Ido

Dear Glosalists,

There is a reason that Ido has not surpassed Esperanto–Esperanto is still easier.

Although Ido has simplified grammar for nouns and adjectives, it has added several infinitives. Learning grammar for a constructed language usually requires a short time, but learning the vocabulary requires a much longer time. Ido has a larger vocabulary than Esperanto.

Having experience with both teaching foreign languages and teaching English to foreigners, I am not sure that listening to linguists will produce a constructed language that will be sufficiently useful for the world. I have noticed in my students–and in my own studies–that, when faced with a difficult situation, they concentrate on vocabulary and forget or confuse grammatical inflections. A constructed language with more emphasis on small vocabulary and less emphasis on a rigid grammar seems to be a “natural” language, whereas Esperanto and Ido seem to be “logical” languages.

I cannot prove what I have just written because, whereas logical languanges can be written on paper and shown to follow specific patterns, we cannot see into the human brain to understand just what is happening when languages are learned. There are some things I find encouraging: Although it is difficult for old people to learn foreign languages, I have received letters in Glosa from three people who were over seventy years old. One of these was over eighty! Also, my own two daughters have learned Glosa more easily than Esperanto. When I first tried to read Glosa, it seemed like gibberish to me because I was looking for grammatical endings on the words and could not tell a noun from a verb. Now it is as if my mind has broadened and every word has more than one grammatical meaning. All this causes me to believe that Glosa is learned by a learning pattern that occurs more naturally in the human brain rather than by a learning pattern that requires the use of logic–which is something that must be learned before anyone can learn Esperanto or Ido.

Thank you for listening to my theory, something linguists might call a “black-box” theory.

Saluta, _ _ /. Gary #/# ###

Plu karo Glosalist-pe,

Es u kausa; qo-ka Ido ne gene ma uti de Esperanto–Esperanto es ma facili a nu.

Anti, Ido pa face ma facili u gramatika de nima-verba e de deskribe-verba, Ido pa habe un adi de oligo forma de akti-verba. U sko de gramatika de u ge-stru lingua more nece u pusi tem, anti-co u sko de lexiko nece fo mega tem. Ido habe u ma mega lexiko de Esperanto.

Po gene experi ko dona sko de xeno lingua e plus ko dona sko de England-lingua a xeno-pe, mi ne este sura; un audi ex lingua-skience-pe fu face u ge-stru lingua; qi fu es sati uti a munda. Mi pa gene ex mi stude-pe–e ex mi auto stude–u ski; kron mu gene u no-facili stato, mu fo puta de plu verba e no-memo alo face ge-konfusi plu gramatika adi-ra. U ge-stru lingua ko ma forti de pusi lexiko e ko mei forti de severi gramatika feno es u “natura” lingua, kompara-co Esperanto e Ido feno es plu “logika” lingua.

Mi ne posi proba ra; mi nu pa grafo, ka, kompara-co plu logika lingua posi gene grafo epi papira e gene u monstra; mu du seqe certa modela, na ne posi vide ad-in homi cerebra te gene logi de ra; qi acide kron pe gene sko de plu lingua. Es oligo pragma; mi doxo habe spe: Anti, paleo-pe gene sko de xeno lingua es no-facili, mi pa gene plu grama per Glosa ex tri homi; qi habe ma de seti-ze anua. Uno ex mu habe ma de okto-ze! Plus-co mi auto bi fe-fili pa gene sko de Glosa ko ma facili de Esperanto. Proto-kron mi tenta lekto Glosa, id feno no-logi a mi, ka mi tenta detekti plu gramatika fini-ra epi panto verba e ne pote logi u difere inter nima- e akti-verba. Nu-tem feno: mi menta pa gene ma logi e panto verba habe ma de mo gramatika semani. Panto-ci dona a mi u kredi; pe gene sko de Glosa per sko mode; qi es in homi cerebra ko ma natura de sko mode; qi nece habe un uti de logika–qi es uno-ra; pe nece gene pre pe pote gene sko de Esperanto alo Ido.

Gratia de audi de mi teori–uno-ra; a qi lingua-skience-pe posi dona u nima “melano-teka” teori.

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