Esperanto Blog

I apologize for the horrible pun. I have no idea what possessed me to do that. A decent essay found here suggests that part of Esperanto’s sometimes limited appeal stems from its excessive use of consonants. Admittedly, I’ve always preferred the sibilant over the guttural…It’s part of the reason why I decided to study Spanish back in high school over German. I like the point this particular writer raises about the Esperanto character “hx.” There’s a reason we rarely encounter it – nobody wants to try to pronounce it!

So, since I have a definite language bias, in that I prefer Romance languages over Germanic and other language families, I somewhat agree with the assessment that too many consonants hurt a language, although my opinion is that it harms the beauty moreso than the functionality. I doubt that the abundance of consonants alone hampers our favorite language that much.

What do you all think? Can consonants be a bad thing? Or is it all dependent upon one’s manner of thinking? Let us know your opinion. After all, what is a blog without reader input?

Here’s an interesting critique of the Esperanto movement! This essay by Christopher Culver examines the seemingly self-contradictory Esperanto agenda. Give it a look if you have the opportunity. While I do not think Mr. Culver’s criticism provides an entirely accurate assessment of the state of the Esperanto movement, his opinions caution us not to allow the Esperanto community go as astray as he suggests!

I think that Mr. Culver’s single biggest misstep is that he assumes Esperanto is intended to replace existing languages. I always figured that the goal of Esperanto was to be an international second language, so that one could retain his or her first language, yet still be able to converse with the rest of the world. With this as the case, Esperanto shouldn’t subsume existing languages – it should instead provide an environment where it isn’t a bad thing to keep speaking one’s native tongue.

Anyhow, such is my opinion. What do you all think?