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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: AI Natural Language
Message-ID: <3404@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Oct-84 11:37:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.3404
Posted: Wed Oct 24 11:37:57 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Oct-84 09:25:12 EDT
References: spp2.192 <13192@sri-arpa.UUCP>
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[Mangu ci tion, insekto!]

> I understand that Esperanto is being used by an automated
> language-translation project in the European Economic Community
> as the intermediate language between the translated languages.
> I don't know what stage this project has reached at present.
> ...
> Mike Urban
> [ucbvax|decvax]!trwrb!trwspp!urban (UUCP)
> urban@rand-unix (ARPA)

Here's some more information on the project, gleaned from press 
reports (not personal familiarity):

Maintaining an online database in Europe is a royal pain because 
of the multitude of languages involved.  EEC would like to make 
it possible to store a database in one language and translate on 
the fly into whatever the user wants.  They are considering a 
version of Esperanto (modified to reduce ambiguity) for the 
internal language of the database.  Data entry would be done in 
various languages and machine translated into Esperanto, with a 
dialog between the entry program and the human entering the data 
to clear up ambiguous material.  An advantage of Esperanto as the 
intermediate language (as opposed to some abstract form) is that 
it can easily be edited directly.  I believe the project is still 
in the initial study phases, but has been funded.

Esperanto is a language derived from Romance, Germanic, and 
Slavic origins by Lithuanian-Polish physician and linguist Dr. L. 
L. Zamenhov.  The first book on the subject appeared in 1877.  
The World Almanac gives the number of speakers as one million.  
Popularity has waxed and waned over the years, in part due to 
some wild myths about the language and its users.  (Yes, it IS a 
real language, or so say Esperanto-speaking linguists and 
authorities on literature ranging from Mario Pei to Leo Tolstoy.  
No, Esperanto enthusiasts do not think it will bring about world 
peace.)  The most vigorous interest in Esperanto at the moment 
seems to be (believe it or not) in China. 

I've been interested in the subject for years.  I don't think 
Esperanto has a serious chance of becoming the "official" world 
international language, but it is certainly much easier to learn 
(regular grammar, spelling, and even vocabulary) than the 
competition.  I studied French -- very hard -- for two years and 
I can read some very haltingly.  I absorbed as much Esperanto in 
a few months of casual reading.  No doubt I would be better off 
knowing French or German, but Esperanto is within the limits of 
my time and talents.  So I'm a (borderline) Esperanto nut... 



D Gary Grady
Duke University Computation Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-4146
USENET:  {decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary