Esperanto II
Encyclopedia
Esperanto II was a reform of Esperanto
proposed by René de Saussure
in 1937, the last of a long series of such proposals beginning with a 1907 response to Ido
later called Antido 1. Esperanto II was one of several languages investigated by the International Auxiliary Language Association
, the linguistic research body that eventually standardized and presented Interlingua
.
The orthography and phonology were changed to eliminate diacritics and a few of the more marginal sounds: J becomes Y, Ĵ and Ĝ conflate to J, Ŭ becomes W, Ĉ becomes CH, Ŝ becomes SH, KV becomes Q, KZ and KS become X, EJ becomes E.
Several of the grammatical inflections were changed. The accusative is in -u, which replaces the final vowel of nouns, pronouns, and correlatives (ju for ĝin, tu for tion), and for the plural -n is added to both nouns and pronouns (lin "they", lina "their"). Neither suffix affects adjectives, which do not agree with their noun. The correlative series tiu, ĉiu becomes ta, cha when modifying a noun. The indefinite suffix -aŭ is replaced with adverbial -e, and the inchoative -iĝ- becomes -ev-.
A large number of small grammatical words are also replaced, such as ey for kaj "and", be for ĉe "at", and ki for ol "than". The work of the preposition de "of, by, from" is divided up into several more specific prepositions.
Additionally, the project introduced international cognates when such cognates were readily recognized; for example, skolo was used for "school" in place of standard Esperanto's lernejo (a derivation of lerni, "to learn"). Skolo has since been adopted by Esperanto in the sense of "a school of thought", which is how it is used in the passage below. Antonymic roots such as tarde for malfrue "late" and poke for malmulte "few" are used today in Esperanto poetry, though they resemble Ido and Esperanto may have acquired them from that language.
Esperanto II
Standard Esperanto:
Translation
Correspondances
In the order in which they occur in the passage above, these are:
-u : -on (as Kongresu : Kongreson, fondu : fondon). be : ĉe. te : je (date). farevis : fariĝis. ey : kaj. kaes : kies, de kiu. ki : ol. anke : ankaŭ. ta : tiu. kay : kiu? pliente ki : more than. -n : -j (as yaron : jaroj, membrun : membrojn). kaw : kiun? projekto : projekto (change in pronunciation). di : (accepted) by. pos : post. cha : ĉiu. dey : from. tala : tia. li-n-a : ili-a (lin for ili is li plus plural -n). lo : ? ankore : ankoraŭ. ju : ĝin. tu : tion. tiente: ? niam : neniam.
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...
proposed by René de Saussure
René de Saussure
René de Saussure was a Swiss Esperantist and professional mathematician, who composed important works about Esperanto and interlinguistics from a linguistic viewpoint...
in 1937, the last of a long series of such proposals beginning with a 1907 response to 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...
later called Antido 1. Esperanto II was one of several languages investigated by the International Auxiliary Language Association
International Auxiliary Language Association
The International Auxiliary Language Association was founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together with research and experiment that may hasten such establishment in an intelligent manner and...
, the linguistic research body that eventually standardized and presented Interlingua
Interlingua
Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association...
.
The orthography and phonology were changed to eliminate diacritics and a few of the more marginal sounds: J becomes Y, Ĵ and Ĝ conflate to J, Ŭ becomes W, Ĉ becomes CH, Ŝ becomes SH, KV becomes Q, KZ and KS become X, EJ becomes E.
Several of the grammatical inflections were changed. The accusative is in -u, which replaces the final vowel of nouns, pronouns, and correlatives (ju for ĝin, tu for tion), and for the plural -n is added to both nouns and pronouns (lin "they", lina "their"). Neither suffix affects adjectives, which do not agree with their noun. The correlative series tiu, ĉiu becomes ta, cha when modifying a noun. The indefinite suffix -aŭ is replaced with adverbial -e, and the inchoative -iĝ- becomes -ev-.
A large number of small grammatical words are also replaced, such as ey for kaj "and", be for ĉe "at", and ki for ol "than". The work of the preposition de "of, by, from" is divided up into several more specific prepositions.
Additionally, the project introduced international cognates when such cognates were readily recognized; for example, skolo was used for "school" in place of standard Esperanto's lernejo (a derivation of lerni, "to learn"). Skolo has since been adopted by Esperanto in the sense of "a school of thought", which is how it is used in the passage below. Antonymic roots such as tarde for malfrue "late" and poke for malmulte "few" are used today in Esperanto poetry, though they resemble Ido and Esperanto may have acquired them from that language.
Sample
Changes from standard Esperanto that involve more than orthography are highlighted in this sample passage and explained below.Esperanto II
- Vizitinte perhazarde la 2-a Universala Kongresu de Esperanto be Genevo (te 1906), mi farevis Esperantisto ey partoprenis tie la fondu de la Int(ernacia) Scienca Asocio Esperantista, kaes mi estis elektata sekretaro. Dum pli longe ki qin yaron mi anke estis chef-redaktoro de la Int(ernacia) Scienca Revuo, la oficiala organo de ta Asocio, kay tiam havis pliente ki 800 membrun. En 1907 okazis la 3-a Universala Kongreso de Esperanto be Cambridge, kaw mi anke beestis ey kie mia projekto de internacia helpmono estis akceptata di la Kongreso. Pos ta Kongreso aperis la riformprojekto Ido, verkita di Markezo de Beaufront ey Prof. Couturat. Mi tuy konsciis, ke ta projekto estas tute ne konforma al la spirito de Esperanto, kaes rimarkinda flexeblu Ido detruis per logika derivsistemo tro rigida por la chataga uzado de la lingvo skribe ey parole, ey dey ta tago mi komencis rifuti la pretendun de Ido en la Int(ernacia) Scienca Revuo. Dum mia laboro por la riformo de Esperanto mi examenis ne nur la projektu Ido, sed anke la interlingvun el la skolo "naturista" (Occidental, Latino sine flexione, etp.). Tala lingvoprojekton estas interesa, sed lina awtoron forgesis, ke la ple malfacila parto de la interlingva problemo ne estas la facila kompreno por la Okcidentanon, sed la facila parolado por cha popolon de la terglobo. Ey lo ankore pli malfacila ne estas krei interlingvu, sed ju vivigi, ey tu sukcesis nur Esperanto; forlasi la bazu Esperanta ey la grandega laboru yam farita di la Esperantiston estus vera frenezajo, tiente pli ke la Esperantiston niam akceptos lingvu tute nova.
Standard Esperanto:
- Vizitinte perhazarde la 2-an Universalan Kongreson de Esperanto ĉe Genevo (je 1906), mi fariĝis Esperantisto kaj partoprenis tie la fondon de la Int(ernacia) Scienca Asocio Esperantista, de kiu mi estis elektata sekretaro. Dum pli longe ol kvin jaroj mi ankaŭ estis ĉef-redaktoro de la Int(ernacia) Scienca Revuo, la oficiala organo de tiu Asocio, kiu tiam havis pli ol 800 membrojn. En 1907 okazis la 3-a Universala Kongreso de Esperanto ĉe Cambridge, kiun mi ankaŭ ĉeestis kaj kie mia projekto de internacia helpmono estis akceptata de la Kongreso. Post tiu Kongreso aperis la riformprojekto Ido, verkita de Markezo de Beaufront kaj Prof. Couturat. Mi tuj konsciis, ke tiu projekto estas tute ne konforma al la spirito de Esperanto, kies rimarkindan flexeblon Ido detruis per logika derivsistemo tro rigida por la ĉiutaga uzado de la lingvo skribe kaj parole, kaj ekde tiu tago mi komencis rifuti la pretendojn de Ido en la Int(ernacia) Scienca Revuo. Dum mia laboro por la riformo de Esperanto mi ekzamenis ne nur la projekton Ido, sed ankaŭ la interlingvojn el la skolo "naturista" (Occidental, Latino sine flexione, ktp.). Tia lingvoprojektoj estas interesaj, sed ilia aŭtoroj forgesis, ke la plej malfacila parto de la interlingva problemo ne estas la facila kompreno por la Okcidentanoj, sed la facila parolado por ĉiuj popoloj de la terglobo. Kaj [lo?] ankoraŭ pli malfacila ne estas krei interlingvon, sed ĝin vivigi, kaj tion sukcesis nur Esperanto; forlasi la bazon Esperantan kaj la grandegan laboron jam faritan de la Esperantistoj estus vera frenezaĵo, [tiente?] pli ke la Esperantistoj neniam akceptos lingvon tute novan.
Translation
- "Visiting by chance the 2nd World Congress of Esperanto in Geneva (in 1906), I became an Esperantist and took part there in the founding of the International Scientific Esperantist Association, of which I was elected secretary. For more than five years I was also chief editor of the International Science Journal, the official organ of that association, which then had more than 800 members. In 1907 there was the 3rd World Congress of Esperanto in Cambridge, which I also attended and where my project of international financial aid was accepted by the congress. After that congress there appeared the reform project Ido, worked out by Marquis [sic] de BeaufrontLouis de BeaufrontMarquis Louis de Beaufront was a major influence in the development of Ido, an international auxiliary language. Beaufront was initially an advocate of Esperanto and was largely responsible for its early diffusion in western Europe as well as one of its first French proponents.Much of Beaufront's...
and Prof. CouturatLouis CouturatLouis Couturat was a French logician, mathematician, philosopher, and linguist.-Life:Born in Ris-Orangis, Essonne, France, he was educated in philosophy and mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure...
. I immediately realized that that project was completely non-conforming to the spirit of Esperanto, whose remarkable flexibility Ido destroyed through a logical derivational system too rigid for everyday use of the spoken and written language, and from that day I began to refute the claims of Ido in the International Science Journal. During my work for the reform of Esperanto I examined not only the Ido project, but also the interlanguages of the "naturalist" school (Occidental, Latino sine flexione, etc.). Such language projects are interesting, but their authors forgot that the most difficult part of the interlanguage problem is not easy comprehension by Westerners, but ease of speech for all the peoples of the Earth. And what is more difficult is not to create an interlanguage, but to make it live, and only Esperanto has succeeded in that; to leave the base of Esperanto and the huge work already done by Esperantists would be true craziness, [?] further that Esperantists will never accept a completely new language."
Correspondances
In the order in which they occur in the passage above, these are:
-u : -on (as Kongresu : Kongreson, fondu : fondon). be : ĉe. te : je (date). farevis : fariĝis. ey : kaj. kaes : kies, de kiu. ki : ol. anke : ankaŭ. ta : tiu. kay : kiu? pliente ki : more than. -n : -j (as yaron : jaroj, membrun : membrojn). kaw : kiun? projekto : projekto (change in pronunciation). di : (accepted) by. pos : post. cha : ĉiu. dey : from. tala : tia. li-n-a : ili-a (lin for ili is li plus plural -n). lo : ? ankore : ankoraŭ. ju : ĝin. tu : tion. tiente: ? niam : neniam.