Esperanto is the easiest language
to learn -- by far! It also is consistent, expressive, and is used by
millions
of interesting correspondents world-wide. Since 1887, Esperanto
publications
have included books and newsletters on a wide variety of subjects. We
can
lead you to an Esperanto contact point in nearly any country in the
world.
The Esperanto alphabet is: a,b,c,^c,d,e,f,g,^g,h,^h,i,j,^j,k,l,m,n,o,p,r,s,^s,t,u,^u,v,z. Properly, the caret (^) should be printed above, not before, the "following" letter, and the special u uses a small parenthesis (lying on its concave side) instead of a caret. However, most typewriters and computers cannot display that, so other conventions have evolved. Some put the ^ after the letter, and some before (as European typewriters 'set' for a special character). Nowadays, most use an x after the letter (and a w in place of the ^u) instead. All these conventions work, and become easy to read once you understand the symbol usage.
Each Esperanto letter has
only
one pronunciation, meaning that if you can read it you can pronounce
it,
and if you can say it you can spell it. Incredible!
a - like a in father.
c - like ts in gets.
cx - like ch in chair.
e - like e in eh? (no
diphthong
sound).
g - like g in game.
gx - like g in gem.
hx - like ch in loch.
i - like i in the music note,
mi, or e in delightful.
j - like y in joy or young.
jx - zh like the s in pleasure.
o - like o in oh!
r - slightly trilled like in
Spanish.
s - like the s in sick.
sx - like the s in sugar.
u - like u in lute or German
Gut.
w - like w in how or water.
All other letters are
pronounced
close enough to English for beginners.
You already know how to pronounce each word, as well, because all Esperanto words are stressed on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable -- as in "Es-per-ANT-o" (rhymes with Toronto).
Esperanto takes a fairly small number of roots, adding prefixes and suffixes to modify them in a totally standard way for different parts of speech and meanings. The roots are sensibly chosen from the west-European languages. (If you know English and one of French, German, Spanish or Italian you'll recognize most of them.) The plural suffix is always -j (pronounced like the English -y). One of the nicest prefixes for beginners is the use of 'mal-' to reverse the meaning of an adjective -- you only have to learn half as many as in most languages! (E.g., good/bad » bona/malbona; hot/cold » varma/malvarma.) Note that all adjectives end in -a, all nouns in -o, all adverbs in -e, all verbs in -s (-os = future, -as = present, -is = past, -us = conditional) except infinitives in -i and imperatives in -u.
You've never met as sensible a language, or one as easy to learn. See how Esperanto 'tames' these related words, with their wildly unrelated English sounds and spellings:
Example:
dog/dogs/bitch/puppies/pack/canine
» hundo/hundoj/hundino/hundidoj/hundaro/hunda.
Also:
horse/horses/mare/foal/herd/equine
» cxevalo/cxevaloj/cxevalino/cxevalido/cxevalaro/cxevala.
So: -in- = female, -id- = offspring, -ar- = group of.
This uniformity and
combining
power enable you to invent a 'new' word for any task, and know that
other
Esperantists will understand:
'female-puppy-like' =
hundidina.
Gxoju! = Enjoy!
English-Esperanto Online Dictionary (kaj inverse)
Esperanto, the International Language (online resources)
Esperanto League of North America
Esperanto Society of New England
An Introduction to the International Language, Esperanto
Lernu (Esperanto course, and more)
Getting Started With Esperanto : Kiel Komenci Esperanto (including Esperanto type font info)
The high-liner Gloucester fisherman, "Esperanto" (Read more at its "TWelch" link.)
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