Friday, September 20, 2019

Debate On Which New Language To Learn Or Teach


Singapore flag.

On the Polyglot page on Facebook I contributed to a debate on the best languages. I wrote

Something new and simplified has come up. It is text speak. You might object that LOL is based on the English language. On the other hand, Chinese symbols have been replaced by smileys and emoticons which are language neutral. Road signs have also simplified the complicated symbols of Chinese language, which has been modified.


Esperanto
If you want a language which is quick to learn, which makes it user friendly for immigrants, polyglots, children, those of low IQ, a simplified language based on an existing widespread known language is fairer to all. Esperanto was set up in a European city to help Europeans communicate.

Nothing stopping you creating an equivalent for Asia or South America.

However, if you want a language using the most widely used existing words it already exits Volga. However, Esperanto has many more speakers, probably because of its consistency and regularlity making it easy to learn for speakers of languages such as Hungarian who find the languages of their neighbours difficult, and speak a minority language which is not widely understood when they travel and do business and socialise.

Here is a comprehensive list of contructed languages - many European languages but also Latin/Greek, Slavic and African.



Useful Websites
chineasy.com
duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constructed_languages


About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and Other languages. 

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