Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Esperanto agglutination

  Tags: Esperanto
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto Post Reply
Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6250 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 1 of 6
23 December 2009 at 8:33pm | IP Logged 
Reading "Raportoj el Japanio", I was struck by the sentence "Oni memvole defendkorpusanigxas" - not because it's unusual, but because it's a nice illustration of perfectly normal Esperanto agglutination.

"Defendkorpus" is a rendering of "(Japanese) self defense force"; the interesting part is the suffixes, -an -igx and -as. 'an' means 'member', 'igx' means 'become', and 'as' is the present tense verb ending. So, the whole word means "Becomes a member of the Japanese self defense force"; it's quite a bit to pack into one word.

"Memvole" is simpler; it divides into mem-vol-e, meaning 'self', 'will', and the '-e' means that it modifies the verb; an English rendering would be "voluntarily" or "of one's own volition."

For anyone curious, 'Oni' simply means 'one', in the sense of the impersonal English 'you'.

3 persons have voted this message useful



Aquila
Triglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5292 days ago

104 posts - 128 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German
Studies: French

 
 Message 2 of 6
26 December 2009 at 8:37pm | IP Logged 
The word compositions in Esperanto are a bit unusual for me. I learn some Esperanto beside my target language French but I find it a very pleasing language for so far. It’s much easier to learn in comparison with French. And I think the use of these suffixes makes the language very original. It seems to me, that you can make hundreds (maybe thousands) of combinations with it.
1 person has voted this message useful



Luai_lashire
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
luai-lashire.deviant
Joined 5639 days ago

384 posts - 560 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto
Studies: Japanese, French

 
 Message 3 of 6
27 December 2009 at 2:20am | IP Logged 
That's a nice example- most examples I see of agglutination in eo are a lot shorter and
less interesting than that one. :)
1 person has voted this message useful



j0ma
Tetraglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5515 days ago

24 posts - 30 votes
Speaks: Finnish*, English, German, Esperanto
Studies: Yiddish, Mandarin

 
 Message 4 of 6
28 December 2009 at 12:15am | IP Logged 
Hello,

Wouldn't that example also qualify as a polysynthetic one? Because polysynthetic just means having many morphemes in one word, making it possible to squeeze into one word something that would take a whole sentence in another language.

Thanks,
Jonne
1 person has voted this message useful



Levi
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5378 days ago

2268 posts - 3328 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian

 
 Message 5 of 6
28 December 2009 at 1:52am | IP Logged 
No, Esperanto is not polysynthetic. Subjects, verbs and objects are represented by separate words in Esperanto.
1 person has voted this message useful



j0ma
Tetraglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5515 days ago

24 posts - 30 votes
Speaks: Finnish*, English, German, Esperanto
Studies: Yiddish, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 6
28 December 2009 at 10:46am | IP Logged 
Oh yes, how stupid of me. :)
Thanks anyway!

Jonne


1 person has voted this message useful



If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.2660 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.