Esperanto vocabulary
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The word base of Esperanto was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. It contained some 900 root words. However, the rules of the language allowed speakers to borrow words as needed, recommending only that they look for the most international words, and that they borrow one basic word and derive others from it, rather than borrowing many words with related meanings. In 1894, Zamenhof published the first Esperanto dictionary, Universala vortaro, which was written in five languages and supplied a larger set of root words.
Since then many words have been borrowed from other languages, primarily, but not solely, from western European languages.[citation needed] In recent decades, most of the new borrowings or coinages have been technical or scientific terms; terms in everyday use are more likely to be derived from existing words (for example komputilo [a computer], from komputi [to compute]), or extending them to cover new meanings (for example muso [a mouse], now also signifies a computer input device, as in English). There are frequent debates among Esperanto speakers about whether a particular new borrowing is justified or whether the need can be met by derivation or extending the meaning of existing words.
Origins
Esperanto occupies a middle ground between "naturalistic" constructed languages such as Interlingua, which take words en masse from their source languages with little internal derivation, and a priori conlangs such as Solresol, in which the words have no historical connection to other languages. In Esperanto, root words are borrowed and retain much of the form of their source language, whether the phonetic form (eks- from ex-) or orthographic form (teamo from team). However, each root can then form dozens of derivations which may bear little resemblance to equivalent words in the source languages, such as registaro (government), which is derived from the Latinate root reg (to rule).
Word formation
One of the ways Zamenhof made Esperanto easier to learn than ethnic languages was by creating a regular and highly productive derivational morphology. Through the judicious use of lexical affixes (prefixes and suffixes), the core vocabulary needed for communication was greatly reduced, making Esperanto a more agglutinative language than most European languages. It has been estimated that on average one root in Esperanto is the communicative equivalent of ten words in English.
However, a contrary tendency is apparent in cultured and Greco-Latin technical vocabulary, which most Europeans see as "international" and therefore take into Esperanto en masse, despite the fact they are not truly universal. Many Asians consider this[citation needed] to be an onerous and unnecessary burden on the memory, when it is so easy to derive equivalent words internally (for example by calquing them, which is what Chinese often does). This sparks frequent debates as to whether a particular root is justified, and sometimes results in duplicates of native and borrowed vocabulary. An example is "calligraphy", which occurs both as a calqued belskribo ('writing of beauty') and as the direct borrowing kaligrafio. Something similar has also happened in English (brotherly vs fraternal), German (Ornithologie vs Vogelkunde for ornithology), Japanese (beesubooru vs yakyuu for baseball), French (le week-end vs. la fin de semaine), etc. However, while the debates in ethnic languages are motivated by nationalism or issues of cultural identity, in Esperanto the debates are largely motivated by differing views on how to make the language practical and accessible.
Affixes
One of the most immediately useful derivational affixes for the beginner is the prefix mal-, which derives antonyms: peza (heavy), malpeza (light); supren (upwards), malsupren (downwards); ami (to love), malami (to hate); lumo (light), mallumo (darkness). However, except in jokes, this prefix is not used when an antonym exists in the basic vocabulary: suda (south), not "malnorda" from 'north'; manki (to lack, intr.), not "malesti" from 'to be'.
The creation of new words through the use of grammatical (i.e. inflectional) suffixes, such as nura (mere) from nur (only), tiama (contemporary) from tiam (then), or vido (sight) from vidi (to see), is covered in the article on Esperanto grammar. What follows is a list of the main lexical affixes. Many of these, however, behave as any other word, in that their relative order in a compound is determined by semantics, not grammar; they are considered affixes for their historical derivation.
When a root receives more than one affix, the order does matter, as affixes modify the entire stem they're attached to. That is, the outer ones modify the inner ones. Most affixes are themselves roots, and as such have an inherent part of speech. This is indicated by the final part-of-speech vowel in the suffix list below. A few affixes do not affect the part of speech of the root; for the suffixes listed in the tables below, this is indicated by a hyphen in place of the final vowel.
List of lexical suffixes
-aĉ- | pejorative (expresses negative affect or a poor opinion of the object or action) | skribaĉi (to scrawl, from 'write'); veteraĉo (foul weather); domaĉo (a hovel); rigardaĉi (to gape at, from 'look at'); belaĉa (tawdry, from 'beautiful'); aĉigi (to screw up); aĉ ! (yuck!) |
-adi, -ado | frequent, repeated, or continual action (often imperfective); as a noun, an action or process | kuradi (to keep on running); parolado (a speech); adi (to carry on); ada (continual) |
-aĵo | a concrete manifestation; (with a noun root) a product | manĝaĵo (food, from 'eat'); novaĵo (news, novelty); glaciaĵo (an ice[cream]); bovaĵo (beef); aĉaĵo (junk); aĵo (a thing); |
-ano | a member, follower, participant, inhabitant | kristano (a Christian); marksano (a Marxist); usonano (a US American) [cf. amerikano (a continental American)]; ŝipano (a crew member); samkursano (a classmate, from 'same' and 'course'); samideano (a kindred spirit, from 'same' and 'idea'); ano (a member) |
-aro | a collective group without specific number | arbaro (a forest, from 'tree'); vortaro (a dictionary, from 'word' [a set expression]); homaro (humanity, from 'human' [a set expression; 'crowd, mob' is homamaso]); ŝafaro (a flock of sheep); ŝiparo (an armada, from 'ship'); anaro (a society [group of members]); aro (a herd, group, set) |
-ĉjo | masculine affectionate form; the root is truncated | Joĉjo (Jack); paĉjo (daddy); fraĉjo (bro); amiĉjo (dear friend); la iĉjoj (the 'boys') |
-ebla | possible | kredebla (believable); videbla (visible); eble (possibly) |
-eco | an abstract quality | amikeco (friendship); boneco (goodness); italeca (Italianesque); ecaro (character [sum of qualities]) |
-eg- | augmentative; sometimes pejorative connotations when used with people | domego (a mansion); virego (a giant); librego (a tome); varmega (boiling hot); ridegi (to guffaw); ega (great, humongous) |
-ejo | a place characterized by the root (not used for toponyms) | lernejo (a school, from 'to learn'), vendejo (a store, from 'to sell'), juĝejo (a court, from 'to judge'), kuirejo (a kitchen, from 'to cook'), hundejo (a kennel, from 'dog'), senakvejo (a desert, from 'without water'); devenejo (provenance, from deveni 'come from'); ejo (the appropriate place) |
-ema | having a propensity, tendency | ludema (playful), parolema (talkative), kredema (credulous); brulema (flammable); emo (inclination); malema (unwilling) |
-enda[1] | mandatory | pagenda (payable), legendaĵo (required reading) |
-ero | the smallest part | ĉenero (a link, from 'chain'); fajrero (a spark, from 'fire'); neĝero (a snowflake, from 'snow'), kudrero (a stitch, from 'sew'), lignero (a splinter, from 'wood'); okulero (an ommatidium, from 'eye'), vortero (a morpheme, from 'word'); ero (a crumb etc); eriĝema (friable) |
-estro | a leader, boss | lernejestro (a school principal); urbestro (a mayor, from 'city'); centestro (a centurion, from 'hundred'); estraro (board of directors) |
-et- | diminutive; sometimes affectionate connotations when used with people | dometo (a hut); libreto (a booklet); varmeta (lukewarm); rideti (to smile); rompeti (to crack, fracture); boleti (to simmer); ete (slightly) |
-io | unofficially a country named after an ethnicity | Anglio (England, from Anglo 'English person'); Germanio (Germany, from Germano, German person), patrio (fatherland, from 'father') [cannot be used as a root io, as that means 'something'] |
-iĉo | male [unofficial] | (see gender below) |
-ido | an offspring, descendent | katido (a kitten); reĝido (a prince, from 'king'); arbido (a sapling, from 'tree'); izraelido (an Israelite); ido (a kit, pup, kid, etc.); idaro (a clan, tribe) |
-igi | to make, to cause (transitivizer/causative) | mortigi (to kill, from 'die'); purigi (to clean); konstruigi (to have built); igi (to cause) |
-iĝi | to become (intransitivizer/inchoative/middle voice) | amuziĝi (to enjoy oneself); naskiĝi (to be born); ruĝiĝi (to blush, from 'red'); aniĝi (to join [become a member]); iĝi (to become) |
-ilo | an instrument | ludilo (a toy, from 'play'); tranĉilo (a knife, from 'cut'); helpilo (a remedy, from 'help'); solvilo (solution, from 'solve'); ilo (a tool); ilaro (equipment, set of tools) |
-ino | female | bovino (a cow); patrino (a mother); studentino (a co-ed); ino (a female) |
-inda | worthy of | memorinda (memorable); kredinda (credible); fidinda (dependable, trustworthy); kriindaĵo (something to cry about); inda (worthy) |
-ingo | a holder, sheath | glavingo (a scabbard, from 'sword'); kandelingo (a candle-holder); dentingo (a tooth socket); ŝraŭbingo (a nut, from 'bolt'), piedingo (stirrup, from 'foot'); kuglingo (a cartridge, from 'bullet'); ingo (a socket etc.) |
-ismo | a doctrine, system (as in English) | komunismo (Communism); kristanismo (Christianity); ismo (an ism) |
-isto | person professionally or avocationally occupied with an idea or activity (a narrower use than in English) | instruisto (teacher); dentisto (dentist); abelisto (a beekeeper), komunisto (a communist) |
-njo | feminine affectionate form; the root is truncated | Jonjo (Joanie); panjo (mommy); anjo (granny); vanjo (nurse/nanny); aminjo (dear friend); la injoj (the 'girls', from -ino) |
-obla | multiple | duobla (double); trioble (triply); oble (more than once) |
-ono | fraction | duona (half [of]); centono (one hundredth); dekonaĵo (a tithe); ono (a fraction); onigi (to divide into equal parts) |
-ope | in a collective group of specific number | duope (two together; by twos: = po du); triopo (a trilogy); kiomope (how many together?); arope (together in a group); gutope (drop by drop: = pogute); unuopa (isolated, individual); opo (a group, unit, team); opa (collective) |
-ujo | a (loose) container, country (-io is more often but only -ujo is official), a tree of a certain fruit (archaic) | monujo (a purse, from 'money'); salujo (a saltshaker); lavujo (a washbasin); abelujo (a beehive); Anglujo (England [Anglio in current usage]); Kurdujo (Kurdistan, the Kurdish lands); pomujo (appletree [now pomarbo]); ujo (a container) |
-ulo | one characterized by the root | junulo (a youth); sanktulo (a saint, from 'holy'); abocoulo (a beginning reader, from aboco "ABC's"); mamulo (a mammal, from 'breast'); proksimulo (a neighbor, from 'near'); multinfanulino (a woman with many children, from multa 'many' and infano 'child'); senindulo (someone without merit, from 'without' and the suffix -ind); aĉulo ~ ulaĉo (a wretch, from the suffix aĉ); tiamulo (a contemporary, from 'then'); etulino (a whisp of a girl); ulo (a fellow) |
-um- | undefined ad hoc suffix (used sparingly) | kolumo (a collar, from 'neck'); krucumi (to crucify, from 'cross'); malvarmumo (a cold, from 'cold'); plenumi (to fulfill, from 'full'); brakumi (to hug, from 'arm'); amindumi (to woo, from 'lovable'); dekstrume (clockwise, from 'right'); deksesuma (hexadecimal); umo (a thingamajig); um … ('uhm', 'uh', 'er' etc.) |
List of prefixes
bo- | relation by marriage, -in-law | bopatro (a father-in-law); boedziĝi (to marry one's dead brother's wife, from edziĝi 'to marry'); boedzino (a sister-wife); boamiko ([jocular] a friend of one's spouse) |
dis- | separation, scattering | disĵeti (to throw about); dissendi (to distribute); disatomi (to split by atomic fission); disliberiĝi (to escape in all directions, like pages dropping en masse from a book with a disintegrated binding); dis! (scram!) |
ek- | beginning, sudden, or momentary action (often perfective) | ekbrili (to flash); ekami (to fall in love); ekkrii (to cry out); eki (to start); ekde (inclusive 'from'); ek al la batalo! (off to war!); ek! (hop to!) |
eks- | former, ex- | eksedzo (an ex-husband); eksbovo (a steer [jocular, from 'bull']); Eks la estro! (Down with our leader!) |
fi- | shameful, nasty | fihomo (a wicked person); fimensa (foul-minded); fivorto (a profane word); Fi al vi! (Shame on you!) |
ge- | both sexes together | gepatroj (parents); gepatrano (a parent); gesinjoroj (ladies and gentlemen); la geZamenhofoj (the Zamenhofs); gelernejo (a coeducational school); gedormi (to sleep together); geulo (a hermaphrodite); geiĝi (to pair up, to mate); gea (heterosexual) |
mal- | antonym | malgranda (small); malriĉa (poor); malino (a male [jocular]); maldekstrume (counter-clockwise) |
mis- | incorrectly, awry | misloki (to misplace); misakuzi (to wrongly accuse); misfamiga (disparaging, from fama 'well-known' and the causative suffix -ig) |
pra- | great-(grand-), primordial, proto- | praavo (a great-grandfather); prapatro (a forefather); prabesto (a prehistoric beast); prahindeŭropa (Proto-Indoeuropean) |
re- | over again, back again | resendi (to send back); rekonstrui (to rebuild); reaboni (to renew a subscription); rebrilo (reflection, glare, from 'shine'); reira bileto (a return ticket, from iri 'to go'); ĝis (la) revido (au revoir, from ĝis 'until' and vido 'sight') |
There are, in addition, affixes not listed here: technical affixes, such as the biological family suffix -edo seen in numidedo (Guineafowls); a few taken from Ido, such as -oza (full of) in montoza (mountainous), muskoloza (muscular), poroza (porous); and literary or poetic proposals at varying degrees of acceptance, such as the laudative (praising) suffix -el- in skribelo (fine penmanship) [compare skribaĉo (scrawl)], or kia domelo! (what a house!) [compare domaĉo (hovel)].
Lexical (i.e. derivational) affixes may act as roots by taking one of the grammatical suffixes: mala (opposite), eta (slight), ano (a member), umo (a doohickey), eble (possibly), iĝi (to become), ero (a bit, a crumb). Also, through compounding, lexical roots may act as affixes: vidi (to see), povi (to be able to), vidpova (able to see, not blind); ĉefo (head, chief), urbo (a city), ĉefurbo (a capital). It is quite common for prepositions to be used as prefixes: alveni (to arrive), from al (to) and veni (come); senespera (hopeless), from sen (without) and espero (hope); pripensi (to consider), from pri (about) and pensi (to think); vendi pogrande (sell wholesale), from po (at the rate of) and grande (large [quantity]), etc. There is even aliĝilo (registration form), from the preposition al (to) and the suffixes -iĝ- (to become) and -ilo (a tool).
Compounds
Compound words in Esperanto are similar to English, in that the final root is basic to the meaning. The roots may be joined together directly, or with an epenthetic (linking) vowel to aid pronunciation. This epenthetic vowel is most commonly the nominal suffix -o-, used regardless of number or case, but other grammatical suffixes may be used when the inherent part of speech of the first root of the compound needs to be changed.
- kantobirdo (a songbird) versus birdokanto (a birdsong)
- velŝipo (a sailship) versus ŝipvelo (a ship sail)
- centjaro (a centennial [a year of a hundred]) versus jarcento (a century [a hundred of years])
- multekosta (expensive, with an adverbial -e-)
Prepositions are frequently found in compounds, and behave much like prefixes,
- pripensi ion (to consider something) versus pensi pri io (to think about something).
Since affixes may be used as root words, and roots may combine like affixes, the boundary between the two is blurred. Indeed, many so-called affixes are indistinguishable from other roots. However, "true" affixes are grammatically fixed as being either prefixes or suffixes, whereas the order of roots in compounds is determined by semantics.
Although Zamenhof did not prescribe rules for which consonant sequences are not acceptable and therefore when the epenthetic -o- may not be dropped, he generally omitted it when the result was two consonants, unless those consonants differed in voicing, as in rozokolora (rose-colored), or when the two consonants would be the same, as in vivovespero (the evening of life). (Epenthetic vowels are never used for affixes or prepositions, so double consonants are found in words like mallonga (short).) This reflects the voicing assimilation that is so prevalent in the world's languages, resulting in "rozkoloro" being pronounced /roskoloro/ (or even /rozgoloro/) by many people, and the general lack of geminate consonants in Esperanto. Zamenhof also retained it when the first element was very short and might be not recognized otherwise, as in diosimila (godlike), or when it would be homonymous with an existing word, as in konkoludo (shell game); cf. konkludo (conclusion).[2]
Reduplication
Reduplication is only marginally used in Esperanto. It has an intensivizing effect similar to that of the suffix -eg-. The common examples are plenplena (chock-full), from plena (full), finfine (finally, at last), from fina (final), and fojfoje (once in a while), from foje (once, sometimes). So far, reduplication has only been used with monosyllabic roots that don't require an epenthetic vowel when compounded.
Some examples
- amantino (a [female] lover)
- aminda (lovable)
- amema (loving)
- malameti (to feel distaste for)
- esperiga (hopeful [of a situation: inspiring hope])
- esperema (hopeful [of a person: tending to hope])
- Esperantujo (the Esperanto community)
- Esperantaĉo (broken Esperanto)
Affixes may be used in novel ways, creating new words that don't exist in any national language. Sometimes the results are poetic: In one Esperanto novel, a man opens an old book with a broken spine, and the yellowed pages disliberiĝas [from the root libera (free) and the affixes dis- and -iĝ-]. There is no equivalent way to express this in English, but it creates a very strong visual image of the pages escaping the book and scattering over the floor. More importantly, the word is comprehensible the first time one hears it.
Derivation by affix greatly expands a speaker's vocabulary, sometimes beyond what they know in their native language. For instance, the English word ommatidium (a single lens of a compound eye) is rather obscure, but a child would be able to coin an Esperanto equivalent, okulero, from okulo 'an eye' (or perhaps, more precisely, okularero, by first coining okularo for 'a compound eye'). In this way the Esperanto root vid- (see) regularly corresponds to some two dozen English words: see (saw, seen), sight, blind, vision, visual, visible, nonvisual, invisible, unsightly, glance, view, vista, panorama, observant etc., though there are also separate Esperanto roots for some of these concepts.
In the Fundamento, Zamenhof illustrated word formation by deriving the equivalents of recuperate, disease, hospital, germ, patient, doctor, medicine, pharmacy, etc. from sana (healthy). Not all of the resulting words translate well into English, in many cases because they distinguish fine shades of meaning that English lacks: Sano, sana, sane, sani, sanu, saniga, saneco, sanilo, sanigi, saniĝi, sanejo, sanisto, sanulo, malsano, malsana, malsane, malsani, malsanulo, malsaniga, malsaniĝi, malsaneta, malsanema, malsanulejo, malsanulisto, malsanero, malsaneraro, sanigebla, sanigisto, sanigilo, resanigi, resaniĝanto, sanigilejo, sanigejo, malsanemulo, sanilaro, malsanaro, malsanulido, nesana, malsanado, sanulaĵo, malsaneco, malsanemeco, saniginda, sanilujo, sanigilujo, remalsano, remalsaniĝo, malsanulino, sanigista, sanigilista, sanilista, malsanulista. Perhaps half of these words are in common use, but the others (and more) are available if needed.
Correlatives
The "correlatives" are a paradigm of pro-forms, used to ask and answer the questions what, where, when, why, who, whose, how, how much, and what kind. They are constructed from set elements so that correlatives with similar meanings have similar forms: There are nine endings corresponding to the nine wh- questions, and five initial elements that perform the functions of asking, answering, denying, being inclusive, and being indefinite about these nine questions. For example, the words kiam (when) and kiu (who, which), with the initial ki- of questions, ask about time and individuals, while the words tiam (then) and tiu (this/that one), with the same endings but the initial ti- of demonstratives, answer those questions, and the words neniam (never) and neniu (no-one) deny those questions. Thus by learning these 14 elements the speaker acquires a paradigm of 45 adverbs and pronouns.
The correlatives beginning with ti- correspond to the English demonstratives in th- (this, thus, then, there etc.), while ĉi- corresponds to every- and i- to some-. The correlatives beginning with ki- have a double function, as interrogative and relative pronouns and adverbs, just as the wh- words do in English: Kiu ĉevalo? (Which horse?), la ĉevalo, kiu forkuris (the horse which ran away).
The adjectival determiners ending in -u have the usual dual function of adjectives: standing alone as proforms, as in ĉiu (everyone); and modifying a noun, as in ĉiu tago (every day).
The correlatives have a genitive case ending in -es. Therefore the adjectival correlatives, ending in -ia and -iu, do not play that role, as adjectival personal pronouns such as mia "my" do. However, adjectival correlatives do agree in number and case with the nouns they modify, as any other adjectives: La ĉevaloj, kiujn mi vidis (The horses which I saw). They, as well as the independent determiners ending in -io, also take the accusative case when standing in for the object of a clause. The accusative of motion is used with the place correlatives in -ie, forming -ien (hither, whither, thither, etc.).
Table of correlatives
Question ("What") |
Indication ("This/that") |
Indefinite ("Some") |
Universal ("Each, every") |
Negative ("No") | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ki– | ti– | i– | ĉi– | neni– | ||
Quality | –a | kia (what a) |
tia (such a) |
ia (some kind/sort/type of) |
ĉia (every kind/sort/type of) |
nenia (no kind/sort/type of) |
Reason | –al | kial (why) |
tial (therefore) |
ial (for some reason) |
ĉial (for all reasons) |
nenial (for no reason) |
Time | –am | kiam (when) |
tiam (then) |
iam (sometime) |
ĉiam (always) |
neniam (never) |
Place | –e | kie (where) |
tie (there) |
ie (somewhere) |
ĉie (everywhere) |
nenie (nowhere) |
Manner | –el | kiel (how, as) |
tiel (thus, as) |
iel (somehow) |
ĉiel (in every way) |
neniel (no-how, in no way) |
Association | –es | kies (whose) |
ties (this/that one's) |
ies (someone's) |
ĉies (everyone's) |
nenies (no one's) |
Thing | –o | kio (what) |
tio (this/that) |
io (something) |
ĉio (everything) |
nenio (nothing) |
Amount | –om | kiom (how much) |
tiom (that much) |
iom (some, a bit) |
ĉiom (all of it) |
neniom (none) |
Individual | –u | kiu (who, which one; which [horse]) |
tiu (that one; that [horse]) |
iu (someone; some [horse]) |
ĉiu (everyone; each [horse], all [horses]) |
neniu (no one; no [horse]) |
Correlative particles
Several adverbial particles are used primarily with the correlatives: ajn indicates generality, ĉi proximity, and for distance. (Without these particles, demonstratives such as tiu and tio are not specific about distance, though they are usually translated as "that".)
- kio ajn (whatever)
- io ajn (anything)
- tio (that [general]) [cannot modify a noun]
- tiu (that one) [can modify a noun: tiu knabo (that boy)]
- tiuj (those)
- tiu ĉi (this one)
- tiu for (that one yonder)
- tien ĉi (hither [to here])
- ĉiu hundo (each/every dog)
- ĉiuj hundoj (all dogs)
An extension of the original paradigm
Sometimes the correlative system is extended to the root ali- (other), at least when the resulting word is unambiguous,
- aliel (in another way), alies (someone else's).
Alie, however, would be ambiguous as to whether the original meaning "otherwise" or the correlative "elsewhere" were intended, so aliloke (from loko "place") is used for "elsewhere".
As a practical matter, only aliel and alies are seen with any frequency, and all of these forms are condemned by many speakers.
Interrogative vs relative pronouns
Examples of the interrogative versus relative uses of the ki- words:
- Kiu ŝtelis mian ringon? (Who stole my ring?)
- La polico ne kaptis la ŝtelistojn, kiuj ŝtelis mian ringon. (The police haven't caught the thieves who [plural] stole my ring.)
- Kiel vi faris tion? (How did you do that[accusative]?)
- Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion. (I don't know how to do that.)
Also,
- Kia viro li estas? (What kind of man is he?)
- Kia viro! (What a man!)
Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ki- or the conjunction ke, "that"), a common feature to many Slavonic languages.
Derivatives
Various parts of speech may be derived from the correlatives, just as from any other roots: ĉiama (eternal), ĉiea (ubiquitous), tiama (contemporary), kialo (a reason), iomete (a little bit), kioma etaĝo? (which floor?) [This last requests a quantified answer of how many floors up, like la dek-sesa (the 16th), rather than asking someone to simply point out which floor, which would be asked with kiu etaĝo?. The same form is used for asking time: Kioma horo estas?, literally "How-manyeth hour is it?"]
Although the initial and final elements of the correlatives are not roots or affixes, in that they cannot normally be independently combined with other words (for instance, there is no genitive case in -es for nouns), the initial element of the neni- correlatives is an exception, as seen in neniulo (a nobody), from neni- plus -ulo, or neniigi, to nullify or destroy, from neni- plus the causative -ig.
Gender
Some Esperanto roots are semantically masculine or feminine. In general, feminine words are derived from their masculine equivalents.
Masculine roots
A small (and decreasing) number of noun roots, mostly titles and kinship terms, are inherently masculine unless the feminine suffix -ino is added. For example, there are patro (father) and patrino (mother), while there is no proper word for parent (as explained below).
The original setup
In the early twentieth century, members of a profession were assumed to be masculine unless specified otherwise with -ino, reflecting the expectations of most industrial societies. That is, sekretario was a male secretary, and instruisto was a male teacher. This was the case for all words ending in -isto, as well as -ulo (riĉulo "a rich man"), -ano and ethnicities (kristano "a male Christian", anglo "an Englishman"), -estro (urbestro "a male mayor"), and the participles -into, -anto, -onto, -ito, -ato, -oto (komencanto "a male beginner"). Many domestic animals were also masculine (bovo "bull", kapro "billygoat"). These generally became gender-neutral over the course of the century, as many similar words did in English, because of social transformation.
The current situation
There is still variation in many of the above words, depending on the social expectations and language background of the speaker. Many of the words are not clearly either masculine or epicene today. For example, the plural bovoj is generally understood to mean "cattle", not "bulls", and similarly the plurals angloj (Englishpeople) and komencantoj (beginners); but a masculine meaning reappears in bovo kaj bovino "a bull & cow", anglo kaj anglino (an Englishman & Englishwoman), komencanto kaj komencantino (a male & female beginner).
We are left with several dozen fairly clearly masculine roots:
- Words for boys and men: bubo (brat), eŭnuko (eunuch), fraŭlo (bachelor - the feminine fraŭlino is used for miss), knabo (boy), masklo (a male), viro (man), etc.;
- Kin terms: avo (grandfather), edzo (husband), fianĉo (fiance), filo (son), frato (brother), kuzo (cousin), nepo (grandson), nevo (nephew), onklo (uncle), patro (father), vidvo (widower);
- Nobility: barono (baron), caro (czar), emiro (emir), grafo (count), mikado (mikado), princo (prince), reĝo (king), sinjoro (lord, sir), ŝaho (shah), etc.;
- Religious orders: abato (abbot), monaĥo (monk), papo (Pope), rabeno (rabbi), imamo (imam), etc.
- Basic words for domestic animals: koko (rooster);
- Dedicated masculine words for domestic animals that already have a separate epicene root: boko (buck), kapono (castrated rooster), okso (castrated bull), stalono (stallion), taŭro (bull), etc.;
- The word for friend: amiko.
A few of these, such as masklo and the words dedicated for male animals, are essentially masculine and are never used with the feminine suffix. The others remain masculine mainly because Zamenhof did not establish a way to derive masculine words the way he did for feminine words. To partially remedy this, the root vir (man) has long been used to form the masculine of animal words. Originally a suffix, since the 1926 publication of the Esperanto translation of the Bible it has shifted in use to a prefix, but either way the resulting words are ambiguous.[3] Bovoviro "bovine-man" and virbovo "man-bovine", for example, could mean either "minotaur" or "bull", and therefore both taŭro (bull) and minotaŭro (minotaur) have been borrowed into the language to disambiguate.
Not all of these words are stably masculine. Native English speakers, among others, tend to treat kuzo (a cousin) and amiko (a friend) as gender-neutral, and nepo (a grandson/grandchild), bubo (a brat), and koko (a rooster/chicken) are often ambiguous as well. Once such a word is used ambiguously by a significant number of speakers or writers, it can no longer be assumed to be masculine. Language guides suggest using all ambiguous words neutrally, and many people find this the least confusing approach—and so the ranks of masculine words gradually dwindle.
Feminine roots
Besides the suffix -ino, there are several dozen feminine roots:
- Words for women: femalo (a female), hetajro (concubine), matrono (married woman), megero (shrew/bitch);
- Professions: almeo (dancing girl), gejŝo (geisha), meretrico (prostitute), primadono (prima donna), subreto (soubrette);
- Titles: damo (lady, queen), madono (Madonna);
- Mythological figures: amazono (Amazon), furio (Fury), muzo (Muse), nimfo (nymph), etc.
Unlike their masculine counterparts, feminine words have not generally been reinterpreted as epicene.
Personal names
The ending of all assimilated nouns in Esperanto with -o, including personal names, clashes with Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish, in which -o marks masculine names, and feminine names end in -a. For example, the fully Esperantized form of 'Mary' is Mario, which resembles Spanish masculine Mario rather than feminine María. (Though suffixed Mariino is also available, it is seldom seen.) This has resulted in some writers using a final -a for feminine names with cognates in Romance languages, such as Johano "John" vs. Johana "Joanna", rather than using the feminine suffix -in for a more fully assimilated Johano and Johanino, or Jozefo "Joseph" and Jozefino "Josephine". Some writers extend this -a convention to all female names.
Gendered pronouns
Esperanto personal pronouns distinguish gender in the third-person singular: li (he), ŝi (she); but not in the plural: ili (they). There are two practical epicene third-person singular pronouns: expanding the use of the demonstrative pronoun tiu (that one), and Zamenhof's suggestion, ĝi.
See the discussions at Esperanto personal pronouns and gender reform in Esperanto.
Antonyms
People sometimes object to using the prefix mal- to derive highly frequent antonyms, especially when they're as long as malproksima (far). There are a few alternative roots in poetry, such as turpa for malbela (ugly) and pigra for mallaborema (lazy) — some of which originated in Ido, — that find their way into prose. However, they are rarely used in conversation. This is a combination of two factors: the great ease and familiarity of using the mal- prefix, and the relative obscurity of most of the alternatives, which would hamper communication. This results in English borrowings – such as ĉipa (cheap) for malmultekosta (inexpensive) – failing to find favor even among native English speakers.
Two root antonyms are frequently encountered: eta (little), and dura (hard [not soft]). However, their popularity is due to their iconicity. Eta is derived from the diminutive suffix and more properly means slight, but it's a little word, and its use for malgranda (little) is quite common. The reason for the popularity of dura is similar: official malmola simply sounds too soft to mean "hard".
Other antonymic words tend to have a different scope. For example, instead of malbona (bad) we may see aĉa (of poor quality) or fia (shameful), but these are not strict antonyms.
Idioms and slang
There is less slang found in Esperanto than in many ethnic languages,[citation needed] as slang tends to make international communication difficult, thereby working against Esperanto's main purpose. However, some slang, as well as a fair amount of derivational wordplay, is used to spice up the language, and some idiomatic expressions have either been borrowed from Esperanto's source languages, or developed naturally over the course of Esperanto's history. There are also various expletives based on body functions and religion, as in English.
Idioms
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", means "to publish"; a vortaro, literally "a compilation of words", means "a glossary" or "a dictionary"; and necesejo, literally "a place for necessities", is a toilet. Almost all of these compounds, however, are modeled after equivalent compounds in native European languages: eldoni after the German herausgeben, and vortaro from the Russian словарь slovar'.
Contractions
Saluton (hello) is sometimes clipped to sal or even sa, and saluĝis (from saluton – ĝis la revido) is seen as a quick hello-goodbye on internet chatrooms. Similarly, there's:
- espo (Esperanto)
- kaŭ (from kaj/aŭ 'and/or')
- ŝli (from li/ŝi 'he/she' and ŝ/li 's/he')
- ’stas (from estas 'is, are, am')
In the contraction ’stas the stress shifts to the temporal suffix, which makes the tenses easier to distinguish than they are in formal estas, and effectively recapturing some of the stress patterns of Proto-Esperanto (see below).
Word play
Sometimes Esperanto derivational morphology is used to create humorous alternatives to existing roots. For instance, with the antonym prefix mal-, one gets,
- maltrinki (from trinki to drink) to urinate (normally urini)
- malmanĝi (from manĝi to eat) to vomit (normally vomi).
As in English, some slang is intentionally offensive, such as substituting the suffix -ingo (a sheath) for the feminine -ino in virino (a woman), for viringo (a cunt [a woman as a sexual object]). However, such terms are usually coined to translate from English or other languages, and are rarely heard in conversation.
Cultural "in" words
Esperanto has some slang in the sense of being in-group talk as well. Some of this is borrowed; for example, fajfi pri io (to whistle about something) means not to care about it, as in German. Other expressions deriving from Esperanto history or dealing with specifically Esperantist concerns have arisen over the years. A volapukaĵo, for example, is something needlessly incomprehensible, derived from the name of the more complex and less at-sight readable constructed language Volapük, which preceded Esperanto by a few years and was replaced by it.
Words and phrases reflect what speakers of a language talk about. Tellingly, Esperanto has a slang expression krokodili (to crocodile) for speaking a language other than Esperanto when Esperanto would be more appropriate, as at an Esperanto convention, whereas there is nothing equivalent in English. It might have originated in the legend of crocodile tears, in that to come to an Esperanto function yet choose to speak one's own language could be viewed as hypocritical.
Jargon
Technical jargon exists in Esperanto as it does in English, and this is a major source of debate in the language.
However, the normal wordplay people use for amusement is occasionally carried to the extreme of being jargon. One such style is called Esperant’, found in chat rooms and occasionally used at Esperanto conventions. (See Esperantido.)
Artificial variants
There's one line of verse, taken from the sole surviving example of the original Lingwe uniwersala of 1878, that's used idiomatically,
- jam temp’ está (it's time).
If this stage of Esperanto had been preserved, it would presumably be used to occasionally give a novel the archaic flavor that Latin provides in the modern European languages.
Various approaches have been taken to represent deviant language in Esperanto literature. One play, for example, originally written in two dialects of Italian, was translated with Esperanto representing one dialect, and Ido representing the other. Other approaches are to attempt to reconstruct proto-Esperanto, and to create de novo variants of the language.
Reconstructions
With so little data available, various attempts have been made to reconstruct what proto-Esperanto may have been like. However, these reconstructions rely heavily on material from the intermediate period of Esperanto development, between the original Lingwe Uniwersala of 1878 and the Unua Libro of 1887. (See Proto-Esperanto.)
De novo creations
There are various "dialects" and pseudo-historical forms that have been created for literary uses in Esperanto. Two of the more notable are a substandard jargon, Popido, and a fictitious "archaic" version of Esperanto called Arcaicam Esperantom. Neither are used in conversation. (See Esperantido.)
False friends
Because Esperanto vocabulary is largely international, it shares many cognates with English. However, because they were often taken from languages other than English, these do not always have their English meanings. Some of the mismatches are:
- domaĝi (be sparing), vs. difekti (to damage)
- embaraso (jam, obstruction), vs. hontigi (to embarrass)
- aktuala (current, up-to-date), vs. efektiva (actual), vs. efika (effective)
- eventuala (contingent), vs. rezulta (eventual)
- akurata (punctual, on-time), vs. preciza (accurate)
- kontroli (to check, keep track of), vs. regi (to control)
- konvena (suitable), vs. oportuna (convenient)
- rento (dividend income), vs. lupago (rent)
- paragrafo (section), vs. alineo (paragraph)
Dictionaries
La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto (English: The Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto, abbreviated as PIV) is a monolingual dictionary of the language Esperanto, generally regarded as the standard despite criticisms. The older Plena Vortaro de Esperanto, originally published in 1930 and extensively revised in 1953, is still widely used as, though less ample than PIV and slightly outdated, it's far more portable and less expensive. The Etimologia vortaro de Esperanto (five volumes, 1989–2001) gives source-language etymologies (tentative and uncertain in a few cases) of all fundamental and official root words, along with comparisons of equivalent words in four other constructed international auxiliary languages.
Notes
- ^ -enda is a borrowing from Ido. It is often equivalent to the nonce passive conditional participle: pagenda 'payable', paguta 'that which would/should be paid'.
- ^ Plena analiza gramatiko, §309.
- ^ http://www.ccey-gki.perso.cegetel.net/Biblioteko/Tabulo1/GramatikodeEsperanto.html
External links
- Reta Vortaro, an XML-based online dictionary of Esperanto with definitions in Esperanto and various other languages
- "PV kaj PIV", Anna Lowenstein. Discussion of the Plena Vortaro and Plena Ilustrita Vortaro, and criticism of the latter.