Re: [ox-en] language and culture (was: Free Software -> Librewareor Liberation Software

• From: "B. Fallenstein" <b.fallenstein gmx.de>
• Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 01:20:18 +0100

Graham Seaman wrote:

On Sun, 16 Dec 2001 sjhs freeshell.org wrote:

Paroli Esperanton estas certe solvo.  Sed estas malfacila lerni cxiu
persono kaj konservi sencon.
_______________________

My grandfather knew Esperanto; my wife's father too. Because of that
I thought it was an idea from the past which had it's chance and didn't
take off (and I had the impression it wasn't helpful for non-European
language speakers).
I just went to look at http://www.esperanto.net and found both those
impressions were wrong....

Hm, the first and only time I looked closely at Esperanto I was repelled
by it not having a gender-neutral pronoun, but reproducing male
dominance as well as the male/female dichtonomy. To me, it seems an
artificial language should *really* solve this problem if it wants to be
considered worthwhile.

I tried a web search on Esperanto and "gender neutral," but it didn't
turn out too much. Can anybody tell me what's the current state of the
discussion there? Have Esperanto-speaking people developed and adopted
gender-neutral forms?

Frankly, I'm not very interested in learning Esperanto if it just means
struggling with patriarchial structures in yet another language. It may
take longer, but still I'd rather pick up Finnish and learn a language
that works without the gender marking garbage.

Just my 0.02 ?.
- Benja
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/

• References:
  • Re: [ox-en] language and culture (was: Free Software -> Libreware or Liberation Software
    • From: Graham Seaman

• Next in thread: Re: [ox-en] Free time (was: Re: Free administration)
• Previous in thread: Re: [ox-en] language and culture (was: Free Software -> Libreware or Liberation Software
• First in thread: [ox-en] Collective Consciousness
• Last in thread: [ox-en] another interesting essay: Benkler: Coase's Penguin
• Previous thread: [ox-en] Interview with Stefan Merten, Nov 2001
• Next thread: [ox-en] Liberte', E'galite', Fraternite' (Free Software ideology)
• Next by Date: Re: [ox-en] Brave GNU World
• Prev by Date: Re: [ox-en] Brave GNU World