Category: Language alternatives

The ‘Grin Report’ and its pretended support of Esperanto over Indo-European as European Union’s official language

We have received at Indo-European Language Revival Association an email suggesting us learning more about Esperanto, describing its advantages, and especially talking about the Grin Report, an expert study supposedly favoring Esperanto as the only language for the European Union. This mail comes probably from a reader of Spanish newspapers who read about recent news on Indo-European revival, who possibly didn’t read about our proposal, maybe because we use mainly English in our writings and he just can’t speak but Spanish and Esperanto…

I think that specially any study written about linguistic policy – in our … Read the rest “The ‘Grin Report’ and its pretended support of Esperanto over Indo-European as European Union’s official language”

About European Union's push for 'Multilingualism'

It’s not new, but still many newspapers want to present such “multilingualism” initiatives as ‘fresh’. Nothing changed while Jan Figel was the commissioner in charge of languages for the European Union, and nothing is changing with the take over of Romanian Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban.

When politicians in the EU talk about the advantages of ‘multilingualism’, it’s like when they talk about ‘multiculturalism’ and its benefits for society: the more they talk about it (specially when there is a right-wing government like this one), the more they are afraid of its consequences, and the less solutions they (want to) find … Read the rest “About European Union's push for 'Multilingualism'”

Esperanto vs. Europaio?

I’ve recently read in some forums about Indo-European revival being a “new IAL” with ‘no chances against Esperanto‘.

The objective of Europaio is – and was – never to substitute Esperanto or to undermine the Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, etc. communities. We are very respectful of the long tradition of IALs in building worldwide communities around international, ‘neutral’ languages, for our society to become more democratic, more jointly liable, or whatever those groups may seek.

However, things should always be clear to everyone when comparing Indo-European with such languages:

  • Esperanto is an artifcial language invented by one man, as
… Read the rest “Esperanto vs. Europaio?”

Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua,… (2)

I was wondering what could happen if people disagreed with our approaches to Europaio. We have allowed anyone not only to disagree within our frameworks, but also to use our works and names to create their own projects – but for “Dnghu” and “Europaio”, if they completely disagree with our grammar rules. We thought this was the fairest legal position to hold, given that we had to defend our efforts as first-movers in IE revival issues, at the same time guaranteeing everybody the right to create a better project, as nobody should be able to retain rights over the Indo-European … Read the rest “Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua,… (2)”

Perfection in Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua,…

When someone has learnt natural languages different from his or her mother tongue, invented languages appear always to be imperfect when compared to them, as contradictory as it may sound, given that perfection is what their creators try to achieve.

I’ve tried to learn Esperanto at least three times, and always left the grammar or learning method in the first lessons. Its aim of being the world’s only IAL, and its great community of supporters appealed to me. But, the aura of perfection – ‘no irregularities’, ‘perfect corresponding alphabet’, ‘culturally neutral’ ‘mixed vocabulary’,… – that many people try (wrongly) to … Read the rest “Perfection in Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua,…”

Why not adopt a single official language for the European Union?

How would the EU justify not adopting European as its official language? The multilingual European Day of Languages (2001) cultural political issue (of learning to speak at least two foreign languages) is being accepted more and more as a central EU policy, despite its little success in defending Europe’s diversity – as the languages learnt are the two or three more supported by the EU. Following the linguistic FAQ of the official EU website,

1. “[We do not adopt a single official language for the EU] Because it would cut off most people in the EU from an … Read the rest “Why not adopt a single official language for the European Union?”

Indo-European? Why?

I was thinking about the conversation I am going to have with the person responsible of a University Department of Classical Languages. And all of a sudden the most obvious question I could face arose: why? A simple question deserves a simple and clear answer, and I wanted it written down here, too; so I came to the main implicit reasons hypothesis under which we work:

  1. The uprising and fall of civilizations is a random event, which depends on too many factors to be completely ascertained by any academic discipline.
  2. The more powerful a country is (and the richer its
… Read the rest “Indo-European? Why?”

First Post

This very first post is written in English, the present world’s lingua franca which is (hopefully) going to hand over its international and European role to let Europaio, based on the Proto-Indo-European language – the ancestor of most of our mother tongues -, become our common language. It will make us feel comfortable when speaking to foreigners (a word whose meaning will also change) and will improve communication between nations and peoples, thus allowing another gigantic growth of knowledge and welfare.

Or maybe not. We’ll see.… Read the rest “First Post”