The universal language of Esperanto. Esperanto". tutorial. A. Sigachev

This lesson covers following topics: Phrases, greetings, everyday expressions. This course is prepared to help you learn grammar and complete vocabulary. Try to concentrate on the following examples as they are very important for learning the language.

Phrases

Grammar Tips:
Phrases, greetings, and everyday expressions are very important to learn because they are used in everyday communication. Try to remember the new words you have. Also try to write down words that you do not understand or expressions that you are not familiar with.

The following table provides some examples, please read them carefully and determine if you can understand them.

You are finished with the first table. Did you notice any grammatical patterns? Try to use the same words in different sentences.

Phrases - Expressions

The following table will help you understand this topic more deeply. It is important to remember any new words you come across because you will need them later.

Phrases	Phrases
green tree	verda arbo
tall building	alta konstruaĵo
very old man	tre maljuna viro
old red house	la malnova ruĝa domo
very good friend	tre bela amiko
I read a book sometimes	Mi legis libron foje
I will never smoke	Mi neniam fumos
Are you alone?	vi estas sola?
he's happy	li estas feliĉa
she's happy	ŝi estas feliĉa
he is American	li estas Usona
she's American	ŝi estas Usona

We hope this lesson helped you with your grammar and vocabulary

Today there are more than 6,000 languages in the world that are still alive and used by people in their speech. One of them is Esperanto - this is an unusual dialect with a very important mission - unification. How can it accomplish it?

Esperanto - what is it?

As already said, this is an unusual language. It is used by people all over the world and probably has quite a bit of fame. Esperanto is a so-called artificial or planned language. Why artificial? After all, it was not created from time immemorial by entire nations, but by just one person - Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof in a fairly short period of time and was presented by him in 1887.

He released the first training manual for this language - “ International language", this is what Esperanto was called at first. This is its purpose.

Why is Esperanto international?

It helps people who do not know each other’s languages and representatives of different nationalities communicate with each other, including common in international marriages for communication between family members. This means that this type of speech does not relate to any particular nation or country, that is, it is a neutral language of communication, the same as sign language, for example. In addition, it has a relatively simple structure and rules, which allows you to overcome it in short terms. It is a “language of reconciliation”, which helps to maintain tolerant and respectful relations between representatives of different nationalities and cultures, to maintain mutual understanding - this is its main idea.

Culture and social activities

Esperanto is a fairly popular, albeit young language. It is used both orally and in writing. Lately Poets and writers began to appear who create their works in this dialect; films, songs, websites were created, conferences and forums, seminars, and rallies were held. Translations from many languages of the world into the international language Esperanto are also carried out. Many popular software companies also release versions of their programs for electronic devices on it.

Worldwide fame and distribution

Scattered all over the world large number Esperantist organizations, that is, people who speak this dialect. Most of them live in Europe, the USA, Japan, Brazil and China, while the rest are scattered across almost 100 other countries around the world.

Counting people who speak artificial languages is not kept accurately. But according to some data, Esperantists number from 100 thousand to several million people. About 1,000 of them live in Russia. We even have our own Esperanto street, and at one time the first Esperantist club in Russia was opened in Kazan.

Policies of governments of different countries towards Esperanto

The attitude of the authorities towards the use of this language in different countries ah, it’s far from clear. There are those states where it is widely supported, and there are those where it is ignored by the authorities. As a rule, the latter are countries with low social development. But most international organizations, such as the UN and UNESCO, support this movement very well and help spread it. UNESCO even adopted 2 resolutions in defense of Esperanto. Also now this language has become very popular among diplomats various countries. And the city of Herzberg even received the prefix “Esperanto-city” in its name, thereby attracting Esperantists of various nationalities here to improve interethnic contacts.

Mastery and study

In most countries of the world, special Esperanto courses have been created in educational institutions. In some of them it is even taught along with the others. foreign languages. In addition, it has enormous propaedeutic ability. This means that after learning Esperanto, many other languages become easy. You can learn this language not only in courses, which, by the way, are also held in Russia, but also with the help of resources on the Internet.

Symbolism

Esperantists have their own anthem - La Espero (hope). And also the flag is green (it also means hope) with a five-pointed green star on a white background, which corresponds to the five continents.

In general, the symbol of hope appears very often in Esperanto. Even the word “Esperanto” itself means “hoping.” Its name comes from the author's pseudonym. He called himself Doctor Esperanto. At first the language was called the language of Doctor Esperanto, and then it was shortened to one word. Ludovic Zamenhof himself never explained why he chose such a pseudonym. The first Russian version of this language was released on July 26, since then this day has been the birthday of Esperanto. An entire academy of this language was also created. And almost 30 years after the publication of Zamenhof’s book, the first world congress was held.

What does Esperanto consist of?

More than 20 different languages peace. These are Latin (the alphabet was taken from it), and Romance and Germanic languages (German, French, English), as well as Greek and Slavic.

The Esperanto alphabet consists of 28 Latin letters, each corresponding to one sound. Of these, 21 are consonants, 5 vowels and 2 semivowels. Esperanto has a lot of international words, which is why it is easy to learn and can be partially understood on an intuitive level. If you encounter any difficulties while learning, you can always turn to dictionaries.

Grammar

The peculiarity of the Esperanto language is that it has an extremely simple grammar, consisting of only 16 rules that do not contain any exceptions.

Articles. Doesn't exist in Esperanto indefinite article. Definite article (la) is used in the same way as in other languages. It is also possible not to use it at all.
Nouns. All nouns end in -o. There are singular and plural numbers, as well as two cases. In case of plural, add -j. The main case (unchanged) is nominative. The second, accusative, is created using -n. For other cases (genitive, dative, etc.), prepositions are used that are selected according to their meaning. It is noteworthy that the concept of “gender” does not exist at all in Esperanto. This greatly simplifies its grammar.
Adjectives. All adjectives have an ending -a. Case and number are determined by analogy with nouns (using endings -j, -n and prepositions). Degrees are also determined for adjectives: comparative (the word pli and the conjunction ol) and superlative ( plej).
Numerals. There are two types of numerals. The first is the fundamental ones (those that do not incline) - two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one hundred, thousand. To get hundreds and tens, numerals are simply combined into one word (for example, du is “two” and dek is “ten”, so dudek is “twenty”). The second type is ordinal numbers. For them, the ending of the adjective is added. Among ordinal numbers, plural, fractional and collective numbers are also distinguished.
Pronouns. They can be personal - I, you, he, she, it (denotes an object, animal or child), we, they. And also possessive. The latter are obtained by adding the ending -a. Pronouns are declined in the same way as nouns.
Verbs. They do not change either in persons or in numbers. But there are 3 tenses: past, present and future, differing in endings, imperative and conditional mood (also with the addition of endings) and infinitive. There is a communion. Here they are active and passive, changing from time to time. In this case, suffixes are used, for example -ant, -int, -ont, -at, etc.
Adverbs. All adverbs must end in -e and have degrees of comparison, like adjectives (comparative and superlative).
Prepositions. Prepositions are used only with nouns and adjectives in the nominative case.
The pronunciation and spelling are completely the same.
Emphasis. It is always placed on the penultimate syllable.
Word formation. By combining several words, you can form complex words (in this case, the main word is placed at the end).
As in English, negation cannot be used twice in a phrase. For example, you cannot say “no one completed their task.”
When a direction is indicated (for example, in a tree, in the kitchen), the accusative ending is used.
All prepositions have their own constant meaning. There is also an excuse je, not having one. It may not be used at all if the accusative case is used.
Borrowed words do not change, but they are used following the rules of Esperanto.
Endings -o(used in nouns) and -a(when in the article la) can be replaced by an apostrophe.

This article could be useful for those who want to become interested in learning this language or simply broaden their horizons, it helped to learn a little more about Esperanto, what kind of language it is and where it is used. After all, like all adverbs, it also has its own characteristics. For example, the absence of gender in Esperanto - morphological character, without which it is impossible to imagine the Russian language. And several others interesting facts. And also, of course, some information about translation from Esperanto and vice versa.

Probably everyone has heard about Esperanto at least once - universal language, destined to become global. And although the majority of people in the world still speak Chinese, this invention of the Polish doctor has its own history and prospects. Where did Esperanto come from, what kind of innovation in linguistics is it, who uses it - read on and we will answer all these questions.

Hope for mutual understanding

Probably from the time of construction Tower of Babel humanity is experiencing difficulties associated with misunderstanding the speech of other peoples.

The Esperanto language was developed to facilitate communication between people of different countries and cultures. It was first published in 1887 by Dr. Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof (1859–1917). He used the pseudonym "Doctor Esperanto", which means "one who hopes." This is how the name of his brainchild appeared, which he carefully developed over the years. The international language Esperanto should be used as a neutral language when speaking between people who do not know each other's language.

It even has its own flag. It looks like this:

Esperanto is much easier to learn than conventional national languages that developed naturally. Its design is orderly and clear.

Vocabulary

It would not be an exaggeration to say about Esperanto that it is one of the major European languages. Dr. Zamenhof took very real words for his creation as a basis. About 75% of the vocabulary comes from Latin and Romance languages (especially French), 20% comes from Germanic languages (German and English), and the remaining expressions are taken from Slavic languages(Russian and Polish) and Greek (mainly scientific terms). Conventional words are widely used. Therefore, a person who speaks Russian, even without preparation, will be able to read about 40% of the text in Esperanto.

The language is characterized by phonetic writing, that is, every word is pronounced exactly as it is written. There are no unpronounceable letters or exceptions, which makes it much easier to learn and use.

How many people speak Esperanto?

This is a very common question, but no one really knows the exact answer. The only way to reliably determine the number of people who speak Esperanto is to conduct a worldwide census, which, of course, is almost impossible.

However, Professor Sidney Culbert from the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) has done the most comprehensive study on the use of this language. He has interviewed Esperanto speakers in dozens of countries around the world. From this research, Professor Culbert concluded that about two million people use it. This puts it on par with languages such as Lithuanian and Hebrew.

Sometimes the number of Esperanto speakers is exaggerated or, conversely, minimized; figures vary from 100,000 to 8 million people.

Popularity in Russia

The Esperanto language has many ardent fans. Did you know that in Russia there is an Esperanto street? Kazan became the first city of the then Russian Empire, where a club was opened dedicated to the study and dissemination of this language. It was founded by several activist intellectuals who enthusiastically accepted Dr. Zamenhof's idea and began to propagate it. Then professors and students of Kazan University opened their own small club in 1906, which could not survive for long during the turbulent years of the early twentieth century. But after Civil War the movement resumed, even a newspaper about Esperanto appeared. The language became increasingly popular because it fit the concept communist party calling for unification different nations in the name of the World Revolution. Therefore, in 1930, the street on which the Esperantist club was located received a new name - Esperanto. However, in 1947 it was renamed again in honor politician. At the same time, involvement in the study of this language became dangerous, and since then its popularity has fallen significantly. But the Esperantists did not give up, and in 1988 the street received its former name.

In total, there are about 1000 native speakers in Russia. On the one hand, this is not enough, but on the other, if you consider that only enthusiasts study the language in clubs, this is not such a small figure.

Letters

The alphabet is based on Latin. It contains 28 letters. Since each of them corresponds to a sound, there are also 28 of them, namely: 21 consonants, 5 vowels and 2 semi-vowels.

In Esperanto, the letters we are familiar with from the Latin alphabet sometimes come in pairs and are written with a “house” (an inverted check mark on top). So Dr. Zamenhof introduced new sounds that were needed for his language.

Grammar and sentence construction

Confession here too main principle Esperanto - simplicity and clarity. There are no genders in the language, and the order of words in a sentence is arbitrary. There are only two cases, three tenses and three There is an extensive system of prefixes and suffixes, with which you can create many new words from one root.

Flexible word order in a sentence allows different speakers to use the structures with which they are most familiar, but still speak Esperanto that is completely understandable and grammatically correct.

Practical use

New knowledge is never a bad thing, but here are some specific benefits you can get from learning Esperanto:

It is an ideal second language that can be learned quickly and easily.
The ability to correspond with dozens of people from other countries.
It can be used to see the world. There are lists of Esperantists who are ready to host other native speakers for free in own home or apartment.
International understanding. Esperanto helps break down language barriers between countries.
The opportunity to meet people from other countries at conventions, or when foreign Esperantists come to visit you. This is also good way meet interesting compatriots.

International equality. When using national language Some people must make an effort to learn a speech they are unfamiliar with, while others only use their knowledge from birth. Esperanto is a step towards each other, because both interlocutors worked hard to study it and make communication possible.
Translations of literary masterpieces. Many works have been translated into Esperanto, some of them may not be available in native language Esperantista.

Flaws

For more than 100 years, the most widespread artificial language has acquired both fans and critics. They say about Esperanto that it is just another funny relic, like phrenology or spiritualism. Throughout its existence, it never became a world language. Moreover, humanity does not show much enthusiasm for this idea.

Critics also argue about Esperanto that it is not a simple language at all, but a difficult one to learn. Its grammar has many unspoken rules, and writing letters is difficult on a modern keyboard. Representatives from different countries are constantly trying to make amendments to improve it. This leads to disputes and differences in educational materials. Its euphony is also questioned.

But fans of this language argue that 100 years is too short for the whole world to speak one language, and given the number of native speakers today, Esperanto has its own future.

“The inner idea of Esperanto is this: on a neutral linguistic basis, to remove the walls that separate tribes, and to teach people to see in their neighbor only a man and a brother.”
L. L. Zamenhof, 1912

This artificial language was invented by Lazarus (Ludwig) Zamenhof. He created a grammar based on European languages with a minimum of exceptions. The vocabulary is mainly taken from Romance languages, although there are also words from Germanic and other languages. New language, first appearing as a textbook in 1887, attracted public attention, and the normal process of evolution of the language began within a community that used it in different environments and created a culture associated with the language. Two decades later, the first children were born who spoke Esperanto with their parents, becoming the first native speakers. Thus, we can say that this language, created for international communication, was then creolized and today has become the language of the Esperanto-speaking diaspora.

It was created based on the vocabulary of Indo-European languages, with the goal of being easy to learn. For this reason the grammar is agglutinative ( characteristic feature Turkish and Finno-Ugric languages), and in more deep level the language is isolating (like Northern Chinese and Vietnamese). This means that the morphemes in it can be used as separate words. It has a strictly regular (without exceptions) grammar. This language also allows for the creation of a huge variety of words by combining lexical roots and about forty affixes (for example, from san-(“healthy”), you can create words like: malsana("sick"), malsanulo(“sick person”), gemalsanuloj(“sick people of both sexes”), malsanulejo(“hospitals”), sanigilo("medicine"), saniĝinto("recovered"), sanigejo(“place of treatment”), malsaneto(“little disease”), malsanego(“huge disease”), malsanegulo(“a very sick person”), sanstato (“health status”), sansento(“feeling of health”), sanlimo(“health boundaries”), malsankaŭzanto(“pathogens”), kontraŭmalsanterapio("treatment")…). The main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) have a system of endings that allow you to recognize all parts of speech. Its systematic nature makes it easy to learn, and its flexibility in creating new words makes it one of the most productive languages, with a potentially unlimited number of words capable of expressing ever new ideas or states. For example, it might be possible to write a fantasy novel about imaginary Martians in the shape of a table and call them scoreboard("table"), tablino(“female table”), tablido(“offspring of the table”)... We can imagine a device that simplifies sex life and name him seksimpligilo(“sex simplifier”), a person who walks backwards ( inversmarŝanto, “walking backwards”), a remedy against dogmatism ( maldogmigilo, “anti-dogmatizer”), and the like.

Important features of Esperanto

The main idea of Esperanto is to promote tolerance and respect between people of different nations and cultures. Communication is a necessary part of mutual understanding, and if communication occurs in a neutral language, it can reinforce the feeling that you are “dating” on equal terms and with respect for each other.

International

Esperanto is useful for communication between representatives of different nations who do not have a common mother tongue.

Neutral

It does not belong to any particular people or country and therefore acts as a neutral language.

Equal

When you use Esperanto, you feel like you are on equal terms with your interlocutor from a linguistic point of view, unlike the situation when you, for example, use English language to talk to a person who has spoken it since birth.

Relatively light

Due to the structure and structure of this language, it is usually much easier to master Esperanto than any foreign national language.

Alive

Esperanto develops and lives in the same way as other languages; Esperanto can express the most varied shades of human thoughts and feelings.

Equal

Everyone who learns Esperanto has a good chance of achieving high level language proficiency and then, from a linguistic point of view, communicate at the same level with others, regardless of linguistic background.

Story

Grammar

Alphabet

This is the Esperanto alphabet. Each letter is always read the same, regardless of position in the word, and words are written the same way as they are heard. Click on the example to hear the pronunciation!

Aa ami love
Bb bela beautiful
Cc celo target
Ĉĉ ĉokolado chocolate
Dd doni give
Ee egala equal
Ff facila easy
Gg granda big
Ĝĝ ĝui enjoy
Hh horo hour
Ĥĥ ĥoro choir
II infono child
Jj juna young
Ĵĵ ĵurnalo newspaper
Kk kafo coffee
Ll lando country
mm maro sea
Nn nokto night
Oo oro gold
Pp paco world
Rr rapida fast
Ss salti jump
Ŝŝ ŝipo ship
Tt tago day
Uu urbo city
Ŭŭ aŭto automobile
Vv vivo life
Zz zebro zebra

Nouns

All nouns in Esperanto end in -o. (Nouns are names of things and phenomena)

Plural

To get the word out plural, just add the ending -j :

Addition

In Esperanto, we indicate a direct object (that is, a word in the accusative case) in a sentence by adding -n to it. This allows us to change the order of words in a sentence the way we like, but the meaning will not change. ( Direct object this is something that directly experiences the effect)

Adjectives

All adjectives in Esperanto end in -a. (Adjectives are used to describe nouns)

Consoles

Look! By adding mal- to the beginning of a word, we change its meaning to the opposite.

mal- is a prefix. The prefix is placed before the root to create new words. Esperanto has 10 different prefixes.

Suffixes

There are also many ways to construct new words using special endings. For example, -et- reduces something.

Et- is a suffix. Suffixes must be inserted after the root to create new words. Esperanto has 31 different suffixes.

Verbs

Verbs are, of course, very important. But you will find that in Esperanto they are also very simple. (Verbs show performing an action or being in some state)

Verb forms

Verbs in the indefinite form end in -i. Verbs in the present tense end in -as, in the past - in -is, and in the future - in -os. Esperanto has neither conjugation classes nor irregular shapes verbs!

mi est as I am
mi est is I was
mi est os I will
vi est as you/you are
vi est is you were / you were
vi est os you will / you will
li est as he is
li est is he was
li est os he will
ŝi est as she is
ŝi est is she was
ŝi est os she will
ĝi est as it/it is
ĝi est is it/it was
ĝi est os it/it will be
ni est as we are
ni est is we were
ni est os we will
or est as they are
or est is they were
or est os they will

Adverbs

We use the ending -e to create adverbs. (Adverbs are words that describe verbs)

— Are artificial languages your main subject of research?

- No. I work in computational and corpus linguistics. I'm afraid that if I wanted to make artificial languages the main subject of my research, then I would have nothing to catch in academic linguistics. This is not a very popular topic, and although many linguists are interested in artificial languages, few manage to make them their main specialty.

— Why are artificial languages not popular in the academic environment?

— Linguists are interested in language as a result of natural development, and artificial languages were invented by individuals, so it is believed that the laws of nature cannot be seen in their material. Although it seems to me that it is precisely in contrast to artificial languages that it is better to understand the structure of natural languages.

For example, there are artificial languages in which the numerals for neighboring numbers differ from each other by one letter: ba- this is "one" ca- "two", da- “three” and so on. This also happens in natural languages, but rarely, for example, “nine” and “ten” in Russian. The question arises why this is so rare in natural languages.

This immediately brings us to questions of information theory, in particular the concept of redundancy: to distinguish words in oral speech It is necessary that the loss of one sound does not lead to the loss of the meaning of the statement, that is, natural languages are more resistant to interference when . Artificial languages are less stable in this sense. Although, of course, few of them are spoken by anyone. In reality, only Esperanto is used for communication, and it is very close to natural languages.

— Esperanto is the most famous and widespread of the artificial languages. Why is he so lucky?

- He had an understandable target audience: Zamenhof developed Esperanto for an educated European who speaks a Romance, Germanic or Slavic language, respectively, the vocabulary of Esperanto is a mixture of elements from these languages, which makes it very easy to learn compared to other artificial languages. Even if you don't speak German, you've probably heard that the German word for "Good afternoon" is Guten Tag. And in Esperanto there will be “day” tag o.

Zamenhof hoped that Esperanto would become an international auxiliary language. Typically, this function uses natural languages, for example now English, previously French. But this is not very fair: some people were given English from birth, while others have to painfully learn it. This is the problem that Esperanto was supposed to solve.

— Why didn’t it then become a language of international communication, and we still have to painfully learn English?

— Pasternak has the following lines:

One day Hegel accidentally
And probably at random
Called the historian a prophet,
Foretelling backwards.

So, it is possible to “predict backwards” and reason why Esperanto has not become particularly popular, but one cannot name one reason. I think this is the result of a confluence of different circumstances.

For example, there were wars in Europe in the 20th century. In particular, after World War II, the language never regained its pre-war popularity, as a significant part of the Esperanto community suffered in the war, like the entire European population as a whole. America was a more prosperous country, but there was no strong Esperanto movement. There are Esperantists there, but still this language is more widespread in Eastern Europe and in South America.

Also, Esperanto was never successfully introduced as official language at the UN, although this was quite seriously discussed and his fate could have turned out differently.

— Is there any practical sense in studying Esperanto now?

— There is quite a bit of practical meaning, but not everything we do has a practical meaning. Collecting stamps is not very practical. So it is here: Esperanto is unlikely to help you make a career, but having learned it, you will be able to read in this language, participate in social life— go to congresses, participate in the publication of magazines, communicate with like-minded people. Esperantists even have their own equivalent of couchsurfing.

Although in Hungary Esperanto is taught in school. The Hungarian teacher Laszlo Polgar, the father of the famous chess players the Polgar sisters, taught them not only chess, but also Esperanto. Perhaps due to the fact that Hungarian Unlike the languages of neighboring countries, learning Esperanto helps Hungarians establish contacts with the outside world.

— How widespread is Esperanto now?

— According to various estimates, it is spoken by between 200 thousand and 2 million people. This is a lot: there are more than a hundred languages in Russia, and only two of them - Russian and Tatar - are spoken by more than two million people. True, it is not clear to what extent Esperanto speakers actually speak this language: some can speak fluently, while others only read.

— Esperanto was created a very long time ago. How has he changed during this time?

— A book was published in 1905 Fundamento de Esperanto(“Fundamentals of Esperanto”), which the official normative body, the Academy of Esperanto, recognizes as the main source of the norms of this language and does not allow deviations from them.

Only a general outline is outlined there: 16 grammatical rules, the alphabet, but you need to constantly update the vocabulary, as new realities appear. In addition, as a result of the use of language, stable combinations, and they can be different for speakers of different native languages.

In general, Esperanto is evolving as a natural language, especially since there are people who have been its speakers since childhood, about a thousand people.

In Esperantist families, it happens that the father speaks Esperanto to the child, and the mother speaks her native language. So Esperanto turns out to be one of the few languages that is adopted from fathers; usually, the child still learns more of the language in the process of communicating with his mother.

— How is vocabulary expanded in Esperanto? For example, smartphones have appeared in our lives, is there a word for them in Esperanto?

— Esperanto generally has a very rich word formation, and new words are not a problem. Then the new word begins to be used, spreads and may end up in the Esperanto dictionary.

There was a whole discussion about smartphone, how to form this word in Esperanto, many options were offered: kompufono- a mixture of computer and telephone, saĝtelefono- “wise phone”. I don’t really know how it ended.

— Does Esperanto have any competitors among artificial languages in terms of popularity?

- At the turn of the 19th-20th century, with the advent of the telegraph and railway there was also a need for communication between speakers different languages. Therefore, at that time there were many projects to create artificial languages, in particular Romance-based auxiliary languages. Probably, besides Esperanto, the language closest to success was the Ido language, which spun off from it in the process of improving grammar. In the first half of the 20th century, it was spoken by a number of people, but then all this faded away, so Esperanto is now unrivaled.

— Is anyone inventing artificial languages now?

— Nowadays a lot of languages are being created for literature and cinema, this became especially popular after Tolkien. In addition, it has now become much easier to publish the results of your work: you came up with a language and made a page on the Internet. However, the epigraph to Zamenhof’s book, whose 130th anniversary we are celebrating, warns: “For a language to be universal, it is not enough to call it such.”