> One Athabaskan-speaker I know did once make the observation that,
> because there are so many different native languages regional and
> national meetings, such as the Assembly of First Nations in Canada,
> conduct their meetings in English. He thought that it might be
> a good idea if native people would adopt some native language as
> a lingua franca for such purposes so as to avoid using a non-native
> language. If such an idea were to go anywhere, the language chosen
> would most likely not be Athabaskan. They're too hard to learn for
> people who don't already speak another Athabaskan language.
> Jon LIECHTY <ucs.indiana.edu!JLIECHTY> replies:
> Heaven forbid, of course, that anyone should recommend Esperanto for such
> a situation ...
John Koontz <koontz@bldr.nist.gov> wonders:
Apologies in advance, Jon, but as an Esperanto-impaired person I can't help
asking why an immitation European language (non-native to boot) that no one
knows would be preferable to a real one that (apparently) almost everyone
knows already?