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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