As a biologist, I have always noted the almost perfect parallel between human language and organic evolution. Both seem to follow the same rules, at least on superficial inspection.
What we call
evolution should be better called
degradation. I need more lines to explain my idea, but this is an entirely other subject. Let's jump to the concept of "entropy".
The total entropy may well increase, but it does not prevent it to decrease locally.
The "evolution" of languages was chiefly caused by
illiteracy and
isolation. Esperanto speakers are far from being illiterates, and they are no longer isolated in our global village. Their common characteristic is that they are respectful of their diversity, and are careful to protect the consistency of the language. Esperanto evolves, but inside some fixed rules. In fact, there are significantly less rules in Esperanto than in other languages.
Esperantists are striving to decrease the entropy, and not only in the language area.
More about
evolution.My comment was a way of saying that compared to the natural evolution of other languages to their present states, Esperanto seems, well - is - artificial.
As Esperanto rules are based on natural languages, it is difficult to define
objective criteria to measure its "artificiality". To an impartial observer, Esperanto may well look like a language that evolved further than any others, like they all should if parents praised their children for their mistakes instead of correcting them.
As to your other point, I'll take your word for it that there are a great and increasing number of speakers of Esperanto, but I'll offer that none have it as their sole, native language.
According to some guestimates, there would be around two thousands "native speakers". I had the occasion to meet some of them. They are not significantly different from other speakers. One observed that they usually spoke Esperanto better than their parents, what is surprising only at the first sight. As Esperanto is considered as a non-language, the children speaking it feel discriminated and they tend to hide that they know Esperanto. I even met one who understood Esperanto quite well, but could not speak it any longer. My impression is that those native speakers later switch to the language used in the community where they live and study. This language become their primary language. The same phenomenon occurs with other languages than Esperanto.
It seems more a useful hobby than one of the world's languages.
It usually starts as a hobby. Thereafter one makes some contacts and the circle becomes larger.
On the other hand, I will not take your word for it that Esperanto is growing as fast as any other natural language. [...]
Klingon is growing even faster: from 1 to 20 in 5 years. Esperanto from 100 to 2 million in 100 years, in spite of two world wars.
In absolute numbers, of course, Chinese is growing even faster than English.
More about
numbers.
Remuŝ
