http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments Comments for the list 'Palabrarium' http://www.wordnik.com http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments Oooh, ooh, yarb, pick me, pick me! Mi nur parolas iomete da Esperanto (kaj tio malbone), sed mi vere estas strangulo! Fri, 01 May 2009 00:15:50 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments Claude Piron<br />I don't know Esperanto, but what C. Piron said is quite convincing to me. Never before I came to live in England did it cross my mind that the necessity to interact in a foreign language, no matter how well you think you know it, can be so frustrating and restraining. It would be only fair if in international communication all of us had to speak the same non-native tongue :)<br />(You know, my love affair with the English language has entered a bitter phase recently. I had to vent out somewhere. If you don’t know what I am writing about, just disregard this rant please).<br /><br />Anyways, the list you compiled is lovely, and I’ve already made it my favourite. <br /> Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:42:53 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments OK, OK I give! I do like Esperanto, but I guess the people I speak it with are not terribly creative in their vocabularies, which could easily be said of people speaking any language. Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:26:29 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments One feature of Esperanto that perhaps doesn't come through as clearly as it should is that every root can be an affix, and every affix can be a root, with total freedom to combine roots/affixes at will. The Esperanto root "esprim", for instance, carries the idea of "express". The adjective "expressive" (ending in "-a") can be created on the fly by combining the building blocks, e.g. with "standard" affixes: "esprima" (pertaining to expression), "esprimeta" (expression-diminutive), "esprimega" (expression-augmentative), "esprimanta" (that which expresses now), "espriminta" (that which has expressed), "esprimema" (expression-having-tendency), "esprimila" (expression-instrumental), "esprimuja" (expression-containing), "espriminga" (expression-holding), then with other roots as affixes: "esprimpova" (expression-able), "esprimhava" (expression-having), "esprimriĉa" (expression-rich), "esprimplena" (expression-full), "esprimkapabla" (expression-capable), "esprimdona" (expression-giving), "esprimdira" (expression-saying) etc., each perfectly good Esperanto, each with its own nuance. As long as you follow the few rules, you can literally combine roots/affixes at will, with no one being able to say "Yeah, you could say it like that, but nobody does". Anyone reasonably fluent in Esperanto can and does create and use words like these regularly. Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:03:04 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments The capacity is there in Esperanto, of course- and I don't have a lot of experience with how it is spoken in person, but when using it across countries, people use the fixed affixes to change a word's meaning instead of using a new word- for example, pretty and ugly, can share a root, essentially cutting down the total roots in a persons' frequent vocabulary. There's elegance to this, of course, and it contributes to the point of Esperanto, but it means less variety in everyday communiction. But you're right- the way the word-making system is designed is incredibly inclusive and flexible. I just don't hear people take advantage of it that much. Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:08:00 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments I wouldn't mind a weirdo esperantist friend... just one... <br /> <br />Marvellous list. Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:12:50 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments Looks like the secret's out :-). <br /> <br />wonderful words ... without which ... the world would be a less inventive and worthwhile place. Also, ostensibly, the reason 1984 and esperanto secretly suck. <br /> <br />Actually, in Esperanto, the opposite is true: you are incredibly free to invent words at will, instead of waiting for someone else to invent them and the community to accept them and give them enough currency for you to hear about them and use them yourself. The result is a creative and expressive power that rivals and even often exceeds that of English or any other national language. Which takes nothing away from your list of words - they are all delightfully expressive, and a testament to the power of English. Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:10:14 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments I must keep this from all my weirdo esperantist friends! Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:50:10 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments secretly?! Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:55:54 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/lists/palabrarium#comments