George Boeree | Re: [LFN] Is the lingua-franca-nova.net Site Moribund?

• Autor: George Boeree (“cgboeree”)
• Tema: Re: [LFN] Is the lingua-franca-nova.net Site Moribund?
• Data: 2010-05-13 17:27
• Mesaje: 3145 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

>
> Interesting observation. My conclusion, after having worked with
> people (especially refugees) struggling to be able to use the
> language,
> is that English is actually a rather difficult language for adult
> learners (just to speak; forget about reading/writing). English has an
> at least moderately difficult phonology (more so than average across
> the world's languages in terms of number of phonemes, with some
> actually rare ones, such as /T/ and /D/), including an abundance of
> closed syllables and Germanic/Slavic consonant clusters which are
> notoriously difficult to so many people. Add the chaos of our
> irregular verbs (the most commonly used), phrasal verbs, and on and
> on, and it seems to me that English is actually not at all an easy
> tongue to master.
>
I don't quite agree: Yes, to become fluent in English, one is talking
about years of study. But to learn enough English to get by (and to
watch American movies without subtitles) is quite easy for most
people. One year of study, for example, seems to go much further
than, say, two years of Spanish or three years of French or German.
You really don't need to be able to say the "th" sounds (as some
English dialects already show), and an Italian can get by famously
with Italian's five vowels. Can't pronounce one of English's
consonant clusters or closed syllables? Just add a vowel before or
after or even inbetween (e.g. "I espeak espanis", or "I cumma frumma
italia"). Irregular verbs - you learn them in pairs (ignore the
triplets - lots of Americans do anyway!), just like gender in many
other languages. The same with phrasal verbs. At least you don't need
to memorize endless irregular verbs!

(People typically have an easier time listening to a language than
speaking it - recognition is easier than recall. I had a relative who
just used "did" to create the past tense of every verb, like we use
"will" for the future tense, to overcome his inability to remember
irregular verbs! He never failed to be understood.)

American students typically prefer to take Spanish in High School
because (a) it's more useful in America and (b) it's "easier". Of
course, by the time you get to your fourth year of Spanish, you may
need to re-evaluate. But English is like that, too, only even easier
- EXCEPT, of course, for the ridiculous spelling! Of course, English
is hard for people outside of the Europeans. But other European
languages are even harder for them!
>
> However, the real issue is how to "get the word out" about LFN. What
> visibility does it really have beyond the world of English-speaking
> auxlang aficionados? For good or for ill, Esperanto is so far ahead of
> the pack that when a lot of people think of "international language,"
> E-o is about the only thing they have ever heard of. Would LFN be
> ready for the EU to choose? (For that matter, would Ido or
> Interlingua, the only two other plausible candidates, in my
> estimation?)
>
Getting the word out is the crux of the matter. But I don't think
that Eo has any chance at all, despite its notoriety and community.
Interlingua is the only one that does have a chance, but it's a tiny
one. With that kind of competition, ANY IAL has SOME chance.

I do hope you don't think that LFN has been the domain of Americans
and Britons, as some people have accused us of being. We have
included people from Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,
France, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Korea, Iraq, and the Philippines
(that I can readily recall). I myself was born in Holland. The only
large number I can think of is speakers of Esperanto! In addition,
the range of second languages is huge!
>
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