it’s not about being similar to French and I don’t know why you think that.
Because (1) the study mentioned in the Grin report was conducted on francophone students and (2) while Esperanto is a proposal for a universal language, its structure and vocabulary are very decidedly European and indeed Romance. It is much more like French than Japanese or Mandarin or Korean, or even Sanskrit. Or, in fact, German.
I’ve learned Esperanto and French and didn’t notice any similarities.
That surprises me. Let’s try a little experiment. Go to the Wikipedia page on Esperanto (selected just because it’s an obvious thing to select, so you know I’m not cherry-picking) and find the first substantial quantity of Esperanto text. It’s this:
En multaj lokoj de Ĉinio estis temploj de la drako-reĝo. Dum trosekeco oni preĝis en la temploj, ke la drako-reĝo donu pluvon al la homa mondo. Tiam drako estis simbolo de la supernatura estaĵo. Kaj pli poste, ĝi fariĝis prapatro de la plej altaj regantoj kaj simbolis la absolutan aŭtoritaton de feŭda imperiestro. La imperiestro pretendis, ke li estas filo de la drako. Ĉiuj liaj vivbezonaĵoj portis la nomon drako kaj estis ornamitaj per diversaj drakofiguroj. Nun ĉie en Ĉinio videblas drako-ornamentaĵoj, kaj cirkulas legendoj pri drakoj.
The very first word (en) has approximately the same spelling, pronunciation and meaning as a French word. This is not a coincidence. The next word doesn’t (I think). The next (lokoj) is in fact cognate with French lieux with the same meaning. Next (de): French also has a word “de” with the same spelling and similar pronunciation, and a closely related meaning. Then Ĉinio; corresponding French is Chine, similar spelling, similar pronunciation. Maybe half the words in this passage have close French cousins. The sentence structures are very similar too. The writing system is almost identical—same repertoire of letters, similar set of accents, more or less the same punctuation.
If you took the same text and wrote it in, say, Tamil, it would be very much more different.
It would be easy to grow Esperanto quickly.
Easy for whom? What’s the actual sequence of events that would lead to it happening?
Becoming the official language of the EU is one plausible avenue
I think we may have different ideas about what constitutes plausibility. I agree it’s possible but I’d put the probability well below 1%.
Sorry, but the idea that Esperanto is somehow only easy for French speakers is plainly wrong. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who has learned it and another language who’ll disagree.
Actually Esperanto is in the same language family as many Asian ones:
Because (1) the study mentioned in the Grin report was conducted on francophone students and (2) while Esperanto is a proposal for a universal language, its structure and vocabulary are very decidedly European and indeed Romance. It is much more like French than Japanese or Mandarin or Korean, or even Sanskrit. Or, in fact, German.
That surprises me. Let’s try a little experiment. Go to the Wikipedia page on Esperanto (selected just because it’s an obvious thing to select, so you know I’m not cherry-picking) and find the first substantial quantity of Esperanto text. It’s this:
The very first word (en) has approximately the same spelling, pronunciation and meaning as a French word. This is not a coincidence. The next word doesn’t (I think). The next (lokoj) is in fact cognate with French lieux with the same meaning. Next (de): French also has a word “de” with the same spelling and similar pronunciation, and a closely related meaning. Then Ĉinio; corresponding French is Chine, similar spelling, similar pronunciation. Maybe half the words in this passage have close French cousins. The sentence structures are very similar too. The writing system is almost identical—same repertoire of letters, similar set of accents, more or less the same punctuation.
If you took the same text and wrote it in, say, Tamil, it would be very much more different.
Easy for whom? What’s the actual sequence of events that would lead to it happening?
I think we may have different ideas about what constitutes plausibility. I agree it’s possible but I’d put the probability well below 1%.
Sorry, but the idea that Esperanto is somehow only easy for French speakers is plainly wrong. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who has learned it and another language who’ll disagree.
Actually Esperanto is in the same language family as many Asian ones:
http://claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm