Esperanto - yay or nay?

[Tom S. Fox]

Hello! I would like to know whether you have heard of the language Esperanto and what you think about it.

Saluton! Mi volus scii, ĉu vi aŭdis pri la lingvo Esperanto, kaj kion vi pensas pri ĝi.

[MrBogosity]

It's just another government failure. You can't enforce things like language from the top down, not even with a bad William Shatner movie.

[Tom S. Fox]

What does it have to do with the government?

[Andy120290]

I have never heard of Esperanto before, but a quick trip Wikipedia calls it a "constructed international auxiliary language." Interesting concept inventing a new language. Although with the proliferation of the English language as the world's most common native and second language, it seems kind of pointless.

Despite that, I fail to see how it qualifies as a government failure since it is not even recognized as an official language in any country.

[Tom S. Fox]

Although with the proliferation of the English language as the world's most common native and second language, it seems kind of pointless.

Actually, English is not nearly as common as many people like to think.

[Andy120290]

Actually, English is not nearly as common as many people like to think.

I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Chinese is almost certainly one of the most common, but that is simply becuse China is the most heavily populated country. What I probably should have said is that English is one of the most common, but that does not mean a majority of the world's population has even a basic understanding of it.

[Tom S. Fox]

Exactly. Also, Esperanto has some advantages over English.
For example no irregular verbs, and words are actually pronounced the way they are spelled.

[MrBogosity]

What does it have to do with the government?

Well, the UN, actually, a collection of governments.

[Tom S. Fox]

OK, how are they related to Esperanto?

[MrBogosity]

They tried to make it the official language for diplomats to use when communicating with each other. It didn't work.

[Tom S. Fox]

Are you sure? I never heard of that before!

[Andy120290]

Yeah, but Esperanto was created decades before the UN was.

[Tom S. Fox]

That's true! Also, as far as I know, the UN never considered using Esperanto so far, and why would it not work, anyway?

[Andy120290]

I cannot find anything saying the UN has seriously adopted, or even considered adopting, Esperanto as a language. Although there are some advocates who say it might be a good idea. Do you have a specific citation for your claim?

[Tom S. Fox]

I have seen it explicitly stated somewhere that the UN never considered it, but I can't find it at the moment.