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The fact that one can read Tom Jones or Tristam Shandy without too much trouble, except an occasional trip to the dictionary (I am speaking of the grammar of the the language thereto) puts the lie to your assertion. Informed readers today have the advantage of having experienced 250-year-old (and newer, and older) English. We can see the connection across the centuries through the intermediates we've experienced. I'd be curious to see how well a reader from Fielding's era - the middle of the 18th Century - would cope with a Michael Crichton novel. Agreed that the underlying grammar has changed but little, but the poor fellow would be lost when it came to virtually every other aspect of the language he'd find there.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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but the poor fellow would be lost when it came to virtually every other aspect of the language he'd find there.
Moreso from the style of writing and the concepts of this age I'd say.
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Sure. Our modern language serves our modern needs. We actively change it to serve our needs, and that's the whole point behind my opinion of why esperanto is a failure as a general language: it is imposed upon us.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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my opinion of why esperanto is a failure as a general language: it is imposed upon us. Hey--you just might be on to something there, IMHO.
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The fact that one can read Tom Jones or Tristam Shandy without too much trouble Which I am, to my surprise, able to do with A Clockwork Orange . But I see that for some reason, Burgess' absolutely new words haven't become common... "Malenky"; "ptista", etc.: 
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What's the use of translating Shakespeare, Chaucer, Tolstoy, any great litterature to Esperanto, when all those great writers are translated into practically all languages of the world? For the same reason all the other languages have translated those texts, Cultural perspective. Ideas are sometimes translated more coherently in ones own lingo. Who's to say Esperanto doesn't generate it's own cultural Identity? I suppose it does. But it seems so limited in spite of this effort to create a language accessible to everyone.
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Imperial imposition of a common language has been tried - unsuccessfully - time and time again The population of Great Britain is overwhelmingly of British or Irish/Scottish stock. The language spoken by the vast majority of those people is a Germanic language imposed on them by a relatively small number of roughly fifth century invaders. Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romansch, all languages descended from Latin and spoken by people who are not, largely, the descendants of Romans. This Latin was imposed on them by the Roman Empire. If Esperanto is ever "imposed" on anyone it will be by voluntary vote of the people on whom it is imposed not by imperial conquest by the dread armies of Esperantujo.
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dread armies of Esperantujo.
The signs in the TV series Red Dwarf are in Esperanto. Those dread armies got into space.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Putting Latin as being 'imposed' on the countries you name seems a little too simple. I guess it was learned as second language, much like most parts of the world learn English in our days.
Then it developed into Italian itself like into French, Spanish etc. and Latin was kept intact in Church and in scientific language .(more or less like this) The essence of Esperanto is its strive for peace.But.
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Putting Latin as being 'imposed' on the countries you name seems a little too simple. I guess it was learned as second language, much like most parts of the world learn English in our days. It may have started as a second language, but it certainly supplanted any native language as a mother tongue. It wouldn't have gotten there without the imperial ambitions of the Roman state.
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