Friday, May 14, 2004, 21:43 GMT
How effective is Lojban in studying the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? I've been interested in the concept of a truly culture-neutral language for a long time, and this is about as close as it gets.
Esperanto is easy to learn - unless you're not familiar with Latin and German-based sounds and roots! And Volapük is a tragedy all its own....
Because of Esperanto's cultural bias toward Indo-European sounds, it was destined to be eternally ineffective as a means of internationally spoken communication. Don't get me wrong, though! I know Esperanto fluently and find it quite interesting - but it's still ineffective.
Lojban is the closest thing I've seen yet to a culturally neutral language because I don't think the creators used any existing languages as a base. This makes it impossible to really have a "Lojban accent" and makes the words open for different sound interpretations.
Agreements? Disagreements? Anything is welcome - I just want some outside feedback on this idea. Hardly anybody really knows Lojban.
Esperanto is easy to learn - unless you're not familiar with Latin and German-based sounds and roots! And Volapük is a tragedy all its own....
Because of Esperanto's cultural bias toward Indo-European sounds, it was destined to be eternally ineffective as a means of internationally spoken communication. Don't get me wrong, though! I know Esperanto fluently and find it quite interesting - but it's still ineffective.
Lojban is the closest thing I've seen yet to a culturally neutral language because I don't think the creators used any existing languages as a base. This makes it impossible to really have a "Lojban accent" and makes the words open for different sound interpretations.
Agreements? Disagreements? Anything is welcome - I just want some outside feedback on this idea. Hardly anybody really knows Lojban.