Esperanto - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Presentation

Although it was adopted officially by no international agency other than those dedicated to the language - as the Worldwide association of Esperanto (UEA) or the Worldwide association anationale (SAT) - Esperanto is the international means of communication of a community of speakers of modest size, but not having never ceased growing. The advent of Internet makes it possible to much more easily connect the users of Esperanto, and to facilitate the training of the language to the people who are interested in it. Today, Esperanto is used for a broad range of activities: voyages, correspondence, cultural exchanges, conferences, Literature, Data-processing, training of other languages, Television, radio, etc

Of all the many projects of built Language, Esperanto is that which gained the most success, and the only one which is a little known general public. One can thus find speakers of Esperanto in almost all the countries of the world; it is very difficult to estimate their number, but a study considered as serious gives an estimate of 2 million, estimate included in particular in the World Almanach and Book off Facts and in the Quid (study carried out by professor Culbert, of the Université of Washington).

History

Linguistic characteristics

Classification

As a built Language, Esperanto généalogiquement is généalogiquement attached to no family of living languages. However, a share of its grammar and the essence of its vocabulary carry to attach it to the Indo-European Langues. This linguistic group constituted the basic repertory from which Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof “composed” its international language.

By its standard morphological however, Esperanto significantly deviates from the Indo-European languages, with dominant flexional. Indeed, it consists exclusively of Monème S invariable which combines without restriction, which connects it with the insulating Langues. In Esperanto, as in Chinese, one derives “my” ( mia ), of “I” ( semi ) and “first” ( unua ) of “one” ( unu ). It also approaches the agglutinant Langues like the Korean , the Finnois, the Japanese or the Turkish by its tendency to accumulate, without scrambling the limits of them, of the Morphème S carriers each one of a grammatical Trait distinct. Verbal forms such as tradukendos (“will have to be translated”), videblas (“can be considering”) or seriozemi (“to tend to be serious”) point out the Turkish system of Conjugaison.

Phonetics and writing

Grammar

The Grammaire of Esperanto is based on sixteen principles stated in the Fundamento of Esperanto , adopted like intangible reference to the first Universal Congress of Esperanto de Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1905. They do not constitute however that a framework in which were gradually disengaged from the more detailed rules.

Substantives, adjectives and adverbs

A word is formed while adding to a Radical (linguistics) of the invariable Morphème S announcing each one a grammatical Trait precise:

- O for the Substantive S
- has for the Adjectif S
- E for the derived Adverbe S
- J for the plural
- N for the Cas Accusatif.

Plural ( - J ) then the accusative ( - N ) follow the termination of substantive or adjective, which gives the terminations - agenda , - ojn , - aj , - ajn . The adjective agrees of number and in case with the name to which it is referred.

The accusative has as a function essential to mark the Direct object ( Ili konstruas grandan domon “They build a large house”), but indicates also the change of place, position or state ( Mi will go Parizon “I go to Paris”, ŝanĝi akvon in glacion “to change water into ice”). A characteristic of Esperanto is that in this employment, the mark of the accusative can be also added to the adverb. Lastly, the accusative also has a function “joker”: in competition with the preposition I , it get busy in case of doubt, or to replace a preposition, and then mark simply the syntactic dependence ( tiu tablo estas longa I of the metroj ~ tiu tablo estas of the metrojn longa “This table makes two meters length”; oni pendigis flax kun the kapo malsupren ~ oni pendigis flax kapon malsupren “One hung it the upside down”).

The others syntactic functions are indicated by Préposition S.

Verbs

The Verbe S are characterized by a series of marks which form a Conjugaison mixing with temporal values and modal:

- ace for the present
- is for the past
- bone for the future
- custom for conditional the
- U for volitive the
- I for infinitive.

These terminations make it possible to express any concept in the form of verb: muziko “music” → Li muzikas “it plays of the music”, ĝoja “merry” → ĝoji “to be delighted” → “it plays of the music”. This possibility is in particular exploited to form verbs of state starting from adjectives: “it is beautiful” can say ŝi as well bleated as ŝi estas bleated .

The conditional one is the mode of fiction, of the unreal one; it as well gets busy in Main clause as in Subordinate clause ( Mi povus, semi volus. “I could if I wanted. ”). The possibility is rather returned by the future ( Morgaŭ eble pluvos. “It may be that it rains tomorrow. /It will rain perhaps tomorrow. ”).

The volitive one is the mode of the expression of the will; it corresponds in French to the requirement ( Atendu! “Wait! /Wait! ”) and with certain uses of the subjunctive when it expresses a desire, a wish, a will, or a requirement ( come Li. “That it comes. ” Kien nor iru? “Where is it necessary that we went? ”, Semi proponas, ke nor laboru kune. “I propose that we work together. ”).

The verbal system also comprises a series of Participe S present, spent and future, marked respectively by - ant- , - int- and - have for the Voix activates and - At , - it- and - ot- for the Passive voice. They can combine with the auxiliary esti to form made up Temps S which express the progressive Aspect with the present participles, the immediate past with the past participles, the immediate future with the future participles. In practice, the use of these made up times is restricted enough, especially in the active, the preference active with the use of temporal adverbs.

Esperanto does not practice the Sequence of tenses: Semi sciis, ke Li venos. “I did not know that it would come. ”.

The transitivity of the verbs espérantos is generally fixed, and it is not possible to deduce regularly if a verb formed by simple addition of the marks of conjugation to a radical is or not transitive. On the other hand, two Suffixe S make it possible to modify the valence of it: - ig- indicates that one causes an action and transforms an intransitive verb into transitive (Causatif), while - iĝ- indicates a change interns and transforms a transitive verb into intransitive (décausatif). Examples:

turni “to turn (something)” ~ turnigi “to make turn” ~ turniĝi “to turn (to make one or more turns)”
sidi “to be sitted” ~ sidigi “to sit” ~ sidiĝi “to sit down”
blanki “to be white” ~ blankigi “to bleach (to make white)” ~ blankiĝi “to bleach (to become white)”.

In addition, the prefixation of a preposition generally leads to transitiver an intransitive verb:

naĝi “to swim” ~ tranaĝi “to cross to the stroke”
plori “to cry (to be in tears)” ~ priplori “to cry (something)”.

Others Affixe S make it possible to express various nuances of Aspect:

the prefix ek- for the inchoatif Aspect (starting action, entered a state): slept “to sleep” ~ ekdormi “to fall asleep”
the suffix - AD for the durative Aspect (prolonged action): labori “to work” ~ laboradi “to work without stop”
the prefix Re for the iterative Aspect (repeated action): legi “to read” ~ relegi “to read again”.

Function words

The grammatical Nobody is expressed by the following series of personal pronouns: semi “I”, nor “us”, VI “tu/vous”, Li “it”, ŝi “it”, ĝi “il/elle” (living beings of unspecified sex and things)”, ili “they/they/them”. All take the mark of the accusative - N the échant case. The possessive ones derive from it by the addition from the mark from adjective - has : mia “my, my”, denied “our”, etc

The Déterminant S include/understand a Definite article invariable the (there is neither of Indefinite article nor of Partitive article) and a whole of Corrélatif S assembled systematically from initial and of a final characteristics:

initial: I (indefinite), ki- (interrogative-relative), Ti (conclusive), ĉi- (collective-distributive), neni- (negative)
final: - (quality) has, - O (thing), - U (individual), - be (possession). The three first of these series vary of number and in case.

On the same bases, other finales produce adverbs: - E (place), - amndt (time), - el (manner), - Al (causes), - om (quantity).

Esperanto also resorts to various invariable Particules in the organization of the sentence: conjunctions of coordination ( kaj “and”, aŭ “or”, C “thus”, sed “but”…) or of subordination ( ke “that”, ĉar “because”, dum “while”, “if”…) who specify the reports/ratios between proposals, and of the simple adverbs with value space, temporal, logical or modal. In particular, mark the negation, and ĉu mark the total interrogation.

Syntax of sentence

As in Russian or Latin, the word order is very free in Esperanto. The subject, the verb and the direct object (marked by the accusative) can appear in any order; most frequent is subject-verb-object, followed circumstantial Complément, but the use of other provisions is current, in particular in the event of Mise in relief. There exist however certain rules and well established tendencies:

the definite article is placed at the beginning of the nominal group
the prepositions are placed at the beginning of the prepositional group
the adverbs generally precede the expression which they modify
the conjunctions precede the proposal that they introduce.

Certain expressive tendencies are remarkable compared to the use of the French:

the prepositions are readily prefixed with the verb, producing doublets between intransitive formulation with prepositional group and transitive formulation with prefixed verb: neither diskutos pri the afero ~ nor pridiskutos the aferon “we will discuss the business”
a Syntagme can easily condense in made up Mot: knabo kun bluaj okuloj ~ bluokula knabo “a boy with the blue eyes”
the use of the adverb is very wide.

Because of absence of restriction on the combination of the Monem S, a sentence can reformulate multiple ways:

Semi iros Al the kongreso per aŭto ~ semi alkongresos auten ~ Semi cars alkongresen. “I will go to the congress in the car. ”
Neither estas of the sama opinio ~ Nor samopinias. “We are of the same opinion”
Mi enigis ĉion in the komputilo ~ Mi ĉion enkomputiligis. “I very entered the computer. ”

Esperanto can thus show alternatively synthetic or analytical.

Vocabulary

Lexical sources

Although being a built Language, Esperanto, draws its lexical bases from existing languages (primarily European): It is what one calls a built language a posteriori . The primary sources are, in the decreasing order of importance:

the Latin and the Romance Languages, especially by the French and the Italian
the Germanic Languages, primarily the German and the English
the old Greek , especially for the scientific terminology
the Slavic Languages in small proportion, by the Russian and the Polish.

The words coming from other languages indicate especially specific cultural realities: boaco “reindeer” (of the Same), jogo “yoga” (of the Sanskrit), haŝioj “rods (to eat)” (Japanese), etc

The grammatical morphemes must much with Latin (participles in - NT and - T , many adverbs and prepositions, series of numeral) and to a lesser extent to the old Greek ( J of plural, N of the accusative, kaj “and”). A part is built a priori without obvious reference to existing languages (the personal pronoun ĝi , the suffix - uj- indicating a container…), or deeply altered starting from elements pointing out those of preexistent languages, like the series of the correlatives.

Zamenhof followed various methods to adapt its lexical sources to Esperanto. The greatest number was simply adapted to phonology and the orthography of the language, sometimes more starting from the pronunciation (e.g. trotoaro of French pavement ; beleco “beauty” of Italian bellezza ; ŝuo “shoe” of English shoe and German Schuhe ), sometimes starting from the written form (e.g. semajno “week”, soifi “to be thirsty” borrowed from French; birdo “bird”, teamo “team” borrowed from English). When several of its sources comprised close words by the form and the direction, Zamenhof often created medium term (e.g. ĉefo “chief”, cf French chief/English chief ; forgesi “to forget”, cf German vergessen /English to forget ; gliti “to slip”, French to slip /German cf gleiten /English to glide ; lavango “avalanche”, French avalanche /Italian valanga /German cf Lawine ; najbaro “close”, cf German Nachbar /English neighbor ).

The radicals are sometimes more faded that would not require it the simple phonetic or orthographical adaptation:

to avoid having homophonous radicals: lafo “lava (volcanic)” because lavi means “to wash”, pordo “carries” because porti means “to carry”
to differentiate several directions: . pezi “to weigh (to be heavy)”/ pesi “to weigh (to measure the weight)” of French to weigh , helicopter “propeller”/ heliko “snail” of Latin helix
to avoid confusions with affixes espérantos: mateno “morning” ( - in is a suffix marking the female one), rigardi “to look at” ( Re is a prefix marking the repetition)
to shorten long words: asocio “association”, tarnished “to sneeze”.

The vocabulary of Esperanto included/understood a few hundreds of radicals in the Fundamento of Esperanto of 1905. In 2002, after one century of use, the largest monolingual dictionary esperantist ( Plena Ilustrita Vortaro of Esperanto ), includes/understands 16780 of them correspondent with 46890 lexical elements.

Formation of the words

Moreover, the vocabulary of Esperanto is extensible thanks to its agglutinant character. The words can indeed derive from/to each other by means of suffixes (list) and from prefixes (list), an idea already emitted by Descartes in 1629.

This system facilitates the training largely. It also makes it possible to adapt to the requirements in new words. Thus, from the word reto (“network, net”), one extracted the word ret- to form a whole whole of words related to Internet: retadreso (“addresses email”), retpirato (“Hacker”), etc These affixes can be in addition used only: - and gives eta (“small” in the direction of the idea of weakness)

As in English, the substantives do not have a kind. One uses the suffix - in (drawn from the German Freund - Freundin ) to feminize the substantives: amiko (“friendly”) - amikino (“friendly”)

Examples

Some basic words

Text analyzed in components

the akcent o is ace on the antaŭ lasta silab o. the kern on of the silab O form ace vokalo. Vokalo j lud large ace an rol on in the ritm o of the parol o. Substantiv oj fine ace per -o, adjektiv oj per -a. the sign o of the plural o is ace -j. the plural o of “last a vorto” is ace " last aj vort oj".

Noms - Adjectifs - Pluriel - Accusative

Translation: the accent is on the penultimate syllable. The heart of the syllable is formed by a vowel. The vowels play a great part in the rate/rhythm of the word. The substantives finish by - O , adjectives by - has . The mark of plural is - J . The plural of “ lasta vorto ” (“last word”) is “ lastaj vortoj ”.

Criticisms and analyzes

See also: Critical of Esperanto, Reforms of Esperanto

Since its beginnings, Esperanto wiped many criticisms:

Of the time of Zamenhof the consonants ĉ , ĝ , ĥ , ĵ , ŝ and the vowel ŭ posed problems with the typewriters which did not have the diacritics necessary. Although almost always absent from the keyboards (few keyboards, like the multilingual Canadian keyboard or the keyboard dvorak BÉPO make it possible to type them without anything to add to its system), these letters specific to Esperanto are taken today into account by the Unicode and of the programs allow to type them without embarrassment;
the existence of N as a complement, namely the Accusatif, foreigner with the modern languages of origin Latin and redundant compared to the most frequent use (in Esperanto) SVO;
kinds, where the male is always radical. Most of the time, this masculine is a neutral form: bovo = “bovine, ox”, bovino = “cow”, virbovo = “bull”. To also consult Riisme;
the idea even of an international language, after the bitter failure of the Volapük, leaves dubitative people about Esperanto;
the reproach by some that Esperanto would be a too European language, or not rather near to Latin.

These reproaches pushed certain people with the creation of alternatives such as the Ido, or with reform proposals, to which many esperantists are generally hostile, of fear of dividing their community between reformists and conservatives and of decreasing the clearness of the language. However, Esperanto remains the most used languages known as built and kept its internal stability. It should be noted that Zamenhof itself proposed modifications and reforms, but that those were refused by the Esperanto committee.

Whatever criticisms that one makes him, Esperanto at least makes it possible to answer a question: “Can one create artificially a language, or only the languages known as natural can they exist? ” This answer is: “Yes, a built language can exist and function (with the direction where it can express and transmit concepts, feelings). ” Esperanto is the language many meetings; books (like the Bible, the Small Prince or the Proclamation of the Communist party) were translated into Esperanto; original works in Esperanto are also well represented.

The culture espérantophone

Esperanto was a long time a language more written than spoken. As of the beginning, however, its spoken usage was ensured by the clubs of Esperanto, disseminated a little everywhere in Europe, Eastern Asia and in some countries of America. The interested people found themselves there once per week or to practice the language and to accommodate foreign travellers who had learned it. At the beginning of the 20th century appeared many writers, men and women, poets…, who, having adopted Esperanto like language of their writings, gave him his literature. In resistance to the Japanese occupation, Korean artists, in particular of the realizers who will be at the origin of the Cinéma North-Korean, thus choose to gather in 1925 in an association having chosen a name esperantist: Korea Artista Proletaria Federacio (KAPF), or Korean Association of the proletarian artists.

In fact, the spoken usage of the language, simple conversation with the music, especially developed when the voyages became more accessible and that the International meetings esperantists multiplied. The installation of services of lodging at the inhabitant, like the Pasporta Servo, and the appearance of sound recording on cassette, just as the programmes of phone conversation per computer (VOIP), contributed to make progress the oral use of the language.

It also should be noted that with the increase in the number of speakers, Esperanto became the Native tongue children resulting from couples espérantophones.

By defending his idea through the Europe, Doctor Zamenhof attracted himself the sympathy of many political personalities, such as Gandhi as well as the community international of the Bahaïsme.

Today, much of other national languages or minority, tend to disappear in the international relations with the profit from the English, more complex, but more widespread. However, the community espérantophone does not cease growing and Esperanto is very present on Internet: in October 2006, the number of answers to the call of the word “Esperanto” provides 150 million pages on Google and 23 million on Yahoo and Wikipédia Esperanto is classified in the fifteen first of many articles (more 80 000 articles in April 2007 - although a great number is still at the embryonic stage).

The curious ones will be able to listen, thanks to the bond on the right, of the extracts of the speech of Zamenhof to the First Universal Congress of Esperanto (wikisource), called by Claude Piron and recorded at the time of the congress of Boulogne of 2005 organized to celebrate the centenary of this First Congress. These extracts are reproduced and translated in the page of description of the file .

This speech is typical style of Zamenhof, impresses naivety for its detractors, of deep a Humanisme for its sympathizers.

Other uses

As of its appearance, Esperanto was the use object other than the international communication.

Literature and cinema

Many literary works were written or translated into Esperanto. The Swiss scenario writer François Randin produces films which are spoken in Esperanto and which each time it is not the case are subtitled in Esperanto in order to be able to be included/understood by everyone.

Incubus , of Leslie Stevens (1965) with William Shatner in the main role, was entirely turned in Esperanto. All the actors learned the dialogs in this language and the film exists only in VO Esperanto (with subtitlings).

As a metaphor

The name Esperanto functions as a proper name when it even indicates the language, but is sometimes used as common noun (in a kind of Antonomase) in the direction of common language in a given field, often with a reducing pejorative connotation. Java for example was promoted like Esperanto of the computer programming languages , to underline of it simplicity, elegance, the power, the universality (independence compared to the operating system)… This employment is actually misleading, Java also corresponding to the idea of a language single higher than the others, which can have its pragmatic interest as regards programming, but which in the field of the natural languages would create a linguistic Impérialisme unacceptable. The purpose of the Espérantiste S are not to replace the other languages like explained it the declaration of Boulogne in 1905 and reaffirmed the proclamation of Prague in 1996.

In Germany and Austria, the opponents with the Euro as the newspaper décrirent it one moment like Esperantogeld or Esperantowährung ( Geld = “money”; Währung = “Currency”) wanting to say by there that such an international project was intrinsically dedicated to the failure.

In art

Esperanto is sometimes used in Article Ainsi, in film of Charlie Chaplin the Dictator the plates of the stores of the Jewish ghetto in Esperanto, are described like “international Jewish language” by Hitler in Mein Kampf . The film Idiot' S Delight with Clark Gable names as for him “Esperanto” a not identified European dictatorship, using a neutral language in order to not offend any country. A diplomatic strategy included in Street Fighter (1994) and Blade Trinity (2005) . It is also possible to hear of Esperanto in the film Bienvenue in Gattaca . Indeed, the loudspeakers of the company in which the protagonist of the history works, initially make the advertisements in English Esperanto then in the original version.

In the series of novels of Science fiction the River of eternity of the writer Philip Jose Farmer, all the human ones having lived on the Earth are ressuscities on banks of an interminable river. Esperanto quickly becomes there de facto the language of communication between the residents and Farmer uses it inter alia naming certain States which appear at the edge of the river.

In its album HIStory , Michael Jackson exploits at the same time international and exotic sonority of Esperanto, by pronouncing some sentences in this language.

In the video game Final Fantasy XI , the main theme Memoro of the ŝtono accompanying the kinematic by introduction, is sung in Esperanto.

The small pocket of the album OK Computer of Radiohead presents many sentences, of which some in Esperanto.

Language of the Esperanto signs

Signuno is a Langue of the signs codifying the use of Esperanto. The purpose of it is to allow to the deaf persons various origins to profit from a simple grammar and a vaster vocabulary, in order to communicate with a great fluidity. In addition to the figures and the letters, a specific sign is associated with the most current morphemes.

Esperanto and militancy

Esperanto and European construction

The European elections of June 2004 saw the appearance in France list Europe - Democracy - Esperanto organized by Christian Garino which did not have the role to have elected officials but thus wished to make known Esperanto and to propose this neutral language like an alternative to English, of which the use as common language would have supported the english-speaking of birth ( English native announcers ). This initiative nevertheless was discussed within the movements esperantists because Esperanto wants to be to be an apolitical and international language (i.e. not only European). The list received 25.259 votes, that is to say approximately 0,15% of the votes cast. It structure from now on at the European level.

Esperanto like defense against the linguistic imperialism

Of aucuns argue that to learn a language implies to subject itself to the culture which is dependant for him; it is today the English which is in line of sight, from its considerable employment in the international exchanges. This use of English developed after the Second world war, when Western Europe passed under influence of the the United States. The need to create a common auxiliary language artificially seemed before this time more obvious, because there really did not exist of established alternative.

Among the arguments which can be exposed by the partisans of an alternative language to English for the international relations, one can state the following:

the use of English in the international relations supports the english-speaking of birth in recruitment, come then the people who will have had the possibility (financial inter alia) of going to study in an anglophone country. The European Union, which spend 1% of its budget in the translation of its directives, treaties or meetings in its twenty-three official languages calls more readily upon employees of English native tongue.

English is complex and difficult to learn for the majority from the world population. Although in France, he is generally learned as of the college, even introduced as of the middle price, the control is not completely acquired by it with the baccalaureat. The access to a long education, the mondialized culture and Internet is not as obvious as one could believe it.

English seldom is used correctly and made place with forms simplified like the Globish, impoverishment whose English is likely to even suffer. If, at the time of voyages, simplified English can prove to be useful in the airports, the hotels and sometimes the taxis, i.e. for particular tasks, it is unfortunately lacking for conversations leaving this framework.

Of others still sees the risk of a linguistic Impérialisme in the multiplication of Anglicisme S, in particular at the time of the lexical Emprunt of new words which one does not take any more the trouble to adapt or to translate (e.g. Web , email …).

As of its creation, the goal of Esperanto was to be an auxiliary language neutral, easy to learn and belonging to no power, in order to reduce the risk of cultural standardization, making it possible each people to preserve and develop the use of its language. Rather than to be opposed to English like international communications tools, Esperanto is then proposed like alternative to all the linguistic imperialisms|10/19/2007 Esperanto not being developed like English, it is difficult to know so more people in the world could have used it like communications tools, or if its use would have allowed more things than a practical use; there remains nevertheless the fact that this language does not belong to anybody and allows by there more equality at the beginning.

It should be noted that this English-Esperanto opposition for the choice of an international language, is not inevitably tinted anti-Americanism. It is sometimes justified by a will to protect English from an impoverishment|10/19/2007 Moreover, Esperanto on the occasion to become a language of international communication, but France was opposed to it when the proposal was made with the Société of the Nations, thinking that French would be still for a long time the language of the diplomacy.

In addition, the people learning Esperanto in general develop a vast interest for the foreign languages and their training of Esperanto facilitates their later studies of other languages.

See too

Worldwide association of Esperanto
Course of Esperanto
Dictionary of the languages
Etymology of Esperanto
History of Esperanto
Languages by Linguistic family
built Languages
List of associations esperantists
Literature in Esperanto
Proverbs in Esperanto

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