Part 3 - Introduction to Esperanto Grammar

[joshuamyler]

i am english and i still find english difficult

[Kanguruo]

@IntelxCorei7

I can't see your reply, you just copy what I wrote. What is the point of that?

[antoruiz05]

amas mian novan ŝatokupon lernanta esperanto

[ALX11231]

I love the narrators voice!

[pyrosimple]

Kiel vi fartas - How do you fart? LOL :D

[powerdriller10]

@pyrosimple

The sounds of "She is puting it in" sounds in Spanish like "Pis small little faggot ! "

"She is cool !" sounds like "Urinate the arse !"

[oteckre]

this is is interesting. I'm currently studdying Ancient Greek and while that is of course a much more complex language the word-building aspect is quite similar to esperento. You could learn thousands of acient greek vocables by only learning a few hundred "root-words" (don't know if this therm is correct in english) and learn the rules how to put them together and use prefixes, make substantives, adjektives, verbs, etc. Of course these rules again are quite komplex and with exceptions...

[CivilizedMan444]

... Does Esperonto have a DEFINARY of words that fully define all abstract human concepts itself?

... Or is it just another undefined vernacular whose word meaning requires reference to the words of another undefined vernacular?

[melburno]

@CivilizedMan444 Possibly

[TheMontageBW]

Esperanto is outdated, there's not much use learning it now unless the EU magically becomes the center of the world again.

I'm talking about Chinese and Arabic. Both of those linguistic regions have grown tremendously in the past few decades, but weren't considered during Esperanto's conception in the late 1800s. Lojban/Loglan has recognized this, but they still have a fair amount of derivation problems.

[melburno]

@TheMontageBW Having just come back to Melbourne after attending the Universal Congress of Esperanto in Havana (along with over 1,000 others from 60 countries), I failed to notice that Esperanto was either outdated or irrelevant. I love Chinese and have been learning it for over 5 years now, but I still have a way to go. Compare this with mastery of Esperanto in 6 months. If I had an eternity I'd try the beautiful Arabic language too!

[TheMontageBW]

@melburno I was referring to the linguistics, things people don't think about such as sentence intonation and word derivation.

Esperanto SEEMS to make perfect sense, but that is because we're conditioned to think like a European. From a linguistic standpoint, Esperanto is messy. An unpredictable sentence intonation and random vocabulary derivation only detract from its simplicity.

The Sino family has trouble with intonation in particular due to the tonal variations of each word.

[melburno]

@TheMontageBW Unlike English, Esperanto does not rely on intonation to impart meaning. Rather, we use prefixes, suffixes, and joining words together for precision and nuance. This is not messy, and occurs according to the simple rules of our great founding master.

[melburno]

@TheMontageBW

This is yet another proof that Esperanto, despite its detractors, has universal appeal. Please note that we do not claim it to be better than the natural languages. That is a pointless and unwinnable argument . It is, however, the easiest and best second language for all of us.

[TheMontageBW]

@melburno You're missing my point. Esperanto is NOT easy for Chinese speakers, not because of the grammar, but because of the variable sentence intonation, a concept that is totally foreign to them. If Esperanto had every sentence with a downward intonation, it would be much better.

If I could upload an audio clip I would show you. But alas :/

[melburno]

@TheMontageBW

And Chinese is difficult for me! There are a lot of Chinese Esperantists. You can travel all over China, and stay with, or meet Esperantists. I suppose you could speak Esperanto with "intonation" but it wouldn't be particularaly meaningful. Body language is another aspect of communication that can differ significantly between cultures.

[TheMontageBW]

@melburno True on all accounts, but as Esperanto is supposed to be an 'international' language, it should draw more influence from other significant parts of the world rather than the 5 relatively close languages (English, French, German, Russian, Polish).

[melburno]

@melburno

This is not to say that Esperanto is spoken in some kind of dreary monotone. It is natural to stress words for emphasis, in any culture. Also, most speakers can't help putting their natural intonations into Esperanto, thus allowing for variation, often amusing.

[KrigareavGud]

@TheMontageBW Got any better ideas for a universal language?  English is the lingua franca today, but Esperanto would make a better one. English with its irregular tenses and idioms plus the R/TH's Sino's will have a harder time with English than Esperanto. In short, there is NO better international language, it is far simpler than english. The best indo-euro language is a latin based one given its great influence there. Maybe soon, a true international sino/euro/semitic lingo can be developed.

[TheMontageBW]

@KrigareavGud I do, actually. I'm studying Chinese right now, and I hope to develop a new IAL for English, the Romance languages and Chinese. TH is easy to learn, even for an adult. By R I assume you mean a retroflex approximant, which Chinese has. Indo-European languages include Russian, German, Iranian and the Indian Languages, so a Latin-based IAL would NOT be suitable for those 1 billion people. It's not difficult to make an IAL, it's just difficult to complete one.

[KrigareavGud]

@TheMontageBW Yes, it will take reviewing many times over by each language to ensure proper translation. What you could do is just take all the consonants every language has and leave out the consonants that are limited to a specific language family, then there should be very little pronounciation problems. As far as vocab, linguistics shows the tower of babel was likely. I am amazed at how sanskrit has influenced latin, greek, germanic and some sino...perhaps sanskrit based is the answer.

[MrXalexer]

where can I learn Esperanto words.

[Wucherpreis]

@MrXalexer Have you tried lernu dot net? I use it, it's good.

[MrXalexer]

@Wucherpreis Yes I am using it thank you.

[MegaTories]

Her Esperanto pronunciation is poor. She needs to give each vowel its proper value regardless of where it appears in the word. Her schwa for the "a" in "saluton" at the very start and for the "e" in "revido" at the very end are a case in point, but there are many more examples as well (e.g. hear how differently she pronounces the two "a"s in "sanstato" at 0:57). She also offers "effectively" as a translation of "efektive" (2:03), a common "false friend" she should have known to avoid.

[mykolasb]

Mi konsilas emfazi, ke Esperanton nature inventis infano, kiu kreskis en lingvoinstruista familio en etnokonflikta multlingva urbo.

Ghuste revo, kiu obsedis infanon, evoluis paralele kun lia maturigho kaj ne abortis. Chu vi legis libron de Mikael Niemi "Populara muziko el Vittula" tradukita all 40 lingvoj? En la dua chapitro 10 paghoj pri Esperanto kaj infano. Havu do surprizon

[HawkeHound]

Languages evolve. Esperanto will evolve differently in different countries.

Need I say more?

[swissyukon]

How should that happen?

The basic grammar rules of Esperanto are fixed (and they take just two pages) and if you change one or some of these rules, you can't call it Esperanto anymore.

Nevertheless, Esperanto (and manners of it's usage) do evolve, e.g. if there's no word for anything, you can "suggest" one by simply using it in your everyday Esperanto-speaking. If your suggestion is useful and respects the grammar rules, it will become a frequently used expression, if it is not - then not.

[CupisHomines]

Malsana just happens to be an exact word in every romance language from Spanish to Italian. I typed in "malsana, lo siento" expecting a mix of Spanish & Esperanto, and got Spanish back in return.

[wolfratungs]

Mi amas Esperanto

Me encanta el Esperanto

I love Esperanto

J´aime l´Esperanto

M´usta l´Esperanto

[MegaTories]

@wolfratungs Very good. Pity both your Esperanto and French are wrong. "Mi amas Esperanton." (forgot the accusative).  "J'aime l'Espéranto." (forgot the accent)

[wolfratungs]

Kashate la voca,Sosorra.

[mana2432]

@wolfratungs heavily influenced in spanish

[scienceman030]

I test between 142-144 every time I take an I.Q. test, and I'm middle of the road compared to many of my esperanto contemporaries.

Some fodder for cognitive engagement ;-)

"I always take care to know my subject better than my foe before I ever engage in discourse. I find it the best way to avoid a supper of feet and crow after the exchange."

Please, my friend, a wee bit more cerebral engagement before speaking next time, eh?

[scienceman030]

...being the result. English and German are both great examples of that. Esperanto suffers from none of these, probably because of the forethought & revision put into the language at its inception.

There are people who have learned esperanto as their native tongue for almost 100 years now, with no grievous effect to either themselves nor the language.

Oh, and about the "your population would be idiots" thing; most esperanto learners are highly intelligent...

[scienceman030]

rabbitwho, you have to be kidding me.

Is it ignorance or arrogance that is fueling your foolishness? My mother is closing in on her PhD in English & Linguistics and I'm married to a foreign language teacher. I can tell you for certain that, NO, all verbs were NOT originally regular. Because most (if not all) other languages were born out of an immediate need for communication, formal rules came "in situ", with irregular verbs, irregular speech patterns, irregular pronunciations, etc...

[wolfratungs]

Mi lernas Esperanto.Gxi estas amuza!!

[shootanputan]

If had my own country I would adopt Esperanto as the official language.

[rabbitwho]

and all your population would be idiots because the limits of your language are the limits of your thoughts and there are many thoughts which cannot be expressed through this language.

Then the next generation will need to express these thoughts, so they will coin new words and new forms of grammar, till their Esperanto is nothing like the Esperanto of the rest of the world.

All verbs in every language were once regular. Nature will destroy Esperanto if people speak it as a first language.

[shootanputan]

I don't know about that. I actually learned Esperanto as my first first language and I learned to function normally speaking it to my parents.

[shootanputan]

When you think of it I partly agree with, but I don't think it would be that bad.

[Kanguruo]

Have you had a close look at the language before saying that? Can you give an example of a thought which cannot be expressed in Esperanto? It seems to me that it is more the other way round. Many national languages are not flexible enough to be able to express yourself with nuances or you need to use several words to say what you can say in Esperanto as in Esperanto for example you can add suffixes to words to add a nuance.

[ruleboy527]

Please know what you're talking about before you speak. Zamenhof wrote that additional words can be added, as long as they follow the rules of esperanto.

Also, I looked it up, and one of the oldest languages, sanskrit doesn't have verb conjugation rules. When you learn a word, you have to memorize the conjugations.

[milo126]

why can't you wrap your mind around the fact that the more languages you learn the more expressive you can be? All languages except... well all languages lack some expression or another. It's about enriching your life and your mind, quit being a dick.

[intellaricovision]

I too.

[MegaTories]

@shootanputan Very misguided. It's meant to be politically neutral, and you would want to adopt it as the official language of a country?

[josieldeassis]

Can ya'll believe?

I've started learning Esperanto this week and...

... I can understand many things I see on Esperanto books even when I have still not learned it!

[ringtin]

I believe BadTemperedPiano is referring to "Newspeak" in the novel 1984. Newspeak was devised from English and attempted to dumb-down the language and remove emotion from it. Esperanto and it's goals are nothing like that. The purpose of Esperanto is to give everyone a common SECOND language. It was never intended to replace other languages and their cultures. Germans would learn German AND Esperanto. Finns would learn Finnish AND Esperanto. A great idea.

[MegaTories]

@ringtin Newspeak was very much meant as a parody of Esperanto. Orwell had been subjected to living with an Esperantist while in Paris and having Esperanto forced down his throat.

[rinntin]

@MegaTories Hi! Thanks for your comment. I didn't know that about Orwell. Interesting! And I agree that no one should have Esperanto - or any language - forced upon them. That contradicts the whole idea behind Esperanto.

[BadTemperedPiano]

1984. Watch that movie. Remember "New Language"...

[vivazapataa]

what is your point?

[CommonAswhole]

This summer I'll learn this language, for the fun of it.

[matanarcos45]

Necesitamos hablar un solo idioma en el Mundo, lo estudiare, gracias.

We need to speak only one language in the World, I will studied, congratulations.

Wir müssen nur eine Sprache in der Welt sprechen, ich studiert, Glückwünsche.

Nous avons besoin de parler un seul une langue dans le Monde, je l'étudierai, merci.

[oksigeno]

Não, nós necessitamos de preservar os nossos idiomas e as nossas culturas e termos um idioma comum.

Ne, ni necesas prezervi niajn idiomojn kaj niajn kulturojn kaj havi komunan idiomon.

[CBGB42]

Jes, mia amiko. Kio vi parlas estas vera. Vi kaj mi ne havas komunan linvon krom esperanto. Ni ne povas komunikas sen gxi.

[CBGB42]

I can only comment on the English and French, but your grammar is appalling, good sir.

[oiseaudubonheur]

why still hold on to some ridiculous failed nineteenth century experiment by a euro-centric slav?

[hurricaneomega]

1) That was uncalled for

2) Zamanhof was a Jew not a Slav

[oksigeno]

Because that results? Because that didn't failed? Because we need urgently an international language that REAL works? Because we need to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Because UNESCO said that to us? Because we need peace and democratic intercomunication for the world? Because after we have internet but with the language barriers we are almost still as we was in nineteenth century?

[oiseaudubonheur]

absolute crap!

none of those things she explained are qualities exclusive to Esperanto. compound words combining two nouns exist in all languages I can think of, adverbs ending in -e are directly copied from Latin, and so on.

if they're not gonna bring something new, then they'd better not do anything at all.

English has already proved to be a very simple language that has also become the indisputable international language.

[Kanguruo]

English a simple language? You must be joking. I know lots of people who have spent years and years trying to learn it and still have great difficulties in understanding it. It is hard to pronounce, hard to spell and the grammar is not as easy as it may seem at first glance.

[purplemutantas]

@Kanguruo My mom is Mexican and learned English as a second language. Eve though she has been speaking English for decades, she still has trouble with a few things. One she has trouble with is the difference between "cattle" and "kettle". Both of those words sound very similar. English is not a simple language. What percentage of people who say English is simple are native speakers of English? Esperanto seems pretty sweet. I may have to learn it. Being fluent in Spanish should help.

[TheMolt1]

@purplemutantas English is simple to learn but extremely difficult to master. That is the problem with English. That's what people mean when they say English is "easy."

[purplemutantas]

@TheMolt1 Right. There are plenty of examples of poor English here on youtube.

[TheMolt1]

@purplemutantas Yes, just look at most of the comments on any given video.

[hurricaneomega]

Esperanto grammar is totally regular (at least as regular as you can get and still be a functional language). Concord is only used to clerify meaning. Verbs only convay needed information

[kendokun0]

I unequivocally agree.

I would also add, that by standardising a language, it's inevitable that cultural individuality would diminish significantly. Also, if the manufactured language happened to be officially adopted, it would no longer be a means for international communication, but just another language.

English is the second most widely spoken language in the world (after Mandarin), so on a communicative basis, one should either learn English, or English speakers should become multi-lingual.

[Muelysto]

what a voice! I wish this voice wake me up every morning: 'Honey, get up!':-)

[LLanidloesywddar]

the woman in this vid talks about joining words together as if it's some kind of spiritual achievement. When words are joined in German I just get confused.

[melburno]

Would U believe that the main criticism of Esperanto is that it is TOO easy!! Hey we just want to talk to each other. Esperantist are everywhere. I even found them in Jinan!

[Demock]

i like how simple this, cause i took spanish and could never understand why exactly there were so many different weird ways to conjugate words and it just made it confusing, this way is sooo much easier and makes way more sense

[xAmarokx]

"Isn't internacional language"?

Do, kiu lingvo estas tiel, krom Esperanto?

Cxu la nacia angla lingvo?

[watchjury]

her voice reminds me of windows xp introduction

[oksigeno]

Belega vocxo :-)

[Bira8Fehera]

Bonege amiko!

Gratulon pro la videeto!

[juniorjunior69]

Nice one.