A Question for Polyglots

[subaru000]

I think I will commit myself to improving my Spanish skills and also try a little of Esperanto just to see where it takes me. This goes to anyone who knows a few languages: practically, which language do you know enables you to say the most with the least amount of words? Esperanto seems to be pretty efficient at adding prefixes and suffixes to completely change the meaning of the word, so that is a reason that it appeals to me.

Thanks for any input.

[Pseudojim]

well yeah i think you hit the nail on the head, esperanto is designed to be super efficient, and it is, it's just that no-one speaks it. It's also been shown to be easier to learn than other languages.

I wouldn't call myself a polyglot, i only speak two languages with any degree of fluency, and little bits of a lot of others, so i can't give you the perspective you're looking for, but if you want something different, i've really enjoyed Farsi and Russian.

[Chandra]

Originally Posted by Pseudojim

well yeah i think you hit the nail on the head, esperanto is designed to be super efficient, and it is, it's just that no-one speaks it.

Yep, pretty much this - Esperanto is logical and consistent, but not very useful for practical purposes because of its limited range.

As for Spanish, it may or may not be more "efficient" than other languages (and in fact, it would be an interesting discussion to figure out exactly what this might mean), but it is fairly easy to learn compared to a lot of others. And certainly a lot more useful, especially if you live in the U.S.

[IsItSo]

Originally Posted by subaru000

...efficient at adding prefixes and suffixes to completely change the meaning of the word...

That's what's called an agglutinative language. Besides Esperanto, some other ones are Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish, Tamil, Zulu, and Malay.

[subaru000]

It sucks that not a lot of people know anything about Esperanto, but its intention makes it worthwhile to study. Every language at one point had a time where founders or pioneers had to make a culture, so Esperanto is no different.

Spanish is a lot more practical, but I am not sure how to strike up conversations with native speakers. So far, I can translate basic conversations that speakers have, but not much else. Summer will be a perfect time to get out there and try to make friends who know Spanish.

[starfish]

I used to be decent at speaking spanish, but I am really out of practice. If I take a moment I can formulate my sentence. I know a few native spanish speakers. I just say something to them in spanish, even just simple phrases.

For example I have a coworker who is Puerto Rican. A lot of times when asking if he wants to go get coffee I'll say "¿Tomar el café?". Not the most grammatically correct sentence, but it is close enough to get the point across.

[Morphim]

If you're up for the challenge, I suggest you learn Finnish.

[Kidd]

I've taken six years of German so far and I'm still trying to get over the learning curve, but my friends and I use it occasionally, most of us have taken it. For some reason I feel more comfortable saying "please" and "thank you" in German than I do English. I almost never say it in English these days. I know this would probably give my professor a heart attack but...sometimes I'll just use German nouns in my English sentences. It's an unholy union I know, but I enjoy it and the point is the same...

I've never heard of Esperanto before, but I kinda want to learn it now.

[Chandra]

Originally Posted by subaru000

It sucks that not a lot of people know anything about Esperanto, but its intention makes it worthwhile to study. Every language at one point had a time where founders or pioneers had to make a culture, so Esperanto is no different.

The thing that the designers of Esperanto didn't account for, though, is that languages change and drift away from "logical" rules through use over time. Even within the very few Esperanto-speaking communities already in existence, dialectical differences have cropped up that don't necessarily follow the original grammar and spelling rules. So even if it did start to catch on in a major way, by the time it got to the point where there were enough people using it for it to be practical, it would probably look very different from what its original designers had intended.

[haelmarie]

Originally Posted by Chandra

The thing that the designers of Esperanto didn't account for, though, is that languages change and drift away from "logical" rules through use over time. Even within the very few Esperanto-speaking communities already in existence, dialectical differences have cropped up that don't necessarily follow the original grammar and spelling rules. So even if it did start to catch on in a major way, by the time it got to the point where there were enough people using it for it to be practical, it would probably look very different from what its original designers had intended.

Also I've heard that it's very "eurocentric" - almost all of the vocabulary is taken for European sources.

I personally have zero desire to ever learn Esperanto.

[UnAmourFatal]

Once you learn Spanish, it makes it ridiculously easy to learn any other romance language, so I'd say French, Portuguese (probably easiest after Spanish), Italian, Romanian. or Esperanto, which, vocabulary-wise would belong here, I think.
As for the benefit of learning it, I'm not quite sure. Apparently, there's a network of Esperanto speakers, who organize events, and some who even offer accomodation for fellow speakers. Other than that, I don't see any point in learning it, only if you'd enjoy learning it, or want to learn other Romance languages. But Spanish is more than enough to easen the process of learning them, so...

Why is vocabulary so important anyways?