Re highjacking: I do realise that this is supposed to be a forum on fishing, and since I know nothing about that (although I did once catch a mackerel [scomber trachurus?] as a teenager), I have refrained from comment. Re comments from the gallery: One wonders why those with scant factual knowledge of Esperanto don't do likewise! ;-) The Swiss psychotherapist Piron wrote in 1995 about such psychological reactions to Esperanto in:
http://esperantic.org/ced/psyres.htm
Peter's statistics are probably correct, and looked at from that angle I willingly admit that Esperanto might be judged a "failure" (whatever that means) compared to other languages. But obviously that is an unfair comparison of apples with oranges etc. and fails to take into account some important facts, viz.
- Esperanto [Eo] has rarely had the backing of any state, with all the state apparatus, economic weight, ready-made population, military/commercial might etc.
- Eo was begun by one man in 1887, has been supported mainly by individuals, and now has organized national associations in 62 countries and individual members in twice as many countries, and most larger urban centres (exc. mainly in islamic areas, apart from Iran)
- Eo almost made it into the League of Nations but was sabotaged by the French, intent on promoting another language. Guess which one!
- many speakers of Eo suffered persecution and death under both Stalin and Hitler, who both perceived the language as a threat
- the metric system was introduced in France in 1795 still is not used world-wide. Is this then a failure?
[To keep it short, see this if interested in more facts:
http://www.uea.org/info/angle/an_ghisdatigo.html ]
Viewed in this light, Esperanto appears rather as a remarkable success story.
It looks as if books such as Robert Phillipson's "English-only Europe?" and "Linguistic Imperialism" haven't hit the bookstores in the UK yet! Most Esperanto-speakers are interested in promoting general language awareness and in issues such as those to be addressed at the World Social Forum 2006: "Another Language is Possible: Linguistic Democracy, Cultural Diversity, and Linguistic Human Rights"; the realism of the 'pie-in-the-sky' EU education policy of "mother tongue + two languages" for all pupils; Eo as a realistic and rational improvement on the EU's 20+ languages approach, etc. None of this can be properly discussed without adequate prior factual information.
Esperanto is just as useful as you like to make it. Even some British language teachers see this:
http://www.springboard2languages.org/home.htm
I have not knowlingly met any speakers of Mongolian, but that doesn't lead me to deny its existence or usefulness. Nor do I conclude from the (right peculiar!) interest in fishing that all Britishers are poverty-stricken and starving and forced to fish in order to survive.
By the way, to Woody bach: I'm not familiar with "Flemmish". Is that related to Flemish at all?
Pardon the rant! Happy fishing!
mankso