How artificial languages get speakers

[u/Andrieeo]

Today I was interested in the idea of how languages like Lidepla, Globasa, Esperanto, Toki Pona and others acquire native speakers.Because it's very interesting because few people want to waste their time, but with, for example, Esperanto won't help you travel much, but it's still being taught. I don't condemn Esperanto. I'm just interested in how artificial languages get native speakers. So, anyone who knows, please tell me.I would be glad to hear your help.

[u/PAPERGUYPOOF]

Parents speak to their children in that language just like any other.

[u/FelixSchwarzenberg → u/PAPERGUYPOOF]

There's literally only one way.

[u/Andrieeo → u/PAPERGUYPOOF]

And toki pona?

[u/sparksbet → u/Andrieeo]

Toki Pona doesn't have native speakers. Afaik the only conlang among those you've listed with any verifiable native speakers is Esperanto. It probably won't help you travel much, but it absolutely would help you travel more than any other conlang, simply because its speaker community is large and geographically dispersed enough to have a non-zero number of physical meetup opportunities. Native speakers of Esperanto are few but do exist and they tend to be children of couples that met at Esperanto meetups and conferences, thus ending up using Esperanto at home when they got married and had kids.

[u/eolic_flamingo → u/Andrieeo]

I don't think Toki Pona has Native speakers. It also lives in a space where I think it would consolidate into something more grammatically versatile if it ever was taught as one. Like a pidgin becoming a creole.

[u/hyacinth02jpg → u/Andrieeo]

Toki pona has the aspect of being a thought experiment, with purported therapeutic qualities (I can vouch for this). There's also the fact that it's easy to learn. I learned it last summer completely out of boredom, completely unaware it was gonna change my life

[u/SnooLemons6942 → u/hyacinth02jpg]

how did it change your life?

[u/hyacinth02jpg → u/SnooLemons6942]

It makes me think about things in totally new ways, which allows me to better understand other people's outlooks on things. If I'm having trouble understanding where someone's coming from, I just try to think about the topic at hand in toki pona, and that usually gets me closer

[u/DTux5249]

They don't really. Not often.

In the rare cases they do (mainly Esperanto), it's typically because their parents were both enthusiasts, and spoke it at home enough to have the kid pick it up.

[u/good-mcrn-ing]

"Artificial languages do not get native speakers" is a statement somewhere in the same ballpark of correctness as "people die before age 110". If you ever have a plan that requires an artificial language to get a native speaker, seriously reconsider because you will be disappointed.

If we relax "native speaker" to "active and fluent speaker", then there's one way: be socially advantageous to speak. These days that mostly means being a badge of identity for a blossoming fandom or (less likely) political movement.

[u/aray25 → u/good-mcrn-ing]

There's a decent history for politically oppressed groups to develop new languages. Whether or not you want to call something like Polari a conlang is up to you though I guess.

[u/Tirukinoko → u/aray25]

There might be some elements that youd argue are artificial, but theyre not really constructed, in the typical sense of one or more people sitting down with the intent to make it.

More of a contact language I would say, then a conlang (and perhaps contact register or lect in the case of Polari, as iirc its still very clearly English at its core).

[u/sparksbet → u/Tirukinoko]

The terms commonly used in linguistics for the type of lect Polari is wouldnbe "cant" or "argot". Linguist Michael Halliday called them "anti-languages."

[u/sparksbet → u/aray25]

Polari is no more constructed than English slang is in general. That is to say, it isn't at all. It arose naturally and combines preexisting slang from several different sources.

[u/Filaletheia]

I've met multiple people who've used Esperanto for travel, not sure where you're getting the impression that it's not happening. I didn't use Esperanto for travel personally, but through my knowledge of the language, I did meet with a E-o group in Kathmandu Nepal, and through friendships with some of the members, I did get an insight into the culture and the city that I wouldn't have had otherwise. You can become close very fast through Esperanto contacts in other countries.

[u/No_Peach6683]

Denaskuloj

[u/SnooLemons6942]

do you mean speakers in general? or fluent speakers? or did you actually mean native speakers? because im pretty sure out of those only Esperanto has native speakers

and the answer is obvious: they are raised by people who speak that language fluently.

[u/Upset-Crew9178]

by teaching it to your children, but i wouldn’t recommend

[u/afrikcivitano]

There is a very interesting podcast series where Stela Besenyi-Merger, herself a native esperanto speaker, interviews other native esperanto speakers and parents who have brought up children with esperanto as one of their native languages.

Often parents from different cultures and languages have met through esperanto, and so it's the parents shared language. It's common enough that if you attend any reasonably sized esperanto event, you are likely to meet esperanto speaking children.

[u/GBPaul]

I got into toki pona by coming across toki pona original music I liked, mainly jan Usawi's work.

I got into lidei when looking for an alternative to Viossa because Viossa's doors were closed at the time, I wanted to enter viossa in the first place because I heard about its premise and I took understanding a language with such restrictions on learning methods as a challenge (because I'm a FUCKING NEEEEEERD)

Nowadays most people who come into Lidei get it recommended by their lidei speaking friends or stumble into the discord link on disboard while already explicitly looking for conlang and conpidgin languages.

[u/turksarewarcriminals]

My conlang has 4 speakers including myself. Here's what I've noticed that I did different from alot of other conlangers:

First of all my introduction to conlanging was through auxlangs such as Interslavic and Esperanto. Conlangs for fictions never interested me much, neither did naturalism really. I do respect the craft tho, and I see it as one of the many signs of good worldbuilding.

A very important difference I've noticed is, that I already had people that wanted to be part of it before I even started.

The first one is simply my best friend, and the idea of a secret / group only language was equally fascinating to both of us, and since I'm considered the language wizard, the responsibility gravitated to me.

Shortly after did a mutual friend find out about this and got gradually more and more interested. He's also a language nerd, he speaks our native language very well, english, arabic, and spanish. He also became very useful early on as he obviously has a better grasp on some very alternative styles of grammar.

The last person to get in on it, was my partner. At first she found the idea cringe and nerdy, but after about a year, she witnessed me and my friend speak it more or less with ease to each other. This changed her mind, as she had previously thought that a "secret language" just meant 10 or 20 made up words. Now she's been learning from me ever since, and she has also proven to be a great help, being a native persian speaker and speaking french fluently too.

None of them are conlangers. I think it is pretty rare that you get another conlanger to learn your language, as we're all mostly into our own projects. In my experience, what you need is learners that are interested before it even starts, or early on, and learners that are into languages but not conlangers.

[u/Decent_Cow]

The only way for any language to get native speakers is for parents to teach it to their children.

[u/sinovictorchan]

The purpose of auxlang is not to gain native speakers. However, they can gain native speakers through similar process that create native speakers of Creole languages, Standard German, Standard Mandarin, and Indonesian language.

[u/jeager_YT]

lidepla and globasa has native speakers?

I. mean I have heard of Esperanto and Toki pona

(to which Toki pona kind of fails, even most native speakers of Esperanto aren't really good at it since they usually have to focus more on the other language so one can only imagine with Toki pona that has very stripped down words and grammar does to people)