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From: wombat@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Esperanto and the origins of some in
Message-ID: <11100012@ccvaxa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 22:41:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.11100012
Posted: Fri Jan  4 22:41:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 01:46:16 EST
References: <1129@druny.UUCP>
Lines: 43
Nf-ID: #R:druny:-112900:ccvaxa:11100012:000:1927
Nf-From: ccvaxa!wombat    Jan  4 21:41:00 1985

/**** ccvaxa:net.nlang / neal@druny / 12:54 pm  Jan  3, 1985 ****/
I would be especially interested to have people point out English
"guide words" for the ones I have listed.
I am also interested in the origins of these words (their etyma),
or what other languages they appear in.  Any pointers would be appreciated.
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/

Remember that Zahmenhoff(?) was a Pole. For many cases having no easily
recognized Germanic or Romance cognate the word comes from Greek or a Slavic
language. This is especially true with prepositions and such. Not knowing
any Slavic languages, I can't help you there, but I noticed a few things
that do have English cognates. I'm no serious student of language either, so
they may be false cognates, but some guesses come at the end.

Does anyone know how much the speaker's native language affects the
inflections used and picked up? Are Esperantists any more likely to be
affected since it's such an "easy" language (e.g., by getting sloppy about
cognates that are really a little too far off in meaning)? If so, this could
make for neat poetry that, for example, could have interesting but fairly
different intepretations depending on the reader's native language, limited
only by the writer's knowledge of and ability to work in various languages.

a^ceti		buy		acquire
doloro		pain		dolorous
flegi		nurse		fledge, fledgling
fu^si		botch		confuse
iri		go		Isn't "ir" the Spanish infinitive of go?
meti		put		mete?
paroli		speak		parley, from French "parlez?"
pravi		right		Russian "pravda" (truth)?
provi		try		"prove", in the sense of "test"
voli		will		volition
zorgi		concern		sorrow, sorry

anka^u		also		believe this is Greek
ankora^u	still		this too
preska^u	almost		and maybe even this, too
tro		too much	French "tre"?

						Wombat
			"I am not, nor have I ever been, jan howard finder"
					ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat