Talk:Interlingua/Archive 1

message: That bit about the number of users estimated at being from 50 to a few thousand is then followed by a statement that the Interlingua conference is attended by about 50 people. Where does the first number come from? I have no idea how someone could estimate the number of speakers based on the number that make the effort to attend a biannual conference. I find the number to always be at least four times that, and usually more.
Mithridates 04:09, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Just because they attend the con doesn't mean they can speak the language -- go to any Esperanto con and you'll see what I mean.  Reporting con attendance and reporting what people are estimating are two entirely different things.  Almafeta 08:57, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Number of users 

message: It seems that many users are posting messages here. They keep trying to get hardcore proof that a language they found simple is easy regradless of anything else. There is no language which everyone finds easy to learn. People fit different learning styles, and different languages appeal to different paradigms of thinking. Some people will turn away from languages that they see as simple or easy because they believe it is an insult to their intellect, or it doesn't show their skills. I know people who began taking french in order to prove to others that they could perfectly pronounce a language with so many differences from their own. I know people who have learned japanese and latin, not because they will ever use it in business and politics, but because it envelops an exuberant culture that is admired by their peers. Since the politicians and businesspeople will not learn it because it doesn't drive the economies, and because Esperanto and Interlingua strive to be ultimately NPOV culture-wise, I can't see why these languages would appeal to a large, diversified population anyway. It makes me sad, because, I love learning these languages, and I'd hate to see them never get to expand their population of speakers.--Ikiroid 22:43, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, Esperanto and Interlingua would probably not be considered "NPOV culture-wise", since the vocabulary is generally mainly taken from different Western European languages. The alternative would be to take some vocabulary from random large languages, (which basically would make the languages equally difficult and little accessible for everyone) or, like Lojban, having a computer merge words with the same meaning from different languages into a "general form". The two latter approaches are more neutrally, but they are probably less accessible to a lot of people than those Euroclones... 81.232.72.148 20:41, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes interlingua is culturally oriented but the powerful advantage is its simplicity, accesibility and that there are more speakers of the combined languages of  Brazillian(Portuguese), Spanish (Latin America), French(Africa) than Chinese(?), Hindi(India ?). It is simple but is perfect for people who don't have the time to learn languages. Perfect for kids. Perfect for as a practical living language that you can actually use if you need to live in a Spanish speaking country, Italian or Portuguese(Brazilian). If people are planning to learn Latin, interlingua could help them as an intermediary step. Also, the root words used hardly or have no changes from real languages. When the tenses changes it reflects the tenses of the romance languages.--Jondel 00:24, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Language Superiority/Simplicity