Does anyone know Esperanto?

I would try PM’ing either @cyndihugs or @Arp since they are both currently in the process of learning Esperanto.

removed by me

I would say “via lingvo estas tre bela” or “Via lingvo estas mirinda” (marvellous)
If you need more help, ask me at http://twitter.com/tonyodb

What exactly is Esperanto and what is it’s purpose?

it’s an attempt at a simplified, easy to learn, manmade language that was supposed to enhance the ease of communication.

@laureth isn’t all language man-made?

@simone54 It’s considered one of the easiest languages to learn and because of that, it was created to be a universal language. It was created to stop the death of native languages that is occurring because English is becoming so powerful all over the world. It was a language created to say “No one language is better than any other”.

@Dr_C – Yes, all language is manmade, but most of the time it goes through ages and ages of drift, evolution, growth, and change. Esperanto was one that someone (essentially) sat down and created, by design rather than happenstance.

Sounds like Italian

@Dr_C It’s a made-up language, like Klingon. As opposed to a naturally-forming and evolving language like English or Spanish.

Via lingvo estas bela :)

@MrItty & @laureth I’m not disputing that Esperanto was a made-up language and that it has a limited history (hence no evolutionary factor as far as tone, inflection or mannerisms that can be ascribed to it originally).

What I am saying is that any and all languages, regardless of their history, cultural impact, evolution and eventual assimilation of cultural shift are man-made.

@Dr_C – Yes. We have no dispute about that. Was there more significance to this point (to where it bears mentioning) that I’m missing, though?

@laureth oh no! absolutely no more significance whatsoever. The phrase just stuck out to me.

“Your language is beautiful.”

= “Via lingvo estas bela.” (a more-or-less word-for-word translation)
= “Via lingvo belas.” (with “is beautiful” as a verb, sort of like saying “Your language beautifuls”)

Esperanto is pretty flexible with word order, so you can also say:

“Bela estas via lingvo”
“Estas bela lingvo via”
“Via lingvo bela estas”
“Belas via lingvo”
“Belas lingvo via”

etc, as your needs dictate (e.g., the accent always falls on the second-last syllable, so some have a more melodic sound than others).

One thing that few outside the Esperanto community realize is that Esperanto started out artificial (“planned” is more accurate, since, as Dr. C points out, all languages are artificial), but was soon released to the public, forever free to grow and evolve. In the ensuing years of constant use in every facet of life, it became a real, complete, living, natural language, on par with any other in every respect, without losing any of its logic or simplicity. It’s just much easier to learn, even if you don’t speak a European language.

I can speak Esperanto.