If a Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese) Esperanto

[arpee]

If a Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese) Esperanto project was made. How would the language be?

I know it would try to make Asian languages easier but what would be needed?

I suppose the tonal system would be gone to make it easier but what else would be different if Esperanto was made based on Asian languages?

[0stsee]

LATIN CHARACTERS!!

[pastorant]

Actually, Korean characters are more logical.

[hanumizzle]

I suppose the tonal system would be gone to make it easier but what else would be different if Esperanto was made based on Asian languages?

Which ones? I suspect that such a project would get massively bogged down in politics as one would open a can of worms there...

[hanumizzle]

The languages of Asia are so diverse that I think it'd be impossible to include the features of every language in an artificial one...

Exactly, and think of the uproar that would result in the event that, for example, Koreans perceived that there were too many words of Japanese origin or vice versa. It would be a mess.

[Karavinka]

Far East Asian AuxLang? Such a monstrosity should not exist. Esperanto is enough of a lingusitic disaster.

[Nero]

The languages of Asia are so diverse that I think it'd be impossible to include the features of every language in an artificial one...

Los idiomas asiáticos son tan diversos que creo que es imposible de incluir las características de cada idioma en un idioma artificial...

Ironically, 'Creo que' does not use the subjunctive
'No creo que' does, however.

[JackFrost]

Actually, Korean characters are more logical.

Not for Vietnamese or Chinese. I cannot see how we mark the tones on Korean letters.

The languages of Asia are so diverse that I think it'd be impossible to include the features of every language in an artificial one...

Same could be said for Indo-European languages. Esperanto is way too Spanish centred.

[hanumizzle]

Actually, Korean characters are more logical.

Not for Vietnamese or Chinese. I cannot see how we mark the tones on Korean letters.

Easy. Use numbers.

[Rounin]

Realistically, the language would have to be based at least in part on Chinese, as Esperanto is partially based on Latin. Chinese words and even remnants of Chinese grammar are to be found across the Eastern Asian languages, and it's also a fairly simple language grammatically.

As for the characters, one needn't look further than the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungan_language to see that at least one group has dispensed with them entirely. The challenge for the Chinese has as far as I can see been to invent a phonetic system that can smooth over dialectical differences as well as prevent homophonic ambiguity. However, that would be less of a concern for an invented language, as the pronunciation would presumably be more or less uniform.

[Tenebrarum]

A common language for East Asia? I'm against that.

The vocabulary of the language in question must be (somewhat) easily understood across 4 countries. And that means more and more and more Chinese words, since East Asia was basically pwned by the Hans in term of culture back in medieval time.

And I think 3 non-Sinic languages with vocabulary 60% Sinic are enough. We don't need a fourth one.

[hanumizzle]

And I think 3 non-Sinic languages with vocabulary 60% Sinic are enough. We don't need a fourth one.

Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, I presume?

If one circumscribed the region in which the auxiliary language were to be spoken, the process would be much simpler. I think a non-tonal auxiliary language from Burma to Indonesia (excluding Vietnam) would be a significantly easier undertaking.

(BTW, your English is great!)

[Karavinka]

And I think 3 non-Sinic languages with vocabulary 60% Sinic are enough. We don't need a fourth one.

Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, I presume?

If one circumscribed the region in which the auxiliary language were to be spoken, the process would be much simpler. I think a non-tonal auxiliary language from Burma to Indonesia (excluding Vietnam) would be a significantly easier undertaking.

(BTW, your English is great!)

I wonder what principles will bind Burmese (Sino-Tibeta), Thai (Tai-Kadai) and Malay-Indonesian (Austronesian) together.

Draven has a valid point. People can simply write down the characters and more or less understand each other. This may be somewhat more difficult with Koreans and Vietnamese since they abolished the use of characters and many people largely forgot them, but it still works nonetheless. In a way they already have a written IAL.

Still, I think the whole idea behind the IALs is nonsense. Just learn the damn thing if the language (and maybe people) matters to you.

[hanumizzle]

I wonder what principles will bind Burmese (Sino-Tibeta), Thai (Tai-Kadai) and Malay-Indonesian (Austronesian) together.

Namely, a truly massive influx of Sanskrit and/or Pali loan words.

[Karavinka]

I wonder what principles will bind Burmese (Sino-Tibeta), Thai (Tai-Kadai) and Malay-Indonesian (Austronesian) together.

Namely, a truly massive influx of Sanskrit and/or Pali loan words.

Then why stop at Burma? India, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka can join in as well. :p

[hanumizzle]

I wonder what principles will bind Burmese (Sino-Tibeta), Thai (Tai-Kadai) and Malay-Indonesian (Austronesian) together.

Namely, a truly massive influx of Sanskrit and/or Pali loan words.

Then why stop at Burma? India, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka can join in as well. :p

I was actually thinking along the same lines, but dared not go so far unless someone else mentioned it. I guess such a constructed language might cover the whole of Northern India and Bangladesh (Bengali-speaking) plus Andhra Pradesh because of Telugu's heavy Sanskrit influence. Maybe Pakistan as well, even if Urdu leans somewhat more towards Arabic and Farsi. I'm not quite sure about, for example, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

[JackFrost]

Actually, Korean characters are more logical.

Not for Vietnamese or Chinese. I cannot see how we mark the tones on Korean letters.

Easy. Use numbers.

The single-digit numbers could barely contain all of the tones in Cantonese.

[Tenebrarum]

(BTW, your English is great!)

WAT??? What made you utter that?? My English is average, if not n00b. And I'm not being modest.

People can simply write down the characters and more or less understand each other. This may be somewhat more difficult with Koreans and Vietnamese since they abolished the use of characters and many people largely forgot them, but it still works nonetheless.

Chinese characters? I don't know about the Coleans, but we Vietnamese FORGOT THEM ALL !!!

Think, why do we have to remember them once we have this phonetic script? Using Latin alphabet is a way for us to say 'f*** u' to the Hans.

[hanumizzle]

(BTW, your English is great!)

WAT??? What made you utter that?? My English is average, if not n00b. And I'm not being modest.

I honestly had no idea you were Vietnamese or even East Asian until you mentioned your ethnicity explicitly. Your command of English bears almost no signs of the peculiarities of strict isolating grammars, such as that in Vietnamese. I can quite frankly see you as the even more Western-oriented, more democratic, more inwardly Germanic version of Hồ Chí Minh.

IOW, "Hồ Định will bring us home, when we die!"

Chinese characters? I don't know about the Coleans, but we Vietnamese FORGOT THEM ALL !!!

Think, why do we have to remember them once we have this phonetic script? Using Latin alphabet is a way for us to say 'f*** u' to the Hans.

Ah ha ha ha ... en äkta LOL Did the Vietnamese really adapt the Latin alphabet to reduce Chinese influence?

It's OK to say 'fuck' here, BTW.

[Tenebrarum]

Your command of English bears almost no signs of the peculiarities of strict isolating grammars, such as that in Vietnamese.

I thought English grammar was very isolating already. Asians are generally bad at learning foreign languages because they insist on thinking in theirs. Though I have to admit I once had a hard time understanding the concept of using prefixes and suffixes to build words.

I can quite frankly see you as the even more Western-oriented, more democratic, more inwardly Germanic version of Hồ Chí Minh.

Why him and not someone else???
BTW, if that image were the portrayal of me, I must be Big Foot

Did the Vietnamese really adapt the Latin alphabet to reduce Chinese influence?

Originally, the Portuguese (not the French!) invented the alphabet to translate the Bible and spread their faith. While Catholicism couldn't make any big impact, the alphabet thrived. The young people at that time were particularly fond of it, and I'm sure you can understand why - it can bring literacy to the poorest of folks, unlike those cryptic Chinese characters that only the rich can afford to learn. Of course, the aristocrats hated hated hated it; they called it ridiculous, barbaric, rebellious etc.
After HCM came into power, he made chữ Quốc ngữ the national writing system (though he was a Sinologist himself). The Sinic way of writing has been vanishing since then.
So while it wasn't adapted for any anti-Sinic purpose, chữ Quốc ngữ has efficiently done the job of weakening the Sinosphere. Given the right education, a Vietnamese can learn English faster than, say, a Chinese.
Nowadays, if you ask the average Vietnamese how many Chinese characters s/he knows, the likely answer is 6: one, two, three, human, big, mountain. Look at those 6 characters and you'll see why (so strictly speaking, we didn't forget them all).