Brazilian magazine

[denis.russo@EMAIL.ABRIL.COM.BR]

     Hi,

     I am a Brazilian journalist working at Superinteressante magazine -
     the most important scientific magazine for general public in Latin
     America. I am writing a story about the future of language - how
     technology will change (or is changing) language. And I would like to
     know more about constructed languages, specialy Lojban, which seens to
     be the best language to talk to intelligent computers. I have a few
     questions to ask and I would appreciate it a lot if you could help me.

     - Do you believe there will be a world language? People talk more with
     people in other countries than never before, because of e-mail. Do you
     think we will need a specially constructed language for that? Is it
     going to be Lojban (or Esperanto, or any other new or old constructed
     language)? Why is that? Or is it going to be English, as it already is
     (if so, English tends to change a lot, doesn't it?)?

     - I have read that Lojban could be a perfect intermediate language in
     a computer-aided translation. How would that be? Would computers
     translate every language to Lojban an then from Lojban to a seconmd
     language? Why? Would this make translations better?

     - It is a perfectly logic language, which makes it quite predictable
     after you have learned it and quite understandable to inteligent
     computers. And it is culturaly neutral, which makes it equaly easy for
     most people in the world. But, in my modest opinion, these
     carachteristics make the language very complicated for people not used
     to it. First, people have to get used to its mathematical logic and to
     its diferent grammar clases. Doesn't a world language have to be
     simple to atract a large number of people? Is it simple enough?

     - Speaking of cultural neutrality, where do the words come from? How
     are they created?

     - Would you tell me a bit about what you think of other artificial
     languages?

     - Do you know someone (a linguist, a language builder) who could help
     me with this subject (how technology and Internet change language)?
     Would you send me their e-mail addresses and phone numbers?

     - How many people speak Lojban? And how many speak it fluently? Do
     you?

     - What is your name? What is your role in Lojban planing? What is your
     professional formation? Where do you work? What is your nacionality?

     Sorry about my bad English (and about my big curiosity).
     Unfortunately, after reading about Lojban for a few hours, I am still
     not fluent enough. But I will be someday.

     I would appreciate it a lot if you could send me at least some of the
     answers as soon as possible. Thank you very much.

     Sincerely,
     Denis Russo Burgierman
     Superinteressante magazine
     Sao Paulo
     Brasil
     phone 55 11 3037-5787 / fax 55 11 3037-5891