@valhalla @kinkkong, this make sense! But even better would be to use a language that is even more neutral, not just "second" in some small countries.

There is #Esperanto - a constructed language that belongs to no specific nation but to whole humankind. Much easier to learn and use, while fully capable of expressing wide range of things. Already works for usual people, and with small additional development it will work fully even in high profile EU political context.

@Pare @valhalla @kinkkong, it makes more sense. Europe needs a mutual language to unite, and that will not happen using a national language of one of the big members.

Better would be even more neutral language, like #Esperanto, as it belongs to no specific nation (not even some competitor nation, like English does), so it can unite people and nations of Europe.

Hi @kinkkong! We are dedicated to diversity and multilingualism. However, this particular social media page is in English because, for practical reasons, it is not feasible to do it in all 24 official EU languages.

You could consider checking out the pages run by our colleagues in the EU Representations in the Member States, which are available for every country and in every EU language. Find out more here: link.europa.eu/dhBrwm

Why not #Latin? It has several advantages:

1. It is the base for may European languages and left impressions on all the others.

2. It has been proven to work as an auxiliary language historically as well as contemporarily (Vatican).

3. Many pupils already have to learn it all around Europe for no good reason. It would give a meaning to common practice.

4. Its complicated grammar would make Esperanto look even more desirable.

Your fourth argument is quite funny 😆.

And also the extremely complicated relation between how one writes and how one pronounces English should make #Esperanto desirable.

The cost of learning a common language would decrease a lot! And also the number of people with a good level in the common language.

Currently, lots of young people study the English language in Europe, but many of them are not able to reach a good enough level.

@proedie I prefer Celtic. 😎

@kubofhromoslav @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission @kinkkong

@proedie @Pare @valhalla @kinkkong, I learnt both #Esperanto and #Latin and I confirm that Latin's complicated grammar makes Esperanto even more desirable 😅

In short, despite its many cool features, especially historic significance, Latin is just too hard for masses. We definitely can have an inteligencia layer fluent in Latin, but it would do little to unite Europe.

@benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission, couple of reasons.

English is not super neutral. Indeed, a bit in EU (only in 2 quite small countries), but definitely not on the world stage.

English's role is *national* communication. International use blends it.

English is unnecessary hard to use. Good for national communication, but for international one, and unification of Europe, we need a language that masses can use comfortably.

@benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission, it doesn't make sense to use language that is hard, or even harder than it could be. For masses we need a language that is *easy* to learn and use, while being fully capable. So, equally easy for everyone.

Such language is a nice hypothetical exercise, but doesn't exist. Esperanto is closer to that from what I know.

@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @valhalla I started studying English 40 years ago, with many years of lessons at school every week, let's say for 10 years. Then I kept on using it almost every day, attending also many conferences.

I started studying Esperanto 10 years ago by myself, with just a tenth of lesson via e-mail by a professor, and I use it when I have the chance to.

My level for the two languages is almost the same!

Yes, English is MUCH harder than Esperanto!

@benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla (2 months intensive study, 22 months of mostly using on internet) I get to same level as in English in 15 years of school learning.

Clear difference 😎

@benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla is pretty regular and designed for ease of use. Eg. you can learn couple of prefixes and suffixes (eg. "mal-" means opposite) to create a lot g other words just from 1 root.

Eg. bona = good, mal-bona = bad, bon-ulo = good person, bon-ega = great, etc.

I remember when I was new to Esperanto and tried to ask where is the canteen, using my own word created this way. And it was the official word! 😍

@kubofhromoslav @benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
Heck yeah. Esperanto was specifically created so that even if you've never seen a particular word before there is still some chance you can figure it out from roots, prefixes, and suffixes. And, as pointed out, it strives for regularity.

I've never studied it seriously, but when I see Esperanto it's kind of like a game for me to unravel what it means. And you can get surprisingly close a lot of the time.

@kubofhromoslav @benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
I just had a great example!

Ich kann nur ein bischen Deutsche, and I just came across the word 'einsehbar' - new to me, but I recognize 'sehen', and I know that '-bar' sagt dass etwas fähig ist. I'm not sure how adding 'ein-' affects the meaning, but I was able to keep reading, knowing that I was being told where I could go see the thing.

Esperanto says "what if that, but everywhere?".

@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
Ah, thanks! In this case it was a link to the journal paper that the article was about, so "you can look into" makes 100% sense.

And I'm pretty sure the Esperanto would be 'envidebla':

en- = 'ein-'
-vid-, from 'vidi' = to see
-ebl- = '-bar'/'able to' (Yeah, Esperanto's nicer to you if your native tongue is a Romance language than Germanic.)
-a = adjective ending.

(I'm happy to be corrected by serious Esperanto speakers.

@benny @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission, there definitely are some occasions when Esperanto speakers translate too directly from their native language and others are wondering what it means. That tends to disappear when speakers have contact from other Esperantists from different language families.

I still hear / read it sometimes, but rarely.

@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
I was wondering that too. My guess is that it's similar to the difference in English between 'see' and 'look at' respectively. Heck, doesn't French have both 'voir' and 'regarder'?

And my understanding is that even though it's rather informal, German has 'kucken' in addition to 'sehen'?

@kubofhromoslav
@benny
I second that:
Esperanto is *by far* easier to learn than English.

You wrote of "a planned language equally hard for everyone to learn".

Or equally (relatively) easy to learn, like Esperanto.

Look up "Paderborner Methode" on Wikipedia:
It's been around 50 years now that in this scientific experiment with different school classes, was found out that pupils who learned Esperanto *first* were mostly able to learn additional (European) languages easier and significantly faster than those who *only* learned the European language, without learning Esperanto.

50 years - and there's still an active recommendation by the UN to offer Esperanto lessons in all schools in Europe - ignored ever since, despite its advantages!

@proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission

@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
Heh, that's basically my Esperanto experience too.

I'm guessing that when you say "constant repetition" for English that means that there was lots of content around, and lots of stuff you wanted access to that required English. (Computer stuff? Entertainment?)

And Esperanto just does not have that vast, high-demand content (at least now). ....

@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
... and that constant exposure is how people really absorb language. So it's definitely true that Esperanto is *much* better structured than English, but as you demonstrate, content beats grammar.

As a native English speaker I've benefited a lot from English languages hegemony, but I can't pretend English isn't an absolute mess.

@benny @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla
I've said that if you study two out of Spanish, French, and Italian you get the third one almost for free.

I think if you've studied Spanish and English, and are a native German speaker, I think you get Esperanto for free. 😄

@benny @kubofhromoslav @jztusk @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla ‘Vid’ means ‘see’ and ‘rigard’ means ‘look’. An invisible person is ‘ne·vid·ebl·a’, since you can’t see them even if you’re looking at them. (Inversely, you could say the sun is ‘vid·ebl·a’ but ‘ne·rigard·ebl·a’, since you can see it but can’t directly look at it. Well, you can, but only once.)

There are countless instances where you could have either few words with very broad meanings to cover many use cases, or a single, more specialised word for each single use case. Both extremes have their advantages and disadvantages, and Esperanto isn’t naturally optimised for one or the other.

@benny @ehrt74 @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla @EUCommission, this is avoiding the root of the problem by a long way!

It is the same logic as saying that women should better cover their body so some horny, aggressive men do not rape them 🤦🏻‍♂️

@ddgulledge @kinkkong @benny @ehrt74 @proedie @Pare @valhalla @wikipedia, ho tio estus mojosa!

Mi komencis kontribui al ĝi en 2007, sed dum lastaj jaroj precipe kontribuas por ĝi per la organizo #VikimedioEO, kiun mi gvidas.

Se oni volas *verki* Vikipedion, oni ne gvidu organizon, kiu helpas al aliaj homoj verki ĝin. Eĉ se tio povas havi pli grandan socian efikon (pri kiu mi mem interesiĝas pli) 😅

@benny
Well, someone does.

m.ai6yr.org/@ai6yr/11615197206…

By the way, try to send a project to the @EUCommission written that way, and see if they approve it.

@ddgulledge @kubofhromoslav @proedie @kinkkong @Pare @valhalla