Esperanto vocabulary
Since then many words have been borrowed from other languages, primarily but not solely from western European languages. Not all such words catch on and come into general use. In recent decades, most of the new borrowings or coinages have been technical or scientific terms; terms in everyday use are more likely to be derived from existing words (for example komputilo [a computer], from komputi [to compute]), or extending them to cover new meanings (for example muso [a mouse], now also signifies a computer input device, as in English). There are frequent debates among Esperanto speakers about whether a particular new borrowing is justified or whether the need can be met by derivation or extending the meaning of existing words.
Origins
Esperanto occupies a middle ground between "naturalistic" constructed languages such as Interlingua, which borrow words en masse from their source languages with little internal derivation, and a priori conlangs such as Solresol, in which the words have no historical connection to other languages. In Esperanto, root words are borrowed and retain much of the form of their source language, whether the phonetic form (eks- from ex-) or orthographic form (teamo from team). However, each root can then form dozens of derivations which may bear little resemblance to equivalent words in the source languages, such as registaro (government), which is derived from the Latinate root reg (to rule).
Word formation
One of the ways Zamenhof made Esperanto easier to learn than ethnic languages was by creating a regular and highly productive derivational morphology. Through the judicious use of lexical affixes (prefixes and suffixes), the core vocabulary needed for communication was greatly reduced. It has been estimated that on average one root in Esperanto is the communicative equivalent of ten words in English.However, a contrary tendency is apparent in cultured and Greco-Latin technical vocabulary, which most Europeans see as "international" and therefore take into Esperanto en masse, despite the fact they are not truly universal. Many Asians consider this to be an onerous and unnecessary burden on the memory, when it is so easy to derive equivalent words internally (for example by calquing them, which is what Chinese often does). This sparks frequent debates as to whether a particular root is justified, and sometimes results in duplicates of native and borrowed vocabulary. An example is "calligraphy", which occurs both as a calqued belskribo ('writing of beauty') and as the direct borrowing kaligrafio. Something similar has also happened in English (brotherly vs fraternal), German (Ornithologie vs Vogelkunde for ornithology), Japanese (beesubooru vs yakyuu for baseball), French (le week-end vs. la fin de semaine), etc. However, while the debates in ethnic languages are motivated by nationalism or issues of cultural identity, in Esperanto the debates are largely motivated by differing views on how to make the language practical and accessible.
Affixes
One of the most immediately useful derivational affixes for the beginner is the prefix mal-, which derives antonyms: peza (heavy), malpeza (light); supren (upwards), malsupren (downwards); ami (to love), malami (to hate); lumo (light), mallumo (darkness). However, except in jokes, this prefix is not used when an antonym exists in the basic vocabulary: suda (south), not "malnorda" from 'north'; manki (to lack, intr.), not "malesti" from 'to be'.
The creation of new words through the use of grammatical (i.e. inflectional) suffixes, such as nura (mere) from nur (only), tiama (contemporary) from tiam (then), or vido (sight) from vidi (to see), was mentioned in the article on Esperanto grammar. What follows is a list of the main lexical affixes.
When a root receives more than one affix, the order does matter, as affixes modify the entire stem they're attached to. That is, the outer ones modify the inner ones. Most affixes, like roots, have an inherent part of speech, and this is indicated by the final part-of-speech vowel in the suffix list below. A few affixes do not affect the part of speech of the root; for the suffixes listed in the tables below, this is indicated by a hyphen in place of the final vowel.
List of lexical suffixes
| -aĉ- | pejorative (expresses a poor opinion of the object or action) | skribaĉi (to scrawl, from 'write'); veteraĉo (foul weather); domaĉo (a hovel); rigardaĉi (to gape at, from 'look at'); aĉ! (yuck!) |
| -adi, -ado | imperfective aspect (frequent, repeated, or continual action); as a noun, an action or process | kuradi (to keep on running); parolado (a speech); adi (to carry on) |
| -aĵo | a concrete manifestation | manĝaĵo (food, from 'eat'); novaĵo (news, novelty); aĵo (a thing) |
| -ano | a member, follower, participant, inhabitant | kristano (a Christian); marksano (a Marxist); usonano (a US American) [cf. amerikano (a continental American)]; ano (a member) |
| -aro | a collective group | arbaro (a forest, from 'tree'); vortaro (a dictionary, from 'word' [a set expression]); homaro (humanity, from 'human' [a set expression; 'crowd, mob' is homamaso]); ŝafaro (a herd of sheep); aro (a herd, group) |
| -ĉjo | masculine affectionate form; the root is truncated | Joĉjo (Jack); paĉjo (daddy); fraĉjo (bro) |
| -ebla | possible | kredebla (believable); videbla (visible); eble (possibly) |
| -eco | an abstract quality | amikeco (friendship); boneco (goodness); italeca (Italianesque) |
| -eg- | augmentative; sometimes pejorative connotations when used with people | domego (a mansion); virego (a giant); librego (a tome); varmega (boiling hot); ridegi (to guffaw); ega (great, humongous) |
| -ejo | a place characterized by the root (not used for toponyms) | lernejo (a school, from 'to learn'), vendejo (a store, from 'to sell'), juĝejo (a court, from 'to judge'), kuirejo (a kitchen, from 'to cook'), hundejo (a kennel, from 'dog'), senakvejo (a desert, from 'without water'); ejo (the appropriate place) |
| -ema | having a propensity, tendency | ludema (playful), parolema (talkative), kredema (credulous); emo (inclination) |
| -enda | mandatory | pagenda (payable), legendaĵo (required reading) |
| -ero | the smallest part | ĉenero (a link, from 'chain'); fajrero (a spark, from 'fire'); neĝero (a snowflake, from 'snow'), kudrero (a stitch, from 'sew'), ero (a crumb etc) |
| -estro | a leader, boss | lernejestro (a school principal); urbestro (a mayor, from 'city'); centestro (a centurion, from 'hundred') |
| -et- | diminutive; sometimes affectionate connotations when used with people | dometo (a hut); libreto (a booklet); varmeta (lukewarm); rideti (to smile); ete (slightly) |
| -io | a country named after a geographic feature, and now after an ethnicity | Meksikio (Mexico, from Meksiko 'Mexico City'); Niĝerio (Nigeria, from Niĝero 'the river Niger'); Anglio (England, from Anglo 'English person'); patrio (fatherland, from 'father') [cannot be used as a root io, as that means 'something'] |
| -iĉo | male [unofficial] | (see gender below) |
| -ido | an offspring, descendent | katido (a kitten); reĝido (a prince, from 'king'); arbido (a sapling, from 'tree'); izraelido (an Israelite); ido (a pup etc.) |
| -igi | to make, to cause (transitivizer/causative) | mortigi (to kill, from 'die'); purigi (to clean); konstruigi (to have built); igi (to cause) |
| -iĝi | to become (intransitivizer/inchoative/middle voice) | amuziĝi (to enjoy oneself); naskiĝi (to be born); ruĝiĝi (to blush, from 'red'); iĝi (to become) |
| -ilo | an instrument | ludilo (a toy, from 'play'); tranĉilo (a knife, from 'cut'); helpilo (a remedy, from 'help'); ilo (a tool) |
| -ino | female | bovino (a cow); patrino (a mother); studentino (a co-ed); ino (a female) |
| -inda | worthy of | memorinda (memorable); kredinda (credible); fidinda (dependable, trustworthy); inda (worthy) |
| -ingo | a holder, sheath | glavingo (a scabbard, from 'sword'); kandelingo (a candle-holder); dentingo (a tooth socket); ingo (a socket etc.) |
| -ismo | a doctrine, system (as in English) | komunismo (Communism); kristanismo (Christianity); ismo (an ism) |
| -isto | person professionally or avocationally occupied with an idea or activity (a narrower use than in English) | instruisto (teacher); dentisto (dentist); abelisto (a beekeeper), komunisto (a communist) |
| -njo | feminine affectionate form; the root is truncated | Jonjo (Joanie); panjo (mommy); anjo (granny) |
| -obla | multiple | duobla (double); trioble (triply); oble (more than once) |
| -ono | fraction | duona (half [of]); centono (one hundredth); ono (a fraction) |
| -ope | collective numeral | duope (by twos, two by two); gutope (drop by drop); kiomope (how many at a time?); arope (in groups) |
| -ujo | a (loose) container, country (archaic when referring to a political entity), a tree of a certain fruit (archaic) | monujo (a purse, from 'money'); Anglujo (England [Anglio in current usage]); Kurdujo (Kurdistan, the Kurdish lands); pomujo (appletree [now pomarbo]); ujo (a container) |
| -ulo | a person characterized by the root | junulo (a youth); sanktulo (a saint, from 'holy'); abocoulo (a beginning reader, from aboco "ABC's"); aĉulo (a wretch, from the suffix aĉ); tiamulo (a contemporary, from 'then'); ulo (a fellow) |
| -um- | undefined ad hoc suffix (used sparingly) | kolumo (a collar, from 'neck'); krucumi (to crucify, from 'cross'); malvarmumo (a cold, from 'cold'); plenumi (to fulfill, from 'full'); brakumi (to hug, from 'arm'); dekstrume (clockwise, from 'right'); um … ('uhm', 'uh', 'er' etc.) |
List of prefixes
| bo- | relation by marriage, -in-law | bopatro (a father-in-law); boedzino (a sister-wife) |
| dis- | separation, scattering | disĵeti (to throw about); dissendi (to distribute); disatomi (to split by atomic fission); dis! (scram!) |
| duon- | half | duonhoro (half an hour); duonlumo (half-light, twilight) [this is from the word du-on-o "a half", from du "two", but it behaves as a prefix when combining with other roots, rather than coming at the end as it would in a compound word] |
| ek- | perfective aspect (beginning, sudden, or momentary action) | ekbrili (to flash); ekami (to fall in love); ekkrii (to cry out); ekde (inclusive 'from'); ek! (hop to!) |
| eks- | former, ex- | eksedzo (an ex-husband); eksbovo (a steer [jokingly, from 'bull']); Eks la estro! (Down with our leader!) |
| fi- | shameful, nasty | fihomo (a wicked person); fimensa (foul-minded); fivorto (a profane word); Fi al vi! (Shame on you!) |
| ge- | both sexes together | gepatroj (parents); gesinjoroj (ladies and gentlemen); la geZamenhofoj (the Zamenhofs); gelernejo (a coeducational school); geiĝi (to pair up, to mate) |
| mal- | antonym | malgranda (small); malriĉa (poor); malino (a male [jokingly]); maldekstrume (counter-clockwise) |
| mis- | incorrectly, awry | misloki (to misplace); misakuzi (to wrongly accuse); misfamiga (disparaging, from fama 'well-known' and the causative suffix -ig) |
| pra- | great-(grand-), primordial, proto- | praavo (a great-grandfather); prapatro (a forefather); prabesto (a prehistoric beast); prahindeŭropa (Proto-Indoeuropean) |
| ''re- | over again, back again | resendi (to send back); rekonstrui (to rebuild); reaboni (to renew a subscription); rebrilo (reflection, glare, from 'shine'); reira bileto (a return ticket, from iri 'to go'); ĝis (la) revido (au revoir, from ĝis 'until' and vido 'sight') |
There are, in addition, affixes not listed here: technical affixes, such as the biological family suffix -edo seen in numidedo above; a few taken from Ido, such as -oza (full of) in montoza (mountainous), muskoloza (muscular), poroza (porous); and literary or poetic proposals at varying degrees of acceptance, such as the laudative (praising) suffix -el- in skribelo (fine penmanship) [compare skribaĉo (scrawl)], or kia domelo! (what a house!) [compare domaĉo (hovel)].
Lexical (i.e. derivational) affixes may act as roots by taking one of the grammatical suffixes: mala (opposite), eta (slight), ano (a member), umo (a doohickey), eble (possibly), iĝi (to become), ero (a bit, a crumb). Also, through compounding, lexical roots may act as affixes: vidi (to see), povi (to be able to), vidpova (able to see, not blind); ĉefo (head, chief), urbo (a city), ĉefurbo (a capital). It is quite common for prepositions to be used as prefixes: alveni (to arrive), from al (to) and veni (come); senespera (hopeless), from sen (without) and espero (hope); pripensi (to consider), from pri (about) and pensi (to think); etc.
Compounds
Compound words in Esperanto are similar to English, in that the final root is basic to the meaning. The roots may be joined together directly, or with an epenthetic (linking) vowel to aid pronunciation. This epenthetic vowel is most commonly the nominal suffix -o-, used regardless of number or case, but other grammatical suffixes may be used when the inherent part of speech of the first root of the compound needs to be changed.
- kantobirdo (a songbird) versus birdokanto (a birdsong)
- velŝipo (a sailship) versus ŝipvelo (a ship sail)
- centjaro (a centennial [a year of a hundred]) versus jarcento (a century [a hundred of years])
- multekosta (expensive, with an adverbial -e-)
Prepositions are frequently found in compounds, and behave much like prefixes,
- pripensi ion (to consider something) versus pensi pri io (to think about something).
Since affixes may be used as root words, and roots may combine like affixes, the boundary between the two is blurred. Indeed, many so-called affixes are indistinguishable from other roots. However, "true" affixes are grammatically fixed as being either prefixes or suffixes, whereas the order of roots in compounds is determined by semantics.
Reduplication
Reduplication is only marginally used in Esperanto. It has an intensivizing effect similar to that of the suffix -eg-. The common examples are plenplena (chock-full), from plena (full), finfine (finally, at last), from fina (final), and fojfoje (once in a while), from foje (once, sometimes). So far, reduplication has only been used with monosyllabic roots that don't require an epenthetic vowel when compounded.
Some examples
- amantino (a [female] lover)
- aminda (lovable)
- amema (loving)
- malameti (to feel distaste for)
- esperiga (hopeful [of a situation: inspiring hope])
- esperema (hopeful [of a person: tending to hope])
- Esperantujo (the Esperanto community)
- esperantaĉo (broken Esperanto)
Affixes may be used in novel ways, creating new words that don't exist in any national language. Sometimes the results are poetic: In one Esperanto novel, a man opens an old book with a broken spine, and the yellowed pages disliberiĝas [from the root libera (free) and the affixes dis- and -iĝ-]. There is no equivalent way to express this in English, but it creates a very strong visual image of the pages escaping the book and scattering over the floor. More importantly, the word is comprehensible the first time one hears it.
Derivation by affix greatly expands a speaker's vocabulary, sometimes beyond what they know in their native language. For instance, the English word ommatidium (a single lens of a compound eye) is rather obscure, but a child would be able to coin an Esperanto equivalent, okulero, from okulo 'an eye' (or perhaps, more precisely, okularero, by first coining okularo for 'a compound eye'). In this way the Esperanto root vid- (see) regularly corresponds to some two dozen English words: see (saw, seen), sight, blind, vision, visual, visible, nonvisual, invisible, unsightly, glance, view, vista, panorama, observant etc., though there are also separate Esperanto roots for some of these concepts.
In the Fundamento, Zamenhof illustrated word formation by deriving the equivalents of recuperate, disease, hospital, germ, patient, doctor, medicine, pharmacy, etc. from sana (healthy). Not all of the resulting words translate well into English, in many cases because they distinguish fine shades of meaning that English lacks: Sano, sana, sane, sani, sanu, saniga, saneco, sanilo, sanigi, saniĝi, sanejo, sanisto, sanulo, malsano, malsana, malsane, malsani, malsanulo, malsaniga, malsaniĝi, malsaneta, malsanema, malsanulejo, malsanulisto, malsanero, malsaneraro, sanigebla, sanigisto, sanigilo, resanigi, resaniĝanto, sanigilejo, sanigejo, malsanemulo, sanilaro, malsanaro, malsanulido, nesana, malsanado, sanulaĵo, malsaneco, malsanemeco, saniginda, sanilujo, sanigilujo, remalsano, remalsaniĝo, malsanulino, sanigista, sanigilista, sanilista, malsanulista. Perhaps half of these words are in common use, but the others (and more) are available if needed.
Correlatives
The "correlatives" are a paradigm of pro-forms, used to ask and answer the questions what, where, when, why, who, whose, how, how much, and what kind. They are constructed from set elements so that correlatives with similar meanings have similar forms: There are nine endings corresponding to the nine wh- questions, and five initial elements that perform the functions of asking, answering, denying, being inclusive, and being indefinite about these nine questions. For example, the words kiam (when) and kiu (who, which), with the initial ki- of questions, ask about time and individuals, while the words tiam (then) and tiu (this/that one), with the same endings but the initial ti- of demonstratives, answer those questions, and the words neniam (never) and neniu (no-one) deny those questions. Thus by learning these 14 elements the speaker acquires a paradigm of 45 adverbs and pronouns.
The correlatives beginning with ti- correspond to the English demonstratives in th- (this, thus, then, there etc.), while ĉi- corresponds to every- and i- to some-. The correlatives beginning with ki- have a double function, as interrogative and relative pronouns and adverbs, just as the wh- words do in English: Kiu ĉevalo? (Which horse?), la ĉevalo, kiu forkuris (the horse which ran away).
The adjectival determiners ending in -u have the usual dual function of adjectives: standing alone as proforms, as in ĉiu (everyone); and modifying a noun, as in ĉiu tago (every day).
The correlatives have a genitive case ending in -es. Therefore the adjectival correlatives, ending in -ia and -iu, do not play that role, as adjectival personal pronouns such as mia "my" do. However, adjectival correlatives do agree in number and case with the nouns they modify, as any other adjectives: La ĉevalojn, kiujn mi vidis (The horses which I saw). They, as well as the independent determiners ending in -io, also take the accusative case when standing in for the object of a clause. The accusative of motion is used with the place correlatives in -ie, forming -ien (hither, whither, thither, etc.).
Table of correlatives
| Question ("What") | Indication ("This/that") | Indefinite ("Some") | Universal ("Each, every") | Negative ("No") | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ki– | ti– | i– | ĉi– | neni– | ||
| Quality | –a | kia (what a) | tia (such a) | ia (some sort of) | ĉia (every kind of) | nenia (no kind of) |
| Reason | –al | kial (why) | tial (therefore) | ial (for some reason) | ĉial (for all reasons) | nenial (for no reason) |
| Time | –am | kiam (when) | tiam (then) | iam (sometime) | ĉiam (always) | neniam (never) |
| Place | –e | kie (where) | tie (there) | ie (somewhere) | ĉie (everywhere) | nenie (nowhere) |
| Manner | –el | kiel (how, as) | tiel (thus, as) | iel (somehow) | ĉiel (in every way) | neniel (no-how, in no way) |
| Association | –es | kies (whose) | ties (this/that one's) | ies (someone's) | ĉies (everyone's) | nenies (no one's) |
| Thing | –o | kio (what) | tio (this/that) | io (something) | ĉio (everything) | nenio (nothing) |
| Amount | –om | kiom (how much) | tiom (that much) | iom (some, a bit) | ĉiom (all of it) | neniom (none) |
| Individual | –u | kiu (who, which one; which [horse]) | tiu (that one; that [horse]) | iu (someone; some [horse]) | ĉiu (everyone; each [horse], all [horses]) | neniu (no one; no [horse]) |
Correlative particles
Several adverbial particles are used primarily with the correlatives: ajn indicates generality, ĉi proximity, and for distance. (Without these particles, demonstratives such as tiu and tio are not specific about distance, though they are usually translated as "that".)
- kio ajn (whatever)
- io ajn (anything)
- tio (that [general]) [cannot modify a noun]
- tiu (that one) [can modify a noun: tiu knabo (that boy)]
- tiuj (those)
- tiu ĉi (this one)
- tiu for (that one yonder)
- tien ĉi (hither [to here])
- ĉiu hundo (each/every dog)
- ĉiuj hundoj (all dogs)
An extension of the original paradigm
Sometimes the correlative system is extended to the root ali- (other), at least when the resulting word is unambiguous,
- aliel (in another way), alies (someone else's).
As a practical matter, only aliel and alies are seen with any frequency, and all of these forms are strongly condemned by many speakers.
Interrogative vs relative pronouns
Examples of the interrogative versus relative uses of the ki- words:
- Kiu ŝtelis mian ringon? (Who stole my ring?)
- La polico ne kaptis la ŝtelistojn, kiuj ŝtelis mian ringon. (The police haven't caught the thieves who [plural] stole my ring.)
- Kiel vi faris tion? (How did you do that[accusative]?)
- Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion. (I don't know how to do that.)
Also,
- Kia viro li estas? (What kind of man is he?)
- Kia viro! (What a man!)
Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ki- or the conjunction ke, "that").
Derivatives
Various parts of speech may be derived from the correlatives, just as from any other roots: ĉiama (eternal), ĉiea (ubiquitous), tiama (contemporary), kialo (a reason), iomete (a little bit), kioma etaĝo? (which floor?) [This last requests a quantified answer of how many floors up, like la dek-sesa (the 16th), rather than asking someone to simply point out which floor, which would be asked with kiu etaĝo?. The same form is used for asking time: Kioma horo estas?, literally "How-manyeth hour is it?"]
Although the initial and final elements of the correlatives are not roots or affixes, in that they cannot normally be independently combined with other words (for instance, there is no genitive case in -es for nouns), the initial element of the neni- correlatives is an exception, as seen in neniulo (a nobody), from neni- plus -ulo, or neniigi, to nullify or destroy, from neni- plus the causative -ig.
