Achieving the Epiphany 3: Proving Superiority

This has two components, one easy, the other very difficult.

The easy one involves learnability, and as often happens, Esperanto is apparently the only auxlang with hard data in its favor, if only because it's large enough to attract study. Still, anyone familiar with other major auxlangs will probably find them easier to use (at least passively) than natlangs. Indeed, since most major auxlangs were designed for Outcome Neutrality, they allow not just (or primarily) the superficial ease of some natlangs, which are easy to learn at a basic level but nearly impossible to master (English being a case in point); rather, they allow true mastery: near-native fluency. That's a largely auxlang claim, and if you want to be an active user, writing prose or poetry or even just advertising copy, it should matter.

The second component is more intractable: having learned the auxlang, then what? Is it worth using? Jespersen gave a good response in An International Language:

An objection which is often raised against constructed languages is that they can never be as good as natural languages. It is true that our Interlanguage is not as rich as English, not as elegant as French, not as vigorous as German, not as beautiful as Italian, not as full of nuances as Russian, not as "homelike" as our mother-tongue. But note this well, that all these good qualities, which one appreciates and praises in the national languages, are found only when they are spoken or written by natives. And the Interlanguage may very well be richer than the English spoken by a Frenchman, more elegant than French as spoken by a Dane, more vigorous than the German of some Italians, more beautiful than the Italian of the English, more full of nuances than the Russian of Germans, and more homelike than my own tongue spoken by Russians. And as our language is an auxiliary language, it can only be compared fairly with natural languages as spoken by foreigners; and then neither Ido nor Novial need feel ashamed of itself.

I would add that you seldom get the full effect of a natlang even from most native speakers. For really optimal English you must go to a really good poet or prose writer--the elite of the elite. And auxlangs are the same way: not every Esperantist, Idist, etc., will produce language on a par with the auxlang's literary masters. So arguing from optimal use and users is misleading. As Jespersen says, it's non-native use we must consider, and I think the established auxlangs at least have proportionately more non-native masters than English, for example. I'll come back to this later.

This leaves primarily the question of technical jargon--legal and scientific terminology, for example. The legal language would be especially problematic; I'm not sure it's been settled properly for natlangs. Here Interlingua would probably have the advantage: it could largely adopt en bloc whatever was current. Esperanto and Occidental could probably catch up fairly quickly, while the Idists would have to threaten the Linguala Komitato with death by torture to get results in under a century. (No, I don't like the LK; it's the reification of nearly all that is wrong not so much with Ido proper as with its culture: top-down control instead of the regulated user-based kind found in Esperanto.)

Anyway, rant aside, as people begin to realize that auxlangs are easier to master than natlangs, the necessary vocabulary will begin to arise spontaneously. Lexical growth under pressure of external necessity can be very rapid, and ultimately lawyers proliferate faster than they can be humanely trapped and destroyed. They could generate their own solutions as usual.

Achieving the Epiphany 2: Practical Uses

Unsurprisingly, the main practical uses of auxlangs are linguistic. Two are relatively well known:

1. First Foreign Language. Esperanto, at least, (and perhaps other auxlangs) can be learned first to speed and ease language acquisition in general. It's a pity this hasn't been attested for other auxlangs, so far as I know, but then Esperanto's adjectival agreement and accusative marking should be especially helpful for those whose native language lacks such traits.

2. Introduction to "International Vocabulary." Not a strong point for Esperanto, but a long-standing strategy for mainstreaming Interlingua in Scandinavia in particular. Instead of learning isolated roots, students can learn roots in a more organic, natural context. This could also be done with Occidental and, to a lesser extent, Lingua Franca Nova. For that matter, Sambahsa could be used for learning western roots in general (and some non-western ones, too), though perhaps at a higher level of abstraction than a beginner would find useful.

There are other possibilities as well. I would suggest Ido for people wanting to learn about linguistic precision--not as jarring as Loglan, for example.

Dave MacLeod has occasionally advocated starting a news site in Occidental or Interlingua. I think (cynically) that a celebrity-gossip site would do better, but using an at-sight language for some kind of information clearinghouse is probably a good idea.

It might also be useful to provide a translation of a European or Latin-American site in Interlingua or Occidental. Properly set up, it will draw some visitors via search engines, and the attention could be useful--so long as copyrights are respected. If the auxlang version is a faithful copy of the original, I doubt there will be much trouble.

What matters in any case is to get the word out--and remember, even if the auxlang that gets the initial publicity isn't your favorite, the improvement in general attitude toward auxlangs will help your favorite. As I've pointed out at various times, anyone who looks up Esperanto on Wikipedia will find plenty of references to other auxlangs too.

Next up, we'll look at the complex issue of proving auxlang superiority.

Achieving the Epiphany 1: From Fake to Real

In a way, this should be Step Three, not Step One, because the other two steps--demonstrating practical uses and interlinguistic superiority--will lend "realness" to auxlangs. But this is actually the first step, because it is not rational but imaginative. Since the objection isn't rational, the first counterstrike shouldn't be rational either. You can't reason bigotry away, at least initially; you must appeal to the moral imagination--even wake it up--before all else. The other two steps need careful scientific documentation; this requires a human-interest approach.

Today's Amazing Free Clue: You have to make people cry before you can make them think.

1. Choose your representatives carefully. (And read this carefully!) I've said more than once that in order to succeed at present, an auxlang must be either "at sight" (intelligible to many people without prior study) or Esperanto. That's because these two groups are fairly credible at a gut level--Esperanto because of its track record, at-sight auxlangs because they are immediately usable. Esperanto is the weaker auxlang, because its credibility must be argued for, but it can be introduced at an early stage anyway. It's probably better to lead with an established auxlang such as Interlingua, Occidental, or perhaps Lingua Franca Nova, though a really intelligible upstart could also be useful.

2. Use niches cautiously. Those familiar with my views may think this a reversal. It isn't; it's a tweak of an earlier position and a corollary of the first item. The point is, while it's okay to tap in to successful artlangs, there must be a certain precision involved. Dave MacLeod has suggested setting up a clearinghouse for information about Na'vi in an auxlang, for example, and the idea is sound: it would present a useful service to people already inclined to accept the validity of auxlangs and help establish auxlang viability (Step Two). But it doesn't risk identification with an artlang, which could be fatal: "Oh, that's just one of those fake languages the geeks play with." Similarly, it's good to expose people to auxlangs in fiction (often done with Esperanto), but we must be careful to avoid the "just another Klingon" feel, which could undermine the sense of reality we want.

3. Go visceral. The more we appeal to fundamental human experience, the stronger our case. For example, I have advocated writing a book about people brought together romantically by an auxlang, especially if it was their only shared language. (The auxlang will most likely be Esperanto in this case, though there may be instances where Interlingua has a good anecdote.) It's hard to dismiss a language as fake if it's the courting language of real couples. This could also help bridge the gender gap: auxlangers are more often male than female, just as students of Klingon are. This is also why I advocate short story translations that are strongly emotional: I often use "The Selfish Giant" because it's short and very moving. You can't be moved by a story in an auxlang--whether the emotion is awe, romance, horror, or whatever else--and then easily dismiss the auxlang as fake. Your gut reaction will claim otherwise. I've also advocated using auxlang translations of Christmas carols, because Christmas has strong and usually positive associations. "Amazing Grace" and (if you're dealing with people not hostile to the veneration of Mary) "Ave Maria" can also be useful.

This is just a starting point, but implementing these steps will bring auxlangs to life for quite a few people--and they are all practical.

Next we'll look at practical uses for auxlangs.