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From: donh@netcom.com (Don HARLOW)
Subject: Re: Esperanto nouns
Message-ID: <donhD7G69A.3BG@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <1995Apr10.123523.16494@guvax> <797617510snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <donhD7D7y6.AJF@netcom.com> <1995Apr22.003557.16667@guvax>
Distribution: inet,world
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 1995 17:36:45 GMT
Lines: 47
Sender: donh@netcom14.netcom.com

harrisd@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu skribis en lastatempa afisxo <1995Apr22.003557.16667@guvax>:

[Multon pri la -O finajxo en                Much stuff about the -O ending
 Esperanto kaj ties versxajna               in Esperanto and its apparent 
 vireco. Mi enlasas la kvar unuajn          masculinity. I leave in the 
 liniojn.                                   first four lines.]

>That may be, but Esperanto is clearly Romance-based and in 
>Romance-based languages, -o generally indicates masculine such that 
>patrino sounds more like an ink cartridge or a magazine for a weapon 
>than a mother. I dont' have much against Esperanto. I like it. But I 

(1) Por la plimultaj esperantistoj          For the majority of Esperant-
 (kiuj ne scipovas latinidan                ists (who don't know a 
 lingvon) la -O _ne_ havas ligojn           Romance language) the -O has 
 kun vireco.                                _no_ links with masculinity.

(2) En la plej latina el latinaj            In that most Romance of 
 lingvoj, nome la latina, la -O             Romance languages, namely 
 sur substantivoj suficxe ofte              Latin, the -O on nouns 
 (preskaux cxiam, laux mia memoro)          usually (almost always, as I 
 indikas, ke la substantivo estas           remember) indicates that the 
 fakte _ina_ (nome, la -TIO kaj             noun is in fact _feminine_ 
 -TUDO substantivoj en la tria              (namely the -TIO and -TUDO 
 deklinacio). Eble Rob Helm povas           nouns of the third declen-
 korekti min pri tio, se mi eraras.         sion). Rob Helm may wish to 
                                            correct me on this if I am 
                                            wrong.

(3) Cetere, estas amuze, ke tiun            Furthermore, it's amusing 
 kritikon mi auxdis en 36 jaroj da          that in 36 years of being an 
 esperantisteco nur eble dekon da           Esperantist I've heard this 
 fojoj -- kaj cxiam de neparolanto          criticism perhaps only a 
 de latinida lingvo (la plej konata         dozen times -- and always 
 estis tiu de Willy Ley, _Galaxy            from someone who doesn't 
 Science Fiction_, februaro 1960 --         [natively] speak a Romance 
 Ley mem estis germanlingvano.)             language (best known is that 
                                            of Willy Ley, _Galaxy Science 
                                            Fiction_, Feb. 1960 -- Ley 
                                            himself was a speaker of 
                                            German.)

-- 
Don HARLOW			donh@netcom.com
Esperanto League for N.A.       elna@netcom.com (800) 828-5944
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/el/elna/elna.html         Esperanto
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/do/donh/donh.html 
