theaspiringpolymath:

jeparletoutesleslangues:

heliodurus:

quiet-turtle:

sprachtraeume:

langsandlit:

linguine-linguistics:

Esperanto

Why do people dislike Esperanto?

Yeah idk why people dislike it :/ could someone explain?

^ i seriously wanna know. Do you guys not appreciate its grammar, its simplicity while still being inclusive, or its mission for peace? Because langblr is all about being open to languages until it comes to Esperanto.

I fucking hate it because a language without virtually any grammar is not a language!!!!

Seriously, THREE tenses? Are you crazy? Why the fuck would i learn a language

Themainreason I love it is because of the concept and accessibility, it is simplistic because L.L Zamenhof wanted people to learn it, he wanted people from different cultures to speak, it makes international culture (admittedly it’s easier for European language speakers to mix than non-European language speakers to mix) more accessible and in my mind I can’t see how that could be a bad thing. Also surely is the perfect time (speaking at a Brit) to unite Europe?

Esperanto

gwendolynlerman:

Languages of Europe

Esperanto (Esperanto lingvo)

Basic facts

• Number of speakers: between 100,000 and 2-3 million (100,000 speak it fluently and 2-3 million have studied it)
• Official language: in international Esperanto congresses and meetings only
• Minority language: Esperanto speakers live in more than 120 countries. They are not an officially-recognized minority anywhere
• Language of diaspora: Esperanto society can be compared to a diaspora. Esperanto speakers live all over the world, and have their own culture but no legal status
• Alphabet:Latin, 28 letters
• Grammarical cases: 2
• Linguistic typology: agglutinative with isolating traits, free wordorder
• Language family: Neo-latin language
• Number of dialects: no dialects
• Longest word: kontraŭkolektivismobatalantoj (anti-collectivism fighters)- 33 letters

History

• 1878 - the first primitive version of Esperanto, which was named Lingwe Uniwersala, is completed
• 1887 - “Unua Libro”, the book introducing modern Esperanto, is published
• 1889 - the first Esperanto magazine is published and the first Esperanto club is founded
• 1905 - the first World Congress is held and the “Fundamento de Esperanto” is published
• 1908 - Universala Esperanto-Asocio, the World Esperanto Association, is founded
• 2009 -  It is possible to pass international Esperanto exams at three levels (B1, B2, C1)
• 2012 - Google Translate added Esperanto as its 64th language

The language was initiated by Ludwig Lazar Zamenhof, who created the grammar on the basis of European languages with a minimal quantity of exceptions. The vocabulary is mostly based on Romance languages, although there are also words from Germanic and other languages. Two decades later, the first children speaking in Esperanto with their parents were born, the first native speakers of the language. It is a language created for international communication, which later became creolized and is nowadays the language of a diaspora of Esperanto speakers.

It was created on the basis of the vocabulary of Indo-European languages, but was intended to be easy to learn. For this reason, its grammar is agglutinative, a characteristic feature of Turkic and Finno-Ugric languages, and at a deeper level it is isolating, as in Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese. This means that its morphemes can be used as independent words. It has a completely regular grammar and allows the creation of a large quantity of words by combining lexical roots and about forty affixes. 

The main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) have consistent endings that always allow the recognition of all parts of speech. Its regularity makes it particularly easy to learn, and its streamlined capacity to create new words make it one of the most productive languages, with a potentially unlimited number of words, is capable of expressing all new ideas or states. 

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the alphabet: a b c ĉ d e f g ĝ h ĥ i j ĵ k l m n o p r s ŝ t u ŭ v z.

Esperanto is read as it is written. Each letter always has the same sound, the same sound is always expressed by the same letter, and the stress is always on the next to last syllable. Diphthongs such as aŭ, eŭ, oŭ or aj count as one syllable.

Special letters in Esperanto are translitarated into English in the following way: ĉ = ch, ŝ = sh, ĝ = j, ĥ (ch as in Scottish loch), ĵ = zh (or French j).

Grammar

All nouns end in -o, all adjectives end in -a, all infinitive verbs end in -i, and most adverbs end in -e.

In the present tense, the ending is -as, while the past tense ending is -is and the ending for the future tense is -os.

In addition to the nominative case, there is also an accusative ending which is used for nouns, adjectives and pronouns in both the singular and plural: -n. Thanks to the accusative, the word order is free.

Theplural of nouns and adjectives is formed by the ending -j added after the -o or -a ending.

danbensen:

icelandiclanguage:

kittylevin:

vinurminn:

In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that he/she has paused to think but is not yet finished speaking.  These are not to be confused with placeholder names, such as thingamajig, which refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown.

• InAfrikaans,ah,em, and eh are common fillers.
• InArabic, يعني yaʿni (“I mean”) and وﷲ wallāh(i) (“by God”) are common fillers.^[2][3][4]
• InAmerican Sign Language,UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).
• InBengali,mane (“it means”) is a common filler.
• InCatalan,eh/ə/,doncs(“so”),llavors (“therefore”), and o sigui (“it means”) are common fillers.
• InCzech,takortakže(“so”),prostě(“simply”),jako (“like”) are used as fillers. Čili (“or”) and že (“that”, a conjunction) might also be others. A person who says jakoandprostě as fillers might sound a bit simple-minded to others.^[5]
• InDanish,øh is one of the most common fillers.
• InDutch,eh,ehm, and dus are some of the more common fillers.
• InEsperanto,do (“therefore”) is the most common filler.
• InFilipino,ah,eh,ay, and ano are the most common fillers.
• InFinnish,niinku(“like”),tota, and öö are the most common fillers.
• InFrench,euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi(“what”),bah,ben(“well”),tu vois (“you see”), and eh bien (roughly “well”, as in “Well, I’m not sure”). Outside of France, other expressions are tu sais (“you know”), t’sais’veux dire? (“you know what I mean?”), or allez une fois (“go one time”). Additional filler words include genre(“kind”),comme (“like”), and style (“style”; “kind”)
• InGerman, a more extensive series of filler words, called modal particles, exists, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh/ɛː/,hm,so/zoː/,tja, and eigentlich(“actually”)
• InHebrew,eh is the most common filler. Em is also quite common.
• InHindi,matlab (“it means”) and “Mah” are fillers.
• InHungarian, common filler words include hát (well…) and asszongya (a variant of azt mondja, which means “it says here…”).
• InIcelandic, a common filler is hérna(“here”).Þúst, a contraction of þú veist (“you know”), is popular among younger speakers.
• InIndonesian (Bahasa Indonesia),anu is one of the most common fillers.
• InItalian, common fillers include “tipo” (“like”), “ecco” (“there”) and “cioè” (“actually”)
• InIrishGaelic,abair /ˈabˠəɾʲ/ (“say”), bhoil /wɛlʲ/ (“well”), and era /ˈɛɾˠə/ are common fillers, along with emm as in Hiberno-English.
• InJapanese, common fillers include eetto,ano,sono, and ee.
• InKannada,Matte for also,Enappa andreforthe matter is are the common fillers.
• InKorean,eung,eo,ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.
• InLithuanian,nu,amandžinai (“you know”) are common fillers.
• INMalteseandMaltese English,mela (“then”), or just la, is a common filler.
• InMandarin Chinese, speakers often say 这个 zhège/zhèige (“this”) or 那个 nàge/nèige (“that”). Another common filler is 就 jìu(“just/precisely”).
• InNorwegian, common fillers are øh,altså,på en måte (“in a way”), ikke sant (literally “not true?”, “no kidding”, or “exactly”), vel (“well”), and liksom (“like”). In Bergen, sant (“true”) is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, skjø’ (“see?” or “understand?”) is also a common filler.
• InPersian,bebin (“you see”), چیز “chiz” (“thing”), and مثلا masalan (“for instance”) are commonly-used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu, يعني yaʿni (“I mean”) is also used in Persian. Also, eh is a common filler in Persian.

• InPortuguese,tipo (“like”) is the most common filler.
• InRomanian,deci /detʃʲ/ (“therefore”) is common, especially in school, and ă /ə/ is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ăăă), whereas păi /pəj/ is widely used by almost anyone.
• InRussian, fillers are called слова-паразиты (“vermin words”); the most common are Э-э(“eh”),это(“this”),того(“that”),ну(“well”),значит (“it means”), так(“so”),как его (“what’s it [called]”), типа (“like”), and как бы (“[just] like”).
• InSerbian,znači (“means”) and ovaj (“this”) are common fillers.
• InSlovak,oné(“that”),tento(“this”),proste (“simply”), or akože are used as fillers. The Hungarian izé(orizí in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. Ta is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.
• InSlovene,pač (“but”, although it has lost that meaning in colloquial, and it is used as a means of explanation), a ne? (“right?”), and no (“well”) are some of the fillers common in central Slovenia, including Ljubljana.
• InSpanish, fillers are called muletillas. Some of the most common in American Spanisharee/e/,este (“this”), and o sea (roughly means “I mean”).^[6], in Spain the previous fillers are also used, but ¿Vale? (“right?”) and ¿no? are very common too.
• InSwedish, fillers are called utfyllningsord; some of the most common are öhm,ja(“yes”),ba (comes from “bara”, which means “just”), assåoralltså (“therefore”, “thus”), va (comes from “vad”, which means “what”), and liksomandtyp (both similar to the English “like”).
• InUkrainian,ой /ɔj/ is a common filler.
• InUrdu,yani(“meaning…”),falan falan (“this and that”; “blah blah”), umm, and aaa are also common fillers.
• InTelugu,ikkada entante (“Whats here is…”) and tarwatha (“then…”) are common and there are numerous like this.
• InTamil,paatheenga-na (“if you see…”) and apparam (“then…”) are common.
• InTurkish,yani(“meaning…”),şey (“thing”), “işte” (“that is”), and falan (“as such”, “so on”) are common fillers.
• InWelsh,deorynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of “You know?” or “Isn’t it?”). Ym…andY… are used similarly to the English “um…”.

Remember that this stuff is really important for fluency of speech. I’ve encountered a bad attitude among language teachers before: “we don’t teach filler words, because that’s not “normative” vocabulary, and it encourages students to sound unsure.”  But that’s so, so wrong.  

All people use filler words in conversation and even in formal settings.  It’s a way to keep the flow of speech when the train of thought pauses; it holds the audience’s attention and actually helps maintain clarity of thought.  What’s more, these words are instrumental for language learners, who need to pause more often in their speech than native speakers.  Allowing them to pause without breaking into their language (saying a filler word in their language) or completely breaking the flow of their speech allows them to gain fluency faster.

My high school Japanese teacher did it right: “etto” and “anou” were in the second lesson.  Teach filler words, people!!  And if you’re studying a language and don’t know them, look at this list!!  It has a lot!

Could add these to the Icelandic list:

sko

þarna

ee

uu

skilur(ð)u

tja

I’d translate  слова-паразиты as “parasite words” not “vermin” words. 

Also, Bulgarian: znachi(”it means” or “so”), ami, and aaa

languagethoughts:

So I’ve only gotten 30xp per day these past three days. And all my xp was for doing some practice, with no new skills. Even so, my tree is starting to decay. Tomorrow I will have to do some real work to get my tree gold again, and push forward with the learning of new words and phrases.

languagethoughts:

Today has been my best day so far! I didn’t do any review, but I learned 20 lessons (200xp). This puts me at about half the tree. Soon I can start to use the language in real life! Here’s my tree:

languagethoughts:

Day Two complete! Today I learned 10 lessons, and did 5 rounds of review, for a total of 150xp. Below is my tree as of today:

Esperanto’s vocabulary is not hard to guess, with all the cognates. That said, some phrases are a little bit of a mystery (like you’re welcome - “nedankinde”). Also, the Spanish part of my brain really wants to match the ending vowel of nouns and adjectives, which is throwing me off a little. We’ll get there :)

meichenxi:

meichenxi:

Low key going back to Norwegian or Spanish or Dutch or something in a fun non serious way just to have a language to passively consume and get inexplicably better at via immersion in times of complete brain dead and the the beauty of Germanic / Romance cognates.

Without…having to worry because I have no desire to actually speak it anytime soon and also because I basically know the grammar (or what matters for passive understanding at an intermediate level) already. Chinese is fine for media but I also primarily watch period dramas which are still tiring without subs after a while; Korean is just exhausting at any level. Norwegian. *sigh* That sounds so nice.

no actually this is so unfair screw this. just listened to a twenty minute vlog in norwegian (ok, for learners, but still). after not doing anything since I was sixteen and that being for maybe five months (a year is an exaggeration since the Norwegian exchange students at my school, the reason I learnt, were only there for four)being extremely chill and my only book being an ancient falling apart teach yourself Norwegian book -

I understood basically everything. and they were discussing civil partnership vs marriage. brain hurty and weird but I understood.

WHY do I choose the horrible hard no good not easy non IE languages. Why

Genuinely semi considering this

Ok so I can listen to podcast episodes and watch videos/tv to varying degrees of complexity in the following, excluding english and chinese, which I am still doing regularly:

- german

- french

- spanish

- dutch

- norwegian

- esperanto

which language should I continue to casually immerse in whilst I’m supposed to be doing korean and I’m too tired for palace intrigue in chinese and during my intensely long walk to schools??? vote now on your phones.

in all seriousness if you have any podcast / video / show recommendations for any of the above let me know. german I can listen to whatever (but because of this often don’t, as I’m very picky and the returns are less, so preferably fantasy/sci-fi audio books/queer stuff/Tolkien/linguistics/DnD); Spanish and French can listen to native podcasts if they’re not super advanced; Dutch can listen to simple native podcasts; Esperanto and Norwegian maybe mostly learner-orientated material for now

[image transcription: an Esperanto phrase says “tell the truth or I will throw your cell phone”]

[image transcription: an Esperanto phrase says “In soccer one kicks the ball not the people”]

[image transcription: an Esperanto phrase says “Whose robot ate my cake?”]