Ce que nous appelons une rose by any other name akan bau wangi, pt II

I like languages.

In particular, I am fond of French (have been studying it for four years, Norwegian (can't understand a word, can pronounce written text fairly accurately), and Dutch (ik hou van der Nederlandse taal and yes I had to use Google Translate to come up with that). And English is always good for poking around in the linguistic end of things; but in terms of pure fascination, nothing except maybe Russian. And Basque. Because nobody but Russians and the Basque understand Russian and Basque beats a constructed language. There's all this debate about humans deluding themselves that they are God by taking other people's lives in their hands, or daring to synthesize new life--how come there isn't a single murmur over the slow, systematic resurrection of the Tower of Babel?

Don't get me wrong, mind. I'm not saying that there should be a big fuss over the creation of new languages. In fact, I think it's wonderful that there are attempts being made to bridge the linguistic divide. Lack of a common means of discourse is quite possibly the number one obstacle behind world peace, because interpreters are only human and subtle shades of meaning are inevitably lost in the shift from one language to another. The creation of a universal "second language", to be learnt after and in complement to one's native tongue, is an admirable goal. I do not think it will ever be accomplished but it is nevertheless an admirable goal to strive for.

And in light of that, here is the Lord's prayer in four different constructed languages and one natural, arranged roughly by level of popularity--but with English last because I would like to challenge the reader to make some sense of the transcriptions before reading the actual text. (Hint: It helps if you know a Romance language such as Spanish or French. Like srsly. They're all totally Eurocentric here.)

Esperanto:

Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉielo,
sanktigata estu Via nomo.
Venu Via regno.
Fariĝu Via volo,
kiel en la ĉielo, tiel ankaŭ sur la tero.
Nian panon ĉiutagan donu al ni hodiaŭ.
Kaj pardonu al ni niajn ŝuldojn,
kiel ankaŭ ni pardonas al niaj ŝuldantoj.
Kaj ne konduku nin en tenton,
sed liberigu nin de la malbono.

Interlingua:

Nostre Patre, qui es in le celos,
que tu nomine sia sanctificate;
que tu regno veni;
que tu voluntate sia facite
super le terra como etiam in le celo.
Da nos hodie nostre pan quotidian,
e pardona a nos nostre debitas
como nos pardona a nostre debitores,
e non duce nos in tentation,
sed libera nos del mal.

Ido:

Patro nia, qua esas en la cielo,
tua nomo santigesez;
tua regno advenez;
tua volo facesez
quale en la cielo tale anke sur la tero.
Donez a ni cadie l'omnidiala pano,
e pardonez a ni nia ofensi,
quale anke ni pardonas a nia ofensanti,
e ne duktez ni aden la tento,
ma liberigez ni del malajo.

English:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.

Out of the four above, I'd have to say my favourite is Interlingua, most probably because it is the one that resembles French the most. Esperanto has a bit of an alien feel to it (WTF did they get the little hats circonflexes from anyways?) and Ido is like the poor man's Esperanto (hatless, as it were), but Interlingua strikes a fine balance between familiarity and WTF is going on here. Could I learn it? Probably. Could you? Eh, probably. As stated before the odds are in your favour if you have some experience of a Romance language beforehand. However, these languages were constructed precisely so people from many varying linguistic backgrounds could come together underneath a single system of speech and writing. I'm pretty sure it's feasible.

What I find most telling, though--and perhaps a little touching--, is that the word "Esperanto" literally means "hopeful". Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof was a Russian-Jewish ophthalmologist whose childhood in the culturally segregated town of Bialystok inspired him to create a Lingwe uniwersala that would, he decided, foster harmony between cultures and bring the world closer together. There is something fresh about his language. It has today about 300 000 speakers, which may not exactly fulfill the criteria for total world domination  "universal second language" quite yet, it's the one with the best chance, and I solemnly salute the dedication of the many towards this dream of a more open future.

Now if only it were to get rid of those stupid hats.

~Mnem