December 12th: Animal names
Language is a fascinating area of study, as we all know. It can also be a barrier between us, inspiring humans to come up with various ruses such as the universal language of Esperanto. I'm not proposing anything so sweeping. However, I am well aware that in every language, there are names for all the animals and that some of them are better - more expressive of the animal in question's essence -than others. My idea, then, is to choose the best name for every animal and have a universalised set for all to use. So, the butterfly may well become a papillon (French) and the hippo could be a Flußpferd (German). However, I rather suspect that English weasels, ferrets and donkeys will remain untouched.
Briefly about Esperanto: Take a look at http://www.lernu.net
ReplyDeleteEsperanto works! I’ve used it in speech and writing - and sung in it - in about fifteen countries over recent years.
For your names of animals, you may know that Latin was used for that purpose for centuries.Felix is a cat, bufo is a toad and so on.