Re: Grammar

[Alain Delmotte <esperanto@swing.be>]

Hi!

Henning Hraban Ramm a écrit :
> So, as several other posters already said: It's not the words who are to 
> blame, but the speakers and their mind sets...

Let me just add a comment about he/she and the willing of 
the speakers.

In Esperanto, there is
li = he
ŝi = she (same pronunciation)
ĝi = it (pronounce ĝ like j in just : dj)

The neutral is used when you do not specify the gender (like 
speaking about a cat without specifying male or female) or 
when there is no gender (for an object).
But Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto, said you also use 
it for young humans, like babies.
So it is a real neutral form.

But people want to keep their own use (the use from their 
language) and only keep ĝi for objects.
(even if, for example in English, one uses "she" when 
speaking about ones boat!!)
Some other want to have "ŝli" as neutral.
Other again want to suppress li and ŝi and only have "ri".

There is no solution to the problem; any solution will find 
people not agreeing for one or another reason.

But one has to try to avoid discrimination.

Alain

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