Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mithridates]

I have two artificial languages that I like and support by writing content on their wikis and translating stuff here and there. I'm curious what the average person thinks of the two though, so I'll give a simple introduction to the two here. And no, "they both suck" isn't an option because I'm only looking at comparing the two to each other in a void; in other words you have a gun to your head and have to pick one.

I should also mention that there are hundreds of possible candidates for a good auxiliary language, but that these are the only two I've considered worthy of support. The goal of any IAL of course is to serve as a bridge between at least two people that don't speak each others language, in the same was that English is often used today. They don't have any delusions of being able to replace English, but that's no reason not to make an effort. I myself know a number of people that I've only talked to in these languages, and their English isn't all that good, nor do I know any Finnish / Polish etc. so those are the only languages we use when communicating.

Now that that's established, let's begin.

Language number one: Ido

Language one goes by the name of Ido. The language comes from the term Esperantido, which means 'child of Esperanto' as it's a reformed version of the language. Back in 1907 the language was created by people who thought that Esperanto had too many flaws to be a world language or even a serious contender, and since the Esperanto community didn't want to reform they had to change the name. At present Ido has a community of about 1500 speakers (yes, I've carried on a conversation only in Ido for two hours before so it works just fine), a Wikipedia with over 13,000 articles, a Wiktionary with over 53,000 entries, a number of journals, places to use it, and a gathering every year in Europe to practice the language, which will be in Berlin this year. Ido often looks like French, Italian or Spanish to anyone that doesn't know those languages, and it has a large propaedeutic value in that way (ie it helps one learn those languages due to being closely related).

Now here's what it looks like (this paragraph is on prostitution in China):

[mithridates]

Oh yeah, and let's move this to off-topic please.

[Demophobe]

Come on mith.

You really expect people to have a preference between to obscure, fictional languages that they probably don't know, and probably don't care at all about seeing as they are effectively useless?

It's great you enjoy languages and learn new ones like a child (that's a compliment!), but I think this post is just gloating.

To answer your question:

I prefer English.

Edit: This was intended to be an extension of a laugh I had with mith a while back. It was incredibly unsuccessful.

[mithridates]

[inkoreaforgood]

Edited: Sorry for my semi-knee jerk response as well.



Mith, I have no preference in either language. The first reminds me of a slavic language, while the second leaves me with the impression of Spanish. It's all good.

[some waygug-in]

I vote for number 2 because it's so close to Spanish that I can understand it easily.

It would take a bit of study for me to get a handle on number 1, but number 2 I can pretty much read it as is.

[Demophobe]

Don't take yourselves so seriously boys.

[Corporal]

I voted for the second one--it seemed easier to follow. Plus it looks nicer.

[Tiger Beer]

[thebum]

[flotsam]

[MorgolKing]

I voted Ido purely on the merits that it looks more artificial and unlike other known languages--therefore cooler.

[thebum]

[Woland]

Gotta say, Mith, number two is easier, but that may be from my knowing Spanish, plus a bit of Fench and Italian. It also has the advantage of a cute instructor in the comic book heroine.

The creator of Esperanto was Polish, right, Mith? That may explain some of the Slavic influence that Flotsam is seeing. I don't notice it that much; it seems overwhelmed by Romance.

I'm waiting for someone to create an artificial language that uses tones. After all, I've heard somewhere that most of the world's languages are tone or pitch accent languages. It's only chance that all the Indo-European languages (the sources of all these artificial tongues) except two that I know of miss that boat.

[flotsam]