Verda Drako- Esperanto Club Notes and English-Esperanto Course

1). Introduction

Zamenhof succeeded ingiving Esperanto a very large vocabulary from a relatively small number of roots. This was achieved using a system of affixes (prefixes and suffixes). There are about forty of these and they are of the greatest use. We shall introduce them at about six at a time.

2). Mal-

This prefix turns any word into its exact opposite e.g

This immediately gives us the chance to increase our vocabulary by almost 50% straight away!! Any of the words you already know can be converted into its opposite (if it can have one) by the use of mal-.

Malo is a word in itself and means opposite.

3). -Et-

This suffix causes a diminution (i.e. makes smaller) e.g.

Eta is an independent word meaning tiny.

4). -Eg-

This is the opposite of -et- and causes magnification e.g.

Again ege is often used as a word for hugely.

These three affixes can immediately allow us to illustrate word building from one root. Let us pick varm-

We can have the complete range of temperature now :

Tre varm/eg/a	Absolutely scalding	Mal/varm/et/a	Coolish
Varm/eg/a	Hot	Iom Malvarma	Distinctly cool
Tre varma	Very warm	Malvarma	Cold
Varma	Warm	Tre malvarma	Very cold
Iom varma	Warmish	Mal/varm/eg/a	Bitterly cold
Varm/et/a	Tepid, lukewarm	Tre mal/varm/eg/a	Intensely cold

(Tre = very, Iom = somewhat) ( F: très)

If one wants anything off this scale (at either end) you could use as a separate word ege (excessively) e.g. ege varmega is probably millions of degrees. Thus from one root and a small number of affixes and adverbs we have describe all possible heat conditions. If you want any more flexibility you would have to quote actual temperature degrees (gradoj).

5). -ej-

This suffix indicates a place e.g.

ejo is again a word in its own right and means a place.

6). -in-

This is used to form a feminine e.g.

patr/in/o mother

frat/in/o sister (E : fraternal)

hund/in/o female dog, bitch

ina is the adjective for feminine.

In the animal kingdom a noun without the -in- suffix is the general term e.g. ^safo is a sheep (which could be male or female). A ewe is ^safino and a ram is a vir^safo ('man-sheep').

7). Ge-

Used for mixed sexes e.g.

ge/knab/oj boys and girls

ge/sinjor/oj ladies and gentlemen (S : Señor)

(Sinjoro (Mr), Sinjorino (Mrs), Gesinjoroj (Mr and Mrs), Fraûlino (Miss) are the common titles and often abbreviated S-ro, S-ino, Ges. and F-ino. (G : Fraulein)

8). Order of Suffixes

The position of the suffixes can alter the meaning of a word e.g.

best/eg/ej/o would be the place of the huge animals whereas best/ej/eg/o is the huge place of the (normal sized) animals.

i.e. one reads in order backwards from the grammatical ending with the last suffix being the most significant.

Although fine in written Esperanto any more than two suffixes can soon be very difficult to comprehend in rapid spoken language and should be avoided.

bone	ost/-o	E : osteopath	clean	pur/-a	E : pure
chair	se^g/-o		comfortable	komfort/-a
fire	fajr/-o		content	kontent/-a
floor	plank/-o		dangerous	dan^ger/-a
ink	ink/-o		other	ali/-a	E : alias
land,country	land/-o		wide	lar^g/-a *
life	viv/-o	E : vivacious	again	denove
lion	leon/-o	L : leo	because	^car
species	speci/-o		only	nur
whale	balen/-o	E:baleen	at, at the house of	^ce	F : chez
window	fenestr/-o	F : fenêtre	above,over	super	E : supersonic
zebra	zebr/-o		by, of	de	F : de
to be able to, 'can'	pov/-i	F : pouvoir	by means of	per	L: per
to sit	sid/-i		concerning, about	pri
to visit	vizit/-i		through	tra	E : traverse

bona	good	malbona	bad
rapida	quick	malrapida	slow
aperi	to appear	malaperi	to disappear

domo	house	dometo	cottage
ridi	to laugh	rideti	to smile
strato	street	strateto	lane

domo	house	domego	mansion
urbo	town	urbego	city
libro	book	librego	tome

lern/ej/o	school	'learning place' (E : learn)
pre^g/ej/o	church	'praying place'
kunven/ej/o	meeting place	E : convention