Esperanto The starry future Was this post just an excuse to post the image above? Who can say? Such questions may never get answered, and that's ok. If I ever become rich, the way I'd spread Esperanto is to funnel a boatload of funding into primary schools on the condition
Esperanto Funniest joke on the internet This one regularly resurfaces at /r/linguisticshumor/ and it's all over the web for good reason! "I am the ghost of Christmas Future Imperfect Conditional, said the spirit... I bring news of what would have been going to happen, if you were not to have been going
Esperanto Remarkably Adequate Waaait a minute. I recently spent a bunch of time laying down some data science (datum-scienco?) on some Portuguese text data for a collaboration with some researchers in Brazil. And this week, I finally sent out my results with some slight trepidation, given that I don't falo a
Esperanto Badgeresque & Squirrelseeming There's an English suffix that I know I'm not alone in finding tasty. And that's "esque" which means "in the style of" or "resembling". You can tack it onto anything and people will know what you're
Esperanto Opened, Closed & Shutted When you open something, it is "open" or even sometimes "opened". When you close something, it is never "close" only "closed". When you shut something, it is only "shut" never "shutted". This is pretty much a shambles. It&
Esperanto The toad and eagle-owl have been talking I'm currently reading a parallel text I got hold of from the Esperanto Association of Britain, where each page appears in both Esperanto and English, so I can scratch the sci-fi itch and see some translation intentions at the same time: Kuprokranio / Silverskull A collection of thought-provoking sci-fi
Esperanto The problem with with I once journeyed with a dwarf in order to steal a dragon's gold with a magical ring. He became very angry with us. Three uses of the word “with” in the above passage. But with each usage comes a distinctly different meaning. This may not be very remarkable
Esperanto My favourite fantasy "The Name of the Wind" and its sequel by Patrick Rothfuss are the best fantasy novels out there. And if they're ever translated to Esperanto, I'll take holiday away from work and ignore all chores, bindings, and obligations (except Emmy the cat) until I&
Esperanto And both Normally, kaj is translated as "and", but in the first instance of the following, "both" is more appropriate: kaj la kato kaj la muso pentras bele both the cat and the mouse paint beautifully kaj la kato kaj la muso pentras bele0:00/4.0751021× It&
Esperanto Running things without the cats unravelling everything Tradition must give way to logic! I was pleased to discover that a popular and logical use of the word sen is winning, despite it being a usage that Zamenhof himself warned people away from. sen without vi ne povas vivi sen kato you can't live without a
Esperanto Unputdownable A complimentary quote on a book I recently considered buying included quite a lovely English word, "unputdownable". Of course I immediately wondered what the Esperanto version might be. But is the phrase "to put down a book" a little too English of a phrasing to be
Esperanto Esperanto of Dune In light of the Dune hype, and since it's my favourite science fiction series, I've picked out a few quotes for translation amusement. "how often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him" This one caught
Esperanto What stresses a grammarian? There's a place deep in the bowels of the PMEG where I stumbled into a section that felt almost emotional. Its author Bertilo Wennergren's passionate rant about the folly of Da-ism. I felt compelled to spread the word! The Esperanto word da is one of the
Esperanto Laden with apricots When the evening draws in, and I settle into a comfy chair, the drink that has come to be my most treasured sip is: viskio whisky And I've always found that the descriptions of a whisky's aroma, taste, and finish can be pleasingly poetic. And even
Esperanto Verse 33 A little supplementary post because once, over a decade ago, I already translated verse 33 of the Tao Te Ching, but it's still important to me (it runs in calligraphy on a scroll on the wall beside me still!), so I'd like to record it anew
Esperanto Worth a gander Shuffling through my notes I rediscovered: vidindaĵo sight worth seeing, sight of interest melo kaj sciuro ludantaj ŝakon estas vidindaĵo a badger and a squirrel playing chess is a sight worth seeing Melo kaj sciuro ludantaj ŝakon estas vidindaĵo0:00/7.4448981× From vidi "to see", -ind "
Esperanto Passing into the beyond Welcome to the first post on the Ghost platform! The focus of the day is preter: preter past, beyond, by ŝi vojaĝis preter la regno de la vivantaj she journeyed beyond the realm of the living ŝi vojaĝis preter la regno de la vivantaj0:00/5.6163271× The question is.
Esperanto A new land Koran dankon for making the journey over if you're coming from the old blog! The air's already feeling a little fresher on this side. If you're feeling adventurous, and either have Open AI API access or are willing to get it, check out my
Esperanto A whiffle of chatter Apparently, you might consider “whiffle” and “chatter” to be frequentatives of “whiff” and “chat” respectively! A frequentative is a form of word used to express repeated or habitual action. So “chatter” is repeated/habitual/ongoing “chat”. In English, they are most usually formed with an “-le” or “-er” suffix, and
Esperanto Inedibilification An Esperanto article gave me an idea for an English word: “inedibilify” = to make (something) inedible. And its corresponding noun form “inedibilification”. I suspect you might have even been able to parse out that meaning before I suggested it, because that “-ify” suffix in English is pretty neat for word-building
Esperanto The result of that which is done I’ve already covered ya basic participle shenanigans at length in the “partying with participles” series, but I did spot a nice little extra recently. Participles are a big topic, but once the system is in your brain, it’s pretty neat. To briefly recap, we basically have a bunch
Esperanto The Afterput Also Afterput: la postmetita “ankaŭ” the “also” which is put after [something] [from prefix “post” (after) + the verb “meti” (to put) with its past participle “-ita” form] Aside from the delicious conciseness of “postmetita” (after-put), there’s a nice point in this section of the PMEG (which everyone by now should
Esperanto Enjoying the Moment Here’s a few musings that occurred to me as I read a particularly neat term recently: antaŭĝoji to look forward to (an-tou-JO-yee, “ou” as in “ouch”) I do love a ŭ followed by a circumflexed letter; it really does make a pleasant squiggle, which here is then also complemented
Esperanto Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, / Betwixt true valour and an empty boast. I’ve been thinking about the neatness of the Esperanto “propra” = “own”. ĉiu propran saĝon posedas everyone possesses their own wisdom Notice how the English translation requires us to restate the possessive adjective (“their”) to complete the phrase – but if you’re truly honest with yourself, you know that the
Esperanto Nuances of Repetition I stumbled across a little nuance in how we talk about repeated actions. I stumbled across a little nuance… ok, too obvious. When we use a noun (Esperanto O-word) which names an action, we usually talk about a single instance of that action. And we can talk about several using
