On Wed, 28 May 2008, Klaus Dieckmann wrote:
> "Paul Bartlett" wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> Most adult English speakers have a terrible difficulty pronouncing /y/
>> (German 'ü', French 'u') correctly.
>
> The next generation of European-Speakers, their children, will be able
to
> pronounce correctly all the phonems which are difficult to English
speakers
> of today.
If I recall correctly, the linguist Mario Pei wrote in the 1950s in his
book "One Language for the World" that, approximately, all languages
are equally easy to acquire for small children. The real issue is how a
constructed international auxiliary language comes to be adopted in the
beginning. In the beginning most learners/users will be adults, for
whom a foreign phonology will be a difficulty and a problem, impeding
acceptance and use of the language.
>> I suggest that for a constructed international auxiliary language the
>> vowel scheme be kept relatively simple. Vowels are tricky for most
>> adult learners of another language.
>
> The English vowel system is the trickyist (?) of Europa. It is a horror.
Yes, the English vowel system is difficult. My dialect of English has
16(!) vowel sounds (counting phonemic diphthongs). However, I do not
see a need for a constructed international auxiliary language to have
so many vowel sounds. If Lingua Eurana is to be truly European, I
speculate that not all European-speakers (and not just anglophones)
will find its vowel system to be easy.
>> I find it odd that the language has an indefinite article but no
>> definite article. Usually (as in classical Greek, Ido, and Esperanto),
>> it is the other way around.
>
> This is another way of using an article. Why using the old paths?
However, why not consider what has been historically effective? I
myself would find it far easier to have a definite article but not an
indefinite, rather than the other way around.
--
Paul Bartlett
|
