An easy language

Written as it is spoken

The Esperanto pronunciation is phonetic and very similar to most languages. Here is how the vowels are pronounced:

• a like father
• e like bed
• i like machine
• o like cross
• u like push

The consonents are pronounced as in English except for:

• c reads ts, like bits
• g is always hard like get
• j like English y in yes
• r is rolled if possible

There are also special letters:

• ĉ like English ch in chamber
• ĝ like English g in general
• ĥ like Afrikaans Quagga
• ŝ like English "sh" in ship

And to make the language pleasant to the ear, the stress is always on the second-to-last syllable:

amiko - friend	patro - father
lernas - learn	ĝenerala - general

Roots and endings

Ending for nouns: "o"

the father - la patro	the flower - la floro
the street - la strato	the exercise - la ekzerco

Ending for adjective: "a"

big - granda	beautiful - bela
fat - dika	quick - rapida

Ending for adverbs: "e"

Ending for verbs (all persons, present tense): "as"

I am - mi estas	we drink - ni trinkas
he is - li estas	they learn - ili lernas
we are - ni estas

Endings can be used freely, provided it makes sense.

friend - amiko	health - sano
friendly - amika	healthy - sana
in a friendly manner - amike	healthily - sane
we are friends - ni amikas	I am in good health - mi sanas

Building word families

As in some African languages you can use prefixes and suffixes to create entire families of words with related meanings. For example:

• "mal-" for opposites:  dika/maldika, fat/thin
• "-ul" for a person:  junulo, a young person
• "-in" for feminine:  patrino, mother
• "-ig" for "making it happen":  beligas, "make beautiful", ie. embellish
• "-ebl" for possible:  trinklebla, "drinkable"
• "-ej" for the place:  lernejo, "place where one learns", ie. school

mal- is a prefix (before the word), the others are suffixes. There would be many more examples.

With this you can build a family of words

• Pura - clean
• Malpura - dirty
• Mi purigas - I am cleaning (making clean)
• Purigejo - a place to do the cleaning
• Purigebla - "cleanable"

This enables you to build a virtually unlimited number of words, e.g. bela, belulo, belulino, malbelulino, beligi, beligebla, beligejo...

And now for a few sentences

As in English, a sentence is generally formed with a subject, a verb, and complements, but the word order is free. The article "la" is invariable, there is no gender problem. And the plural is formed with a "j" added to the "o" or "a" endings.

Subject + verb

• Mi trinkas
• La juna patrino lernas

Subject + verb + attribute

• La bela floro estas malgranda
• La junuloj estas en la trinkejo ("en" means in)

Subject + verb + direct object

Since the word order is free, Esperanto needs to distinguish ht object from the subject, with an -n

• Mi purigas la lernejon (I am cleaning the school)
• La floroj beligas la straton

Last but not least a few useful words:

• Saluton! (hello) or Bonan tagon (good day)
• Dankon! (thankyou)
• Ĝis revido! (good bye)

Not yet convinced?

True, in Esperanto the "hard work" is concentrated at the beginning of the learning. Very soon, you'll have learned all the elements to make your vocabulary and your expression virtually infinite.

Think about it:

In this brief text we have provided you with 15 word roots, 4 pronouns, 4 word endings, 6 suffixes and prefixes, 1 article and 1 preposition.

We reckon theat with this basic baggage you can build at least 150 words (not counting plurals etc), and create a huge number of sentences. With every new element, your language skills grow exponentially.

How long did it take you to work through this text? Can you think of any other language where this would have been possible?

Need more information?

We will gladly send you more materials or answer your questions.

Esperanto Association of Southern Africa

P.O.Box 2636, Cresta, 2118

Tel: 011 782 5807
Fax: 012 667 4119
E-mail: kohlerj@webmail.co.za