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New word additions

글쓴이: Evildela, 2010년 3월 18일

글: 9

언어: English

Evildela (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 18일 오전 11:28:30

How does the “Akademio de Esperanto” authorise new additions to the Esperanto lexicon. Because one of the main arguments I hear about Esperanto is that it’s too "European" So why don't they add word additions from other cultures, such as Chinese ect... Only words I have found non-european are haŝio (chopsticks) from Japanese on wikipedia, however lernu lists it as the clumber-some manĝobastonetoj.

ceigered (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 18일 오후 12:39:56

Regarding "mangxobastenoj", the reason it is broken into those european equivalents is because it is easier and better for Asian speakers to learn - "hashio" only benefits Japanese speakers, while "Mangxobastenoj" benefits people the world over provided they know the words "eat" and "stick" - which generally crop up in more rudimentary word lists etc than "chopsticks" (and if they do learn "chopsticks" first, then they benefit because they will find learning "mangxo" and "basteno" much easier lango.gif).

Now, the reason those European roots can't be made Asian in the first place is much more complicated. 1) Most EO words (apart from an ever growing amount of neologisms) are long-standing root words, which are hard as heck to change because it'll just confuse everyone.
2) While I hate to say it, European languages do dominate the world. The Chinese dialects etc are the only really successfully pan-Asian languages, but outside Asia-Pacific they don't enjoy much more speakers. English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French, however, despite having much less speakers than Mandarin (Well, except when combined), has pretty much spread their lexicons across all of Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, all the way to Antarctica. So, it could be argued that, while Eurocentric, it is fairer for everyone if the language uses roots more people will recognise the world over.

This may change in the next 100 years though, you never know okulumo.gif

darkweasel (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 18일 오후 1:45:41

Evildela:How does the “Akademio de Esperanto” authorise new additions to the Esperanto lexicon.
They publish an Official Addition to the official dictionary. To date there have been nine such additions, the latest of which is the Naŭa Oficiala Aldono. However, it's not that all Esperanto words need to be official.

The Akademio, however, only makes those words official that are already commonly used.

Evildela:So why don't they add word additions from other cultures, such as Chinese ect... Only words I have found non-european are haŝio (chopsticks) from Japanese on wikipedia, however lernu lists it as the clumber-some manĝobastonetoj.
The best thing is always to form the word using the existing elements of Esperanto. That way, the vocabulary is kept small, and Esperanto stays easy for all people. This is why manĝobastoneto is to be preferred to haŝio. As ceigered correctly pointed out, haŝio would help only Japanese speakers; speakers of any other language of the world would see this word as something entirely arbitrary, while manĝobastoneto is a straightforward word composed of elements that Esperantists have to learn anyway.

If there is no convenient way to do so, the word that most languages of the world have in common should be borrowed, and as a matter of fact that's most frequently some European word. In recent times, even most frequently some English word.

gyrus (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 18일 오후 5:19:28

There's also the inconvenience that Chinese words would be horribly mangled by Esperanto's phonology because of how different Chinese's is.

Evildela (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 19일 오전 5:30:24

I guess that all makes sense

Dankon por cxiuj viaj helpo

Demian (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 22일 오후 2:05:22

gyrus:There's also the inconvenience that Chinese words would be horribly mangled by Esperanto's phonology because of how different Chinese's is.
How about the Latin and Greek terms that have been introduced into Esperanto for no reason? Everybody was quick to notice that mangxobatoneto was a better word than hasxio but when someone says 'vivscienco' or 'aerveturscieno' are easier and more neutral than 'biologio' and 'aerodinamiko' a huge cry of discontent is all I witness!

erinja (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 22일 오후 3:33:02

Demian:How about the Latin and Greek terms that have been introduced into Esperanto for no reason? Everybody was quick to notice that mangxobatoneto was a better word than hasxio but when someone says 'vivscienco' or 'aerveturscieno' are easier and more neutral than 'biologio' and 'aerodinamiko' a huge cry of discontent is all I witness!
I have no problem with someone saying vivscienco or aerveturscienco.

Esperanto is a democracy. If you want a given term to be used, then use it yourself, and hope that it will catch on.

Having said that, in some cases, it is helpful to have a separate technical term.

You could argue that "vivscienco" is a less precise term than "biologio".

One of my middle school science classes was called "Life Science". It wasn't the same as my class called Biology. It covered a much wider range of topics.

I have encountered the same argument when talking about terms in medicine. Why call a bruise a "hematoma"? Isn't this making things unnecessarily complicated? The answer is that a hematoma and a bruise aren't exactly the same thing, and to doctors, the distinction is important as far as treatment is concerned.

You could argue that "vivscienco" is the appropriate word for conversation on a non-technical level, and that professionals in a field would use more complicated words that have a more precise meaning, like "biologio". It's true in nearly every field that you have a more complicated vocabulary used to speak to others in your field, than the vocabulary that you use to talk to laymen. I would find it fitting for the same thing to be true in Esperanto.

RiotNrrd (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 23일 오전 1:40:16

erinja:I have no problem with someone saying vivscienco or aerveturscienco.
I don't have a problem with these words, either. They are perfectly acceptable Esperanto words, put together in a grammatically correct fashion from known roots. I don't see how anyone could legitimately complain about them.

LyzTyphone (프로필 보기) 2010년 3월 23일 오후 4:58:05

Again, for more such simpler alternatives, visit Simplaj Samsignifaj Vortoj

On including words from Asia, we Chinese usually have a different idea from our Japanese samideanoj. A Chinese alternative for "mangxobastoneto" will be "kvajzo". And that for "goo", "vejcxio".

Sometimes the debate went into the nasty archeological row about who invented the thing first and thus have the right over the Esperanto nomenclature.

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