Re: [glosalist] Hogben about esperanto

Hello ML

The original publication by Lancelot Hogben was a Pelican book first published in 1943 by Penguin books called “Interglossa” - there are still copies out there being sold by inet second hand booksellers. The publication in question is aimed at linguists and the book is very technical (for me anyway). However there are some interesting sections. As far as I know Hogben’s criticism of Esperanto was that there was a) surfeitt of grammatical rules b) excessive number of essential words which the beginner has to memorize c) intrinsic unfamiliarity of the words themselves - I quote from the book. He also wrote (regarding the “unnecessarily large vocabulary) that there was a “need for semantic spring-cleaning”.
Wendy Ashby - who publishes PGN (as you are probably aware) - would probably be able to shed more light on this. I was unaware of Chomsky’s comment regarding auxiliary languages but have had discussions with others who take the line that an auxiliary language cannot succeed because “it has no soul” - meaning that it has no cultural background - for me that is irrelevant. Language is about communication and the pressing need for the world’s peoples is for us to be able to communicate with one another easily and without misunderstanding. The reason why the ruling class do not promote an international language is probably because they do not want too much communication among the world’s workers who may get together and demand an end to the insanity of this obscene economic system called capitalism that they administer. Regards, David.

—– Original Message —– From: ML To: glosalist@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 10:02 PM Subject: [glosalist] Hogben about esperanto

Hi,

First, I apologize for my unskilful active use of English. I am going to do my best. Sorry, I cannot use Glosa yet :-)

But, I am a former user of esperanto. I gave up esperanto for some ideological, personal and technical reasons… Glosa seems to me much more interesting as an auxiliary langage for humanity. What was the Hogben’s opinion about esperanto ?

What is your opinion about Chomsky’s declaration that esperanto (as any other constructed language) is not a language ? It seems that the text of the interview with Chomsky is no more available on the web, but any of you who would like a PDF copy, can ask to me.

ML

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