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Subject: Re^2: Single European Language
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 23:00:00 +0000
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*jbm* meinte im Brett /ALT/POLITICS/EC
am        : *17.06.95* um *07:13*
zum Thema : *Re: Single European Language*

j>The problem with Esperanto is that its vocabulary has been
j>created in a haphazard manner, a bit of Germanic here, of
j>Romance there, without any regard for historical phonological
j>changes either. The result is that, if you can struggle
j>through an Esperanto with just a knowledge of English,
j>German, French and Italian (or Spanish), you can *never*
j>predict what this or that word will be in Esperanto.

Esperanto is not there to guess from which language the roots are.

_Sur la pont' d`Avignon_ oni dancas, oni dancas,
sur la pont' d'Avignon oni dancas en la rond'.

_Kavaliroj de l'tablo ronda_, venu do vinon provu ni,
Venu do, jes, jes, jes, venu do, ne, ne, ne, venu do vinon provu ni.

Trinkos ni kvin au ses boteloj, belulin' sur nia ghenu'

Se mi mortos min enterigu, en la kelo kun dolcha vin'.

        You can now guess the content of what I wrote, and I bet you    
        will find out. The guessing only works in that direction.

But the prefix "mal" always works.   bona-malbona
   la malo=the contrary              dika-maldika
                                     bela-malbela
                                   granda-malgranda

so if you know "dekstra" for right, you can find out the word for left  
and if you know the the word "rapida" for fast, you can make the word  
for slow out of it.   large and narrow = largha kaj mallargha
                       warm and cold      varma kaj malvarma

Oh, I forgot to tell you that all adjectives end with an "a".

j>Take for instance "room", cxambro. I might as well guess
j>cimero, kamero, whatnot. Take "to eat". I could guess
j>komi, esi, fresi, manjxi, manduki etc.... well, it's
j>Italian I should have picked: mangxi. Now "dog".
j>Hundo or kano? Hundo. There is no rhyme nor reason to
j>it. Occasionally, you even get Latin drawn into it:
j>scii.
j>  The way to go about it ought to be to draw a basic
j>vocabulary from scientific terms, paying much attention
j>to the patterns of usage, so that you would always be
j>sure which, between Greek and Latin. For instance,
j>you ought to be able to predict whether "stone"

You better stop trying to be clearvoyant and just learn the word for  
stone - it is called  "shtono" :-)

j>is taken from Greek or Latin. Not easy, but not impossible
j>either.
j>  Alas, it's too late.

Jes, estas tro mal-frue por shanghi la lingvon.

I hope you can guess that.

Salutojn,
Diana
diana@access.owl.de
