RBE10K/Esperanto

Esperanto as a proposal for RBE10K

The Esperanto language is proposed as the equalising language for RBE10K, just as much as Latin was the equaliser language for the Roman Empire. The proposal as yet has to build backing, and at this stage is not a primary concern. Read this page in Esperanto and translate it into English using the Google Translate widget present in the sidebar on the left.

Why not English?

The English language has indeed many benefits, which any English speaker would relate:

• a large number of the population in the world already speak it
• it is easy to learn
• it is flexible and adaptable

The Esperanto language, however, has many more benefits when considering the characteristics and nature of a RBE:

• it is 100% regular, i.e. it has no exceptions, irregular verb constructs, or inconsistencies
• its regularity makes it a powerful solution for technical speech, since it offers little room for misinterpretation
• automated translations from it to any language are possible without the loss of meaning (this is crucial!)
• it is universal, it has no nationality (although it is based on the Latin alphabet)
• it is short and concise, e.g. has few or no synonyms, syntactic forms (i.e. verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc) all use the same root word for the same concept
• it is extremely flexible
• it is factual and direct, i.e. there is no metaphorical speech
• one root word = one concept, no exceptions
• it is very easy to learn
• there are excellent free teach-yourself-Esperanto online courses, and a well organised network of free aid for correcting exercises and offering help
• meanwhile syntactics are correct, semantics are mostly irrelevant, making it very reliable for conveying accurate meaning

Would everybody have to speak Esperanto in a RBE10K city?

Esperanto is not intended to be used as an official speech language, or a global language, but as default language for the knowledge-base, in a similar way as the default Wikipedia today is in English. Esperanto is not great for poetry or art, and it is not a particularly beautifully-sounding language, however it is excellent for recording meaning accurately and concisely.

It is also easily and accurately translatable automatically to any other language without losing any meaning, therefore not knowing Esperanto may be somewhat limiting when intending to contribute with the knowledge-base, but not limiting at all in the use of the knowledge-base at all.