Esperanto vocabulary
Encyclopedia
The word base of Esperanto
was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof
in 1887. It contained some 900 root words. The rules of the language allow 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. 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 borrowing is justified or whether the need can be met by derivation or extending the meaning of existing words.
s 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).
. Through the judicious use of lexical affix
es (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 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.
s: 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 what are usually called "affixes". Most of them, however, are actually lexical roots, in that they can be used as independent words and their relative order in a compound is determined by semantics, not grammar. They are called "affixes" mainly because they derive from affixes in Esperanto's source languages. Some are true affixes in that, while they may be used independently, their order within a word is fixed by the grammar. Only a few cannot be used independently and so correspond to how a typical affix behaves in English.
When a root receives more than one affix, their order matters, 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.
There are, in addition, affixes not listed here: technical affixes, such as the biological family suffix -edo seen in numidedo (Guineafowl
s), and a few taken from Ido
, such as -oza (full of) in montoza (mountainous), muskoloza (muscular), poroza (porous).
Lexical
(i.e. derivation
al) 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 (an instrument).
(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.
Prepositions are frequently found in compounds, and behave much like prefixes,
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- is required, he generally omitted it when the result was a sequence of two consonants, as in velŝipo above. However, he inserted an -o-,
s, such as l, r, m, n, j, which do not have voiceless equivalents in Esperanto, so the -o- may be safely dropped from velŝipo.)when the two consonants would be the same, as in vivovespero (the evening of life). This reflects the general lack of geminate consonants in Esperanto. However, epenthetic vowels are never used with affixes or prepositions, so double consonants are found in such cases, as for example in mallonga (short).
when the first element was very short and might not otherwise be recognized, as in diosimila (godlike).
when the compound would otherwise be homonymous with an existing word, as in konkoludo (shell game); cf. konkludo (conclusion).
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.
(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.
s" are a paradigm of pro-form
s, 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 demonstrative
s, 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 demonstrative
s 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). Those ending in -io are exclusively used standing alone.
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.).
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 even they are condemned by many speakers.
La polico ne kaptis la ŝtelistojn, kiuj ŝtelis mian ringon. (The police haven't caught the thieves who [plural] stole my ring.)
Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion. (I don't know how to do that.)
Also,
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 feature common to many Slavic languages.
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.
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: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. 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.
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.
See the discussions at Esperanto personal pronouns and gender reform in Esperanto.
, – 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.
s based on body functions and religion, as in English.
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).
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 receptacle for a man]). However, such terms are usually coined to translate from English or other languages, and are rarely heard in conversation.
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.
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
.)
of 1878, is used idiomatically:
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.
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
.)
(English: The Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto, abbreviated PIV) is the largest monolingual dictionary of the language and is generally regarded as the standard. However, it is subject to criticism, for example for failure to distinguish rare, idiosyncratic, redundant, or even erroneous words attested in a few written texts from their conversational equivalents, and for giving French approximations of some difficult words rather than their Zamehofian meanings. The older Plena Vortaro de Esperanto, originally published in 1930 and appennded in 1953, is still widely used, as more portable and less expensive than the PIV, and perhaps more accurate, even if somewhat dated. The Etimologia vortaro de Esperanto (five volumes, 1989–2001) gives source-language etymologies of all fundamental and official root words (tentative and uncertain in a few cases), along with comparisons of equivalent words in four other constructed international auxiliary languages.
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof
L. L. Zamenhof
Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof December 15, 1859 – April 14, 1917) was the inventor of Esperanto, the most successful constructed language designed for international communication.-Cultural background:...
in 1887. It contained some 900 root words. The rules of the language allow 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. 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 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 languageConstructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
s such as Interlingua
Interlingua
Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association...
, which take words en masse from their source languages with little internal derivation, and a priori conlangs such as Solresol
Solresol
Solresol is an artificial language devised by François Sudre, beginning in 1827. He published his major book on it, Langue musicale universelle, in 1866, though he had already been publicizing it for some years...
, 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 morphologyMorphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
. Through the judicious use of lexical affix
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
es (prefixes and suffixes
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
), the core vocabulary needed for communication was greatly reduced, making Esperanto a more agglutinative language
Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
than most European languages. It has been estimated that on average one root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
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 to be an onerous and unnecessary burden on the memory, when it is so easy to derive equivalent words internally (for example by calquing
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
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 antonymAntonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
s: 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
Esperanto grammar
Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language. A highly regular grammar makes Esperanto much easier to learn than most other languages of the world, though particular features may be more or less advantageous or difficult depending on the language background of the speaker...
. What follows is a list of what are usually called "affixes". Most of them, however, are actually lexical roots, in that they can be used as independent words and their relative order in a compound is determined by semantics, not grammar. They are called "affixes" mainly because they derive from affixes in Esperanto's source languages. Some are true affixes in that, while they may be used independently, their order within a word is fixed by the grammar. Only a few cannot be used independently and so correspond to how a typical affix behaves in English.
When a root receives more than one affix, their order matters, 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 Pejorative Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts... (expresses negative affect Affect (linguistics) In linguistics, speaker affect is attitude or emotion that a speaker brings to an utterance. Affects such as sarcasm, contempt, dismissal, distaste, disgust, disbelief, exasperation, boredom, anger, joy, respect or disrespect, sympathy, pity, gratitude, wonder, admiration, humility, and awe are... 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'); aĵaĉo (junk, from -aĵo); aĉigi (to screw up); aĉ ! (yuck!) |
| frequent, repeated, or continual action (often imperfective Imperfective aspect The imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future... ); 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, a novelty); glaciaĵo (an ice[cream]); bovaĵo (beef); aĉigaĵo (a snafu); 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 (a fleet of ships); anaro (a society [group of members]); aro (a herd, group, set) |
| -ĉjo | masculine affectionate form Nickname A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name.... ; 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); bono or boneco (goodness); italeca (Italianesque); ecaro (character [sum of qualities]) |
| -eg- | augmentative Augmentative An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes... ; 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) |
| -el- | laudative Laudative Laudatives are words or grammatical forms that denote a positive affect. That is, they express praise or approval on the part of the speaker. Laudatory words in English include phrases such as "he's a saint" , "this is ambrosia" ; there is also the concept of laudatory intonation, as in "What a... [unofficial] (expresses positive affect Affect (linguistics) In linguistics, speaker affect is attitude or emotion that a speaker brings to an utterance. Affects such as sarcasm, contempt, dismissal, distaste, disgust, disbelief, exasperation, boredom, anger, joy, respect or disrespect, sympathy, pity, gratitude, wonder, admiration, humility, and awe are... or a good opinion of the object or action) |
skribelo (calligraphy, from 'write'); kia domelo! (what a house!); vinelo ('nectar', from 'wine'); homelo (a saint [metaphorically]) |
| -ema | having a propensity, tendency | ludema (playful), parolema (talkative), kredema (credulous); brulema (flammable); emo (inclination); malema (unwilling) |
| -enda | 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 Ommatidium The compound eyes of insects, mantis shrimp and millipedes are composed of units called ommatidia . An ommatidium contains a cluster of photoreceptor cells surrounded by support cells and pigment cells. The outer part of the ommatidium is overlaid with a transparent cornea... , from 'eye'), vortero (a morpheme Morpheme In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,... , 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 Diminutive In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment... ; 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 | a country named after a geographic feature, and now after an ethnicity | Meksikio (Mexico, from Meksiko 'Mexico City'); Niĝerio (Nigeria, from Niĝero 'the river Niger'); Anglio (England, from Anglo 'English 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 Transitive verb In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:... /causative Causative In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event.... ) |
mortigi (to kill, from 'die'); purigi (to clean); konstruigi (to have built); igi (to cause) |
| -iĝi | to become (intransitivizer Intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb.... /inchoative Inchoative Inchoative aspect is a grammatical aspect, referring to the beginning of an action or state. It can be found in conservative Indo-European languages such as Latin and Lithuanian, and also in Finnic languages. It should not be confused with the prospective, which denotes actions that are about to... /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 (a 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); plorindaĵo (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); registaro (a government, from 'rule, govern') |
| -njo | feminine affectionate form Nickname A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name.... ; the root is truncated |
Jonjo (Joanie); panjo (mommy); anjo (granny); onjo (aunty); vanjo (nanny, from 'nurse'); aminjo (dear friend); la injoj (the 'girls', from -ino or -ido) |
| -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 (archaic when referring to a political entity), 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); boparenciĝi (to marry into a family, from parenco 'a relative'); boedziĝi (to marry one's dead brother's wife Levirate marriage Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother.... , 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 Perfective aspect The perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms... ) |
ekbrilo (a flash [of lightning]); ekami (to fall in love); ekkrii (to cry out); ekvidi (to catch sight of); 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']); eksa (former); ekskutima (previously customary); Eks la estro! (Down with our leader!) |
| fi- | shameful, nasty, disgusting, filthy | fihomo (a wicked person); fimensa (foul-minded); fivorto (a profane word); fibuŝo (a dirty mouth); fibesto (vermin); fia (vile); fie! (For shame!); 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 Antonym In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not... |
malgranda (small); malriĉa (poor); malplena (empty); malino (a male [jocular]); maldekstrume (counter-clockwise); nemalobeebla leĝo (a law which cannot be disobeyed, from obe- 'to obey'), mala (opposite) |
| mis- | incorrectly, awry | misloki (to misplace); misakuzi (to wrongly accuse); misfamiga (disparaging, from fama 'well-known' and the causative suffix -ig); mise (incorrectly) |
| pra- | great-(grand-), primordial, primitive, proto- | praavo (a great-grandfather); prapatro (a forefather); prabesto (a prehistoric beast); prahejmo (ancestral home); prahindeŭropa (Proto-Indoeuropean) |
| re- | over again, back again | resendi (to send back); rekonstrui (to rebuild); resalti (to rebound); rediri (to repeat); reaboni (to renew a subscription); rebrilo (reflection, glare, from 'shine'); reira bileto (a return ticket, from iri 'to go'); refoje (once again); 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 (Guineafowl
Guineafowl
The guineafowl are a family of birds in the Galliformes order, although some authorities include the guineafowl as a subfamily, Numidinae, of the family Phasianidae...
s), and a few taken from Ido
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
, such as -oza (full of) in montoza (mountainous), muskoloza (muscular), poroza (porous).
Lexical
Lexeme
A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN...
(i.e. derivation
Derivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
al) affixes may act as roots by taking one of the grammatical
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
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 (an instrument).
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 epentheticEpenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
(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.
Prepositions are frequently found in compounds, and behave much like prefixes,
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- is required, he generally omitted it when the result was a sequence of two consonants, as in velŝipo above. However, he inserted an -o-,
- when the two consonants that would come together differed in voicingVoice (phonetics)Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
, and would both become different consonants if their voicing were changed, as in
Sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and...
s, such as l, r, m, n, j, which do not have voiceless equivalents in Esperanto, so the -o- may be safely dropped from velŝipo.)
Reduplication
ReduplicationReduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
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
Esperantujo
Esperantujo or Esperantio is a term used by speakers of the constructed international auxiliary language Esperanto to refer to the Esperanto community and the activities going on in the language. When two people are speaking Esperanto, they are said to be "in" Esperantujo.The word is formed...
(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 "correlativeCorrelative
In grammar, correlatives are words that are separated in a sentence but function together to perform a single function.In English, examples are both—and, either—or, neither—nor, the—the , so—that , and if—then. In the Romance languages, the demonstrative pro-forms function as correlatives with the...
s" are a paradigm of pro-form
Pro-form
A pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context...
s, 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 demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s, 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 demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s 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
Interrogative word
In linguistics, an interrogative word is a function word used for the item interrupted in an information statement. Interrogative words are sometimes called wh-words because most of English interrogative words start with wh-...
and relative
Relative clause
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the man who wasn't there" contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there...
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). Those ending in -io are exclusively used standing alone.
The correlatives have a genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
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 Interrogative word In linguistics, an interrogative word is a function word used for the item interrupted in an information statement. Interrogative words are sometimes called wh-words because most of English interrogative words start with wh-... ("What") |
Indication Demonstrative In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others... ("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 Genitive case In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun... |
–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".)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,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 even they are condemned by many speakers.
Interrogative
vs relative pronouns Examples of the interrogative versus relative uses of the ki- words:Also,
Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ki- or the conjunction ke, "that"), a feature common to many Slavic 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 epiceneEpicene
Epicene is an adjective for loss of gender distinction, often specific loss of masculinity. It includes:* effeminacy — a man with characteristics that are traditionally feminine...
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:
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. 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:
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 IdoIdo
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
, – 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
Iconicity
In functional-cognitive linguistics, as well as in semiotics, iconicity is the conceived similarity or analogy between the form of a sign and its meaning, as opposed to arbitrariness.Iconic principles:...
. 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, 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 expletiveExpletive attributive
Expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning "to fill", via expletivus, "filling out". It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century to refer to various kinds of padding—the padding out of a book with peripheral material, the addition of syllables to a line of poetry for...
s 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: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,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 receptacle for a man]). 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 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 languageConstructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
Volapük
Volapük
Volapük is a constructed language, created in 1879–1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic priest in Baden, Germany. Schleyer felt that God had told him in a dream to create an international language. Volapük conventions took place in 1884 , 1887 and 1889 . The first two conventions used...
, 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
Crocodile tears
Crocodile tears are a false or insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite crying fake tears of grief. The phrase gives its name to crocodile tears syndrome, an uncommon consequence of recovery from Bell's palsy where faulty regeneration of the facial nerve causes sufferers to shed tears...
, in that to come to an Esperanto function yet choose to speak one's own language could be viewed as hypocritical.
Jargon
Technical jargonJargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
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
Esperantido
Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. Esperantido originally referred to the language of that name, which later came to be known as Ido. The word Esperantido is derived from Esperanto...
.)
Artificial variants
One line of verse, taken from the sole surviving example of the original Lingwe uniwersalaProto-Esperanto
Proto-Esperanto is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhof's language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887.-The Lingwe uniwersala of 1878:...
of 1878, is used idiomatically:
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
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
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 LibroUnua Libro
The Unua Libro was the first publication to describe the international language Esperanto . It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887 in Warsaw, by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. Over the next few years editions were published in Russian, Hebrew, Polish, French, German,...
of 1887. (See Proto-Esperanto
Proto-Esperanto
Proto-Esperanto is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhof's language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887.-The Lingwe uniwersala of 1878:...
.)
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
Arcaicam Esperantom
Arcaicam Esperantom is a constructed language created to act as a fictional 'Old Esperanto,' in the vein of languages such as Old English or the use of Latin citations in modern texts...
. Neither are used in conversation. (See Esperantido
Esperantido
Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. Esperantido originally referred to the language of that name, which later came to be known as Ido. The word Esperantido is derived from Esperanto...
.)
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:Dictionaries
La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de EsperantoPlena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto
240px|thumb|The 2004 edition of La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro.La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto is a monolingual dictionary of the language Esperanto...
(English: The Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto, abbreviated PIV) is the largest monolingual dictionary of the language and is generally regarded as the standard. However, it is subject to criticism, for example for failure to distinguish rare, idiosyncratic, redundant, or even erroneous words attested in a few written texts from their conversational equivalents, and for giving French approximations of some difficult words rather than their Zamehofian meanings. The older Plena Vortaro de Esperanto, originally published in 1930 and appennded in 1953, is still widely used, as more portable and less expensive than the PIV, and perhaps more accurate, even if somewhat dated. The Etimologia vortaro de Esperanto (five volumes, 1989–2001) gives source-language etymologies of all fundamental and official root words (tentative and uncertain in a few cases), along with comparisons of equivalent words in four other constructed international auxiliary languages.
External links
- Reta Vortaro, an XML-based online dictionary of Esperanto with definitions in Esperanto and various other languages
- "PV kaj PIV", Anna LowensteinAnna LöwensteinAnna Löwenstein is an internationally known Esperantist. She worked for the World Esperanto Association 1977-1981. Under the name Anna Brennan she founded and was editor of the magazine Sekso kaj egaleco 1979-1988, and she edited the 'easy language' part of Kontakto 1983-1986. She has written...
. Discussion of the Plena Vortaro and Plena Ilustrita Vortaro, and criticism of the latter.
See also
- Esperanto lexicographersEsperanto lexicographersEsperanto lexicographers are individuals or groups, whether enthusiastic amateurs or trained linguists, who have produced single-language or bilingual dictionaries of Esperanto....
- Most common words in EsperantoMost common words in Esperanto- See also :*Frequency analysis *Frequency list*Most common words in English*Swadesh list*Zipf's law- External links :* "contains the 552 most frequent Esperanto words and morphemes"...
- Vortaro de EsperantoVortaro de EsperantoThe Vortaro de Esperanto , published by Kazimierz Bein in 1911, was the first monolingual dictionary ever published for Esperanto....