TalonAlright, listen up. I see a lot of discussion getting way too heated because you've got people with perfect English on one side, and people just struggling to get themselves understood in a language they don't speak well on the other, and then both sides just don't get what the other is saying and then things explode. I've seen this so, so many times. And honestly all this tells me is that it's really, really easy for English speaking people to think that since we have a lot of good English speakers on the internet, or that that is the bubble they always find themselves in, that everybody does. And this is so very much not the case and y'all should be careful. You're making enemies you don't necessarily have to make just because you don't consider that the person on the other side can't express themselves clearly and is just doing the best they can.
English is really difficult. I get words wrong all the time. I don't know what different common phrases mean sometimes. Sometimes I'll say something weird and I thought it meant one thing when it meant another. English is *not* my first language. I'd consider myself to be relatively good at expressing myself in it, but I'm not perfect. Far from it. Add to this that some people just struggle expressing themselves in general. It's really hard to tell just how well someone speaks the language just by reading some text, because we potentially have a lot of time to think things through before we post, or even paste it into a grammar and spell checker before we do.
das-g@talon If only there was a language just as expressive as English, but easier & faster to learn as a foreign language, because it was designed with that goal. A language with a flow just as natural as most ethnic languages, but with much more regular & much simpler grammar & with a modular vocabulary that helps you understand even words & terms you don't yet know. A language that is (while not a perfectly level playing field) no country's & no people's property, nor that of any group of …
@talon … countries or peoples, but belonging to all of Humanity. A language that has proven its usability not just for efficient communication and fair discourse, but also for art and culture, for fiction, poetry, song lyrics and most other genres of literature for now already over 135 years. A language that despite its unchangeable core (which prevents schisms in a globally dispersed speakership) has proven its ability to evolve and adapt to new developments, circumstances and sentiments.
@talon A language that, despite being a planned one, is (itself, not extending to all works in it) free of "intellectual property" claims such as copyright, patents & trademarks, & thus open to be learned and used by anyone. A language with a phonetic orthography & simple, completely regular pronunciation rules. A language drawing a majority of its morphemes from other languages in widespread use, so you are likely to recognize some of them—without pulling in those other languages' complications
Such a language already exists. It's name is #Esperanto.
It's not perfect, far from it even. But it's still incredibly good in the aspects stated above, & overall much better than most alternatives for international & global communication, such as
• everyone learning Latin
• everyone learning French
• everyone learning English
• everyone learning Mandarin
• using "AI"-powered automatic translation for everything
And it's not out to replace native languages. Not at all. Being relatively easy to learn, it even leaves more time to tend to them.
@das_g that does sound similar to the beginning of quite a few conlangs I'd assume. Languages like that I'd imagine are quite hard to make, especially because languages aren't static. They always change and evolve. That's why language is so inherently messy. Right? Everything that grows and evolves naturally seems to have a certain level of chaos to it.
@talon AFAIK, most #conlang|s aren't being actively used, many not even by their creators. Quite some aren't even intended for everyday use, but rather for fiction (to appear in fiction, not to author fiction in them), for the entertainment of creating them, or other purposes. Some aren't easy to learn, some not easy & natural to use, some lack expressive power or nuance. And not all conlangs are free of "intellectual property" claims. Only few have been used uninterrupted for over a century.