Welcome to BJA-LISTO

the Internet forum on social interlinguistics


Hejmpagho en Esperanto


WHAT IS BJA-LISTO?

The BJA-LISTO mailing list is intended to contribute to the organization, promotion and advancement of social interlinguistics, understood as the study of:

  1. the principles and functioning of constructed international languages with a social base;

  2. language planning for international or intercultural communication.

The preferred language of the list is Esperanto. We made this choice with some reluctance, since there are undoubtedly many people with an interest in interlinguistics who are not proficient in Esperanto. On the other hand, we feel that the quality of the list will be higher if all the participants have first-hand experience of the subject matter, as well as access to the considerable literature in Esperanto.

If you are not yet competent in Esperanto, information and courses on the language can be found through Esperanto Net. BJA-LISTO forms part of an international Esperanto-speaking network on social interlinguistics, whose central organization is the Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems, the research arm of the Universal Esperanto Association.

You may also wish to consider joining the following mailing lists, which function mainly in English:

  1. The Constructed Languages Mailing List, which exists to discuss all aspects of constructed languages. To subscribe, send mail to listserv@brownvm.brown.edu with the line "subscribe conlang". You can instead receive conlang as a daily digest by sending the message "subscribe conlang" and "set conlang digest". For further information on using the listserv, send a message "help" (for brief information) or "info" (for longer information) to the same address. There is a large Frequently Asked Questions document for the conlang list.
  2. The Auxiliary Languages Mailing List, which was formed in 1996 as an offshoot of the Constructed Languages Mailing List, for discussion of issues particularly relating to the design and use of constructed languages as international auxiliary languages. The separate forum was created because discussions of IAL issues have tended to be of intense and voluminous interest to some members of conlang, but of little interest to many others. The procedure to subscribe is the same as for the conlang list, except that the messages are "subscribe auxlang" and "set auxlang digest".

Other on-line sources of information are reviewed in the article Interlinguistics and the Internet.


TOPICS INCLUDED IN BJA-LISTO

The following topics are open for discussion. For each topic area there is a prefix placed at the beginning of the subject line, e.g. APLIK Kiel instrui la akuzativon?
  • the linguistic description of Esperanto (its linguistic realities: prefix LING);
  • the applied linguistics of Esperanto, e.g. pedagogy or lexicography (APLIK);
  • the sociology of the Esperanto community (its social realities: SOCI);
  • the social and linguistic development of other planned languages with a speech community (PLAN)
  • the description and development of the global (inter)linguistic system, including the relationships between Esperanto and other linguistic movements or trends (e.g. minority languages, linguistic rights, English as an international language: MOND);
  • the organization of interlinguistic research, meetings, and publications (prefix CED)
  • the contribution of interlinguistics to the information policies and external relations of the Esperanto movement, in particular the UEA and its naitonal affiliates (MOVAD)
  • organizational and administrative matters pertaining to the list itself (ADMIN)

The list can also accept contributions in the fields of the humanities, such as history, literature, criticism, etc. Such topics are, however, not central to the list's objectives and the administrator reserves the right to request that discussions be continued outside the list.

The list is NOT intended for discussion of planned language projects which do not have a social base, nor of proposed reforms in Esperanto (i.e. a priori changes in its basic structure).


HOW TO JOIN THE LIST

You will find detailed instructions and advice in Esperanto on the BJA-LISTO home page.

If you have further questions, please contact the list administrator Jouko Lindstedt or the home page administrator Mark Fettes.



FURTHER INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS