Esperanto: a New Approach (conclusion)
In my last article I introduced you to a new method of teaching Esperanto to absolute beginners, developed by William Auld. This method introduces the learner immediately to the unique word-building qualities of the language: qualities which speed up vocabulary acquisition and fluency to a remarkable degree.
Here is the substance of the third lesson from Auld's textbook (unfortunately out of print) entitled Esperanto: a New Approach. Although I would like to take you through Auld's whole course, the objective of my articles is to provide interesting background information about the history and development of Esperanto. So my next article will be the first of several dealing with an exceptional individual who not only William Auld, but many other gifted poets acknowledge as their master and inspiration. His name is Kalman Kaloscay.
But now, a further look at the very clever techniques which Zamenhof developed to make Esperanto easy to learn, semantically flexible, and deeply expressive.
A poet's language, indeed!
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MORE WORD BUILDING TECHNIQUES
In addition to roots and endings, PREFIXES and SUFFIXES are used extensively in Esperanto word-building. (Prefixes and suffixes are known collectively as AFFIXES).
A PREFIX is attached to the beginning of an Esperanto word and modifies or alters the meaning of what follows it. A typical prefix is MAL-, which means "the opposite of". So, if we put that prefix in front of the Esperanto word for good - BONA - we make MALBONA, which means bad.
In the last article we learned the words for love, light and beauty and these can be changed into their opposite by adding the prefix and making these words: MALAMO, MALLUMO and MALBELO. Of course, as well as these nouns (hatred, darkness and ugliness), we can also create verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
Mi malamas = I hate
Malluma = dark
Malbela = ugly
See how quickly you can expand your vocabulary by doubling up on these new terms.
facila = easy malfacila = ?
longa = long mallonga = ?
granda = big malgranda = ?
forta = strong malforta = ?
plena = full malplena e ?
There are more prefixes but I want next to demonstrate how two typical SUFFIXES are used. In Esperanto, a suffix is attached to the end of a root, before any grammatical ending is also attached.
First let's see how we can use -EM- which means "having an inclination or disposition to ." Sounds like a big meaning for a little word, doesn't it ? Don't worry: it's a great asset.
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