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Non-smart smart move
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
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esperanto is ridiculously easy to learn, even from a global linguistic perspective. the grammar, in particular, is predictable and avoids irregularities. you're probably referring more to familiarity than ease of learning. of course it is even easier to learn if you come from europe since it adopts many european words, but that doesn't change it's general simplicity.
I’m not convinced that the consistent grammar and spelling is actually a feature of Esperanto. I think it’s just a feature of being a language that nobody uses so it hasn’t had a chance to inevitably evolve like actual languages people use.
That still makes it a poor tool for global communication. Within EU, maybe. But not global. More than half of global population is going to have to learn a dozen of new sounds and distinctions in pronunciation to even start.
Not really possible to make a language everyone is familiar with as languages globally are so different.
🤔 🤨 👎
I personally think we should use grunts and gestures
hrmpf 👍
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hrmpf 👎
no one cares for the classics any more 🥲
hrr 🤷
one could of course try to make an easier or better suited language but calling it a poor tool is harsh critique considering that esperanto is the most sucessful attempt for an artificial global language today and already avoids many hard to learn features from other languages.
What can I say, the bar isn't high. It avoids some hard to learn features but introduces others, mostly in the phonetics and orthography.
i guess i can agree on that. i still would like an artificial easy to learn global language.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I still think Esperanto was an amazing attempt at a global communication tool. It just didn't age that well, in my opinion. And the whole concept of an artificial global language is still something that should be pursued.
Why even make a language, if there are plenty of existing languages to choose from?
Just pick the most widely understood one and you're done.
Any natural language is way harder than Esperanto.
One problem in international relationships is that native speakers of the language that is used will always be able to express themselves better than others and will thus have an advantage in debates and discussions. The original idea was that everyone should learn Esperanto as a second language which would level the field and improve international relations.
So the solution would be to have Esperanto but with the phonetics of, say, Hawaiian?
Toki pona is an interesting example, though it's not an international auxiliary language. But it still relies on a simplistic phonetic inventory and limited core vocabulary to make communication as easy as possible.
Hasn't stopped people from trying to hammer it into one (i.e kokanu)
I'm just saying that's not the author's intention, it's more of an experiment to see how minimalistic you can make a constructed language. On the other hand, simplicity is good for an international language, so who knows, maybe something derived from toki pona can actually do the job.
Even just within the EU, interligua would be a much better alternative. That one has specifically been designed for use in the EU though, and not for global communication.