Esperanto

Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international language. The name derives from D-ro Esperanto (Dr. Hopeful), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the language in 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy-to-learn and flexible language as a universal second language to foster international understanding.

Linguistic properties

Classification

As a constructed language, Esperanto is not genealogically related to any ethnic language.

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Esperanto can be described as "a language lexically predominantly romanic, morphologically intensively agglutinant and to a certain degree isolating in character" (Blanke 1985).

Related Topics:
Lexically - Romanic - Morphologically - Agglutinant - Isolating - Blanke 1985

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The phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and semantics are based on the western Indo-European languages. The phonemic inventory is essentially Slavic, as is much of the semantics, while the vocabulary derives primarily from the Romance languages, with a lesser contribution from Germanic. Pragmatics and other aspects of the language not specified by Zamenhof's original documents were influenced by the native languages of early speakers, primarily Russian, Polish, German, and French.

Related Topics:
Phonology - Grammar - Vocabulary - Semantics - Indo-European languages - Phonemic inventory - Slavic - Romance languages - Germanic - Pragmatics - Russian - Polish - German - French

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Typologically, Esperanto has prepositions and a pragmatic word order that by default is Subject Verb Object and Adjective Noun. New words are formed through extensive prefixing and suffixing.

Related Topics:
Typologically - Preposition - Pragmatic word order - Subject Verb Object - Adjective Noun - Prefix - Suffix

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Phonology

:See also Esperanto phonology.

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Esperanto has 22 consonants and 5 vowels. It does not have tone. Stress is always on the second-last vowel, unless a final vowel o is elided (which in practice occurs most in poetry). For example, familio (family) is {{IPA|}}, but famili? is {{IPA|}}.

Related Topics:
Tone - Stress - Elided - Poetry

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Consonants

The sound {{IPA|/r/}} is usually tapped ({{IPA|}} in the IPA), but may be rolled. The {{IPA|/v/}} has a normative pronunciation like an English v, but is frequently somewhere between a v and a w (IPA {{IPA|}}), or occasionally as an English w, depending on the language background of the speaker. A semivowel {{IPA|}} normally occurs only in diphthongs after the vowels {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/e/}}. It is in complementary distribution with {{IPA|}}, suggesting that these are variants of the same sound. (While they may both occur between vowels, as in na?a (ninth) and nava (of naves), the one is syllable-final {{IPA|}} while the other is syllable-initial {{IPA|}}.) Common (if debated) assimilation includes the pronunciation of /nk/ as {{IPA|}}, as in English sink, and /kz/ as {{IPA|}}, like the x in English example.

Related Topics:
Tapped - IPA - Rolled - Semivowel - Diphthong - Complementary distribution - Assimilation

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A large number of possible consonant clusters can occur, up to three in initial position and four in medial position (for example, in instrui, to teach). Final clusters are uncommon except in foreign names, poetic elision of final o, and a very few basic words such as cent (hundred) and post (after).

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Vowels

Esperanto has the five vowels of Spanish and Swahili. There are no long or nasalized vowels.

Related Topics:
Spanish - Swahili

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There are six falling diphthongs: {{IPA|/ui?}}, {{IPA|oi?}}, {{IPA|ei?}}, {{IPA|ai?}}, {{IPA|au?}}, {{IPA|eu?/}}.

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With only five vowels, a good deal of variation is tolerated. For instance, {{IPA|/e/}} commonly ranges from {{IPA|}} (French é) to {{IPA|}} (French è). The details often depend on the speaker's native language. A glottal stop may occur between adjacent vowels in some people's speech, especially when the two vowels are the same, as in heroo (hero) and praavo (great-grandfather).

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Grammar

Esperanto words are derived by stringing together prefixes, roots, and suffixes. This is very regular, so that people can create new words as they speak and be understood. Compound words are formed with modifier-first, head-final order, i.e. the same way as in English birdsong vs. songbird.

Related Topics:
Derived - Compound

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The different parts of speech are marked by their own suffixes: all nouns end in -o, all adjectives in -a, adverbs in -e, and verbs end in one of six tense and mood suffixes, such as present tense -as.

Related Topics:
Parts of speech - Tense - Mood - Present tense

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Plural nouns end in -oj (pronounced "oy"), whereas direct objects end in -on. Plural direct objects end in -ojn (pronounced to rhyme with "coin"). Adjectives agree with their nouns; their endings are plural -aj (pronounced "eye"), direct-object -an, and plural direct-object -ajn (pronounced to rhyme with "fine").

Related Topics:
Plural - Direct object - Agree

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NounSubjectObject

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Plural-o-on

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Singular-oj-ojn

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AdjectiveSubjectObject

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Singular-a-an

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Plural-aj-ajn

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The six verb inflections are three tenses and three moods. They are present tense -as, future tense -os, past tense -is, infinitive mood -i, conditional mood -us, and jussive mood -u. Verbs are not marked for person or number. For instance: kanti - to sing; mi kantas - I sing; mi kantis - I sang; mi kantos - I will sing.

Related Topics:
Inflection - Present tense - Future tense - Past tense - Infinitive mood - Conditional mood - Jussive mood

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Verbal TenseSuffix

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Present-as (kantas)

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Past-is (kantis)

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Future-os (kantos)

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Verbal MoodSuffix

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Infinitive-i (kanti)

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Jussive-u (kantu)

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Conditional-us (kantus)

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Word order is comparatively free: adjectives may precede or follow nouns, and subjects, verbs and objects (marked by the suffix -n) can occur in any order. However, the article la (the) and the demonstratives almost always come before the noun, and a preposition must come before it. Similarly, the negative ne (not) and conjunctions such as kaj (both, and) and ke (that) must precede the phrase or clause they introduce. In copular (A = B) clauses, word order is just as important as it is in English clauses like people are dogs vs. dogs are people.

Related Topics:
Article - Demonstrative - Preposition - Conjunction - Phrase - Clause - Copula

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Vocabulary

:See the lists of and at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project.

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The core vocabulary of Esperanto was defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. It comprised 900 roots, which could be expanded into the tens of thousands of words with prefixes, suffixes, and compounding. In 1894, Zamenhof published the first Esperanto dictionary, Universala Vortaro, with a larger set of roots. However, the rules of the language allowed speakers to borrow new roots as needed, recommending only that they look for the most international forms, and then derive related meanings from these.

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Since then, many words have been borrowed, primarily but not solely from the western European languages. Not all proposed borrowings catch on, but many do, especially technical and scientific terms. Terms for everyday use, on the other hand, are more likely to be derived from existing roots?for example komputilo (a computer) from komputi (to compute) plus the suffix -ilo (tool)?or to be covered by extending the meanings of existing words (for example muso (a mouse), now also means a computer input device, as in English). There are frequent debates among Esperanto speakers about whether a particular borrowing is justified or whether the need can be met by deriving from or extending the meaning of existing words.

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In addition to the root words and the rules for combining them, a learner of Esperanto must learn some idiomatic compounds that are not entirely straightforward. For example, eldoni, literally "to give out", is used for "to publish" (a calque of words in several European languages with the same derivation), and vortaro, literally "a collection of words", means "a glossary" or "a dictionary". Such forms are modeled after usage in the ethnic European languages, and speakers of other languages may find them illogical. Fossilized derivations inherited from Esperanto's source languages may be similarly obscure, such as the opaque connection the root word centralo "power station" has with centro "center". Compounds with -um- are overtly arbitrary, and must be learned individually, as -um- has no defined meaning. It turns dekstren "to the right" into dekstrumen "clockwise", and komuna "common/shared" into komunumo "community", for example.

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Nevertheless, there are not nearly as many truly idiomatic or slang words in Esperanto as in ethnic languages, as these tend to make international communication difficult, working against Esperanto's main goal.

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Writing system

Esperanto is written with a modified version of the Latin alphabet, including six letters with diacritics: ?, ?, ?, ?, ? and ? (that is, c, g, h, j, s circumflex, and u breve). The alphabet does not include the letters q, w, x, y except in unassimilated foreign names.

Related Topics:
Latin alphabet - Diacritic - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - Circumflex - Breve

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The 28-letter alphabet is:

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a b c ? d e f g ? h ? i j ? k l m n o p r s ? t u ? v z

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All letters are pronounced approximately as their lower-case equivalents in the IPA, with the exception of c and the accented letters:

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Two ASCII-compatible writing conventions are in use. These substitute digraphs for the accented letters. The original "h-convention" (ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, u) is based on English 'ch' and 'sh', while a more recent "x-convention" (cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux) is useful for alphabetic word sorting on a computer (cx comes correctly after cu, sx after sv, etc.) as well as for simple conversion back into the standard orthography.

Related Topics:
ASCII - Digraph

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Useful phrases

Here are some useful Esperanto phrases, with IPA transcriptions:

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• Hello: Saluton {{IPA |}}
• What is your name?:

::Kiel vi nomi?as? {{IPA |}}

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::Kio estas via nomo? {{IPA |}}

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• My name is ... :

::Mi nomi?as ... {{IPA |}}

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::Mia nomo estas ... {{IPA |}}

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• How much?: Kiom? {{IPA |}}
• Here you are: Jen {{IPA |}}
• Do you speak Esperanto?: ?u vi parolas Esperanton? {{IPA |}}
• I don't understand you: Mi ne komprenas vin {{IPA|}}
• I like this one:

:: Mi ?atas tiun ?i {{IPA |}}

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:: ?i tiu pla?as al mi {{IPA |}}

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• Thank you: Dankon {{IPA |}}
• You're welcome: Ne dankinde {{IPA |}}
• Please: Bonvolu {{IPA |}}
• Here's to your health: Je via sano {{IPA |}}
• Bless you!/Gesundheit!: Sanon! {{IPA |}}
• Okay: Bone {{IPA |}}
• It is a nice day: Estas bela tago {{IPA |}}
• I love you: Mi amas vin {{IPA |}}
• Goodbye:

::?is (la) revido {{IPA |}}

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:: ?is (la)! {{IPA |}}

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• Peace!/shalom/salaam: Pacon {{IPA|}}