far, the most popular auxiliary language, Esperanto has proved impractical. Since it's nobody's native tongue, it relies on people's willingness to learn it as a second language. Few people are motivated to do that unless there are already a great deal of people also willing to learn it, and so it seems to be spiraling down, not up. One good kick from people around the world and it might yet become a common language, but to do that it has to overcome its homegrown demons.


 

2012年12月3日月曜日

エスペラントの使い道 Esperanto continues to display its practical use

Esperanto Cultural and Congress Center in Fulda, Germany 19.09.2005) +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++Some hotels are using the word "Esperanto" to profile their international character 
Esperanto continues to display its practical use, Schnell emphasized. "Wine, whisky and cigar dealers used advertisements in newspapers," he explained. Although such advertisement is increasingly difficult due to the diminishing significance of such papers in the Internet age, there are other possibilities, he told DW.
Currently, the Berlin Esperanto association is planning to attach placards to bicycles distributed around the city. In Warsaw, a public system for sharing some 1,100 bicycles is called "Veturilo," which means vehicle in Esperanto.
Schnell also said that Esperanto is being employed as an effective marketing method. Some hotels have begun to use the word "Esperanto" in their names in order to emphasize the establishment's international character.
Whether or not these initiatives are behind Esperanto's increasing numbers of speakers isn't clear, Schnell said. But the language is clearly attracting more and more followers.
エスペラントが効果的なマーケティング方法として採用されている。例えば、いくつかのホテルが国際的であるということをアピールするため、「エスペラント」という言葉を使っている。

またポーランドのワルシャワでは、1,100台の公共自転車が「ヴェトゥリーロ」(エスペラントで自転車)と呼ばれている。

"Esperanto gains ground in internet age"
http://www.dw.de/esperanto-language-gains-ground-in-internet-age/a-16404951