Reply #10: Igil/eagle -answers: Volapuk not eurocentric,.. [View All]

[oscar111]

Well, humor and subtle secondary meanings are a small price to pay to gain major savings in human time... the time now wasted in foreign lang classes, in translating books et, and waste that comes from hindrances to the fast spread of good ideas worldwide.

Not to mention the suffering of those stuck in foreign language classes. I know all about that! Totally unnecessary human pain. What rubbish! Knowing 2O ways to say "chair" is a waste of time.
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backtracking into your essay .. you speak of "two different things".

1.Can express

vs 2. Can be equipped to express.

Seems to me if a lang. can do it in the future, it has the potential this very instant. So no big difference. No fiction about it. You will need better evidence to convert the worlds linguists of your opposing view on SapirWhorf.

Dialect problem will disappear as the net, et, make the world one.
Besdes, better to have one lang. shooting off dialects a while, than the current scene of thousands of langs shooting off dialects.

Dear correspondent, you expressed no compassion for those now suffering because of human poverty, which would decrease with the efficiency gains of a world language. You focused on how good "subtle humor" is, something only possible with the current babble of tongues.

Dear correspondent, pls focus your thoughts on how multilangs lead to inefficiency and inefficiency makes poverty worse.

With 9 million starving, we can ill afford any inefficiency.

I agree with you about the desirability of using an existing language. But, as you say, getting all to agree on that would be hard. A new second lang. would be easier.