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INTERNATIONAL VOCABULARY
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UNDERSTANDING IN
MUCH LESS TIME USING
INTERNATIONAL WORDS
And The University Research Behind It.
This is the University Research behind the choice of the scientifically planned and 150 year refined International Vocabulary commonly known around the world as Esperanto.
This also includes other related research.
It appears that important Esperanto research, although published in some scholarly
journal, often lies on the shelf virtually unknown to those who could use the
information to promote Esperanto. This book gathers much of the most important
research and provides a path to locate more information. Also as pointed out by
Doctors Alvino Fantini and Timothy Reagan in "Esperanto and Education: Toward
a Research Agenda", "Much of the literature concerned with reporting
studies on the teaching and learning of Esperanto is available only in Esperanto,
thus making the research literature inaccessible to many potential, but non-Esperanto
speaking, supporters" (33)
WHY IS ESPERANTO NEEDED?
Humans have a
need to understand each other. Many people have died or suffered because of language
misunderstandings. There are over 1000 active languages today not counting dialects.
The truth is that most humans cannot understand most other humans on this planet.
Most important is that Esperanto has the potential to help prevent loss of life
and also help prevent human suffering around the world.
Each human being
needs to be able to understand other human beings. There are times when ones life
depends on it. Examples: There have been and will continue to be lives lost due
to pilots not understanding important commun ications. In several countries pilots
do not know English and are discouraged from learning it because of political
and religious considerations; A home-owner's wife and victim of vandalism was
startled by a noise outside in the dark. She yelled for her husband in another
room to get the gun. The homeowner opened the door and saw a man running at him
with a black object in his hand that looked like a gun. He ordered the man running
toward him to "freeze." The intruder continued to charge and was then
shot. He did not know what "freeze" meant as he was a Japanese foreign
exchange student; Police in our cities and soldiers in many foreign lands must
make split-second decisions. Put yourself in their place. You catch sight of a
person with what appears to be a gun in his hand. You tell him to put his hands
up. Instead the person begins to point the object at you. One more warning to
drop it, but he doesn't. Your life is on the line, you must either shoot or perhaps
be killed yourself. There is no time to ponder. Soldiers are trained to shoot.
If there is a language difference someone may die. Unfortunately today around
the world many people are injured because they do not understand someone else's
language. There is no time in these situations for interpreters. Language knowledge
becomes a life or death matter.
What if you were a tourist and a foreign
policeman said freeze in some language you did not understand. Imagine if you
were visiting a shopping mall when suddenly you felt your were going into diabetic
shock, you fell onto a bench but no one understood your pleas for help because
they did not speak English and they didn't know if you were drunk or sick, so
they ignore you. Diabetics can die if not treated quickly in these situations.
There are occasions when it is necessary to be able to communicate and be understood.
You would want a doctor, fire department, or police to understand you especially
when you need help. What if you were visiting another city when you suddenly need
help and no one around you speaks English. This is not far fetched as in many
U.S. cities there are places where English is not understood by most people in
that area.
Thousands of people have died from improper use of medication,
diseases, parasites in drinking water, and preventable diseases such as diarrhea
partly because they did not understand written directions or instructions given
them by health workers who did not speak their language. Over 10,000 people have
died and many thousands more made ill in foreign countries by eating grain that
was sprayed with insecticide meant for planting that was clearly marked in English
"not for human consumption".
Humans around the world are not becoming
fluent in English in sufficient numbers to guarantee English will be the world
language of the future. In the US 1 in 7 do not understand English. In California
it is 1 in 3. In many cities over 30 percent do not now understand English. In
Miami, forget it. Although English is in a favored status among intellectuals
English learning is in failure around the world even after being promoted since
the middle nineteen forties. People around the world are not becoming fluent in
it as was expected. English is now understood by only about 8 percent of the world's
population and that percentage is declining. That means that about 92 percent
of all humans do not speak English. It has fallen from second to third place and
soon will be in forth place after Spanish. When people want to send messages to
people in other countries there is often a huge language barrier. The truth is
apparent, not everyone understands spoken and written English, and most people
of the world do not want to take the time (five years) to learn it.
ESPERANTO
RESEARCH IN GENERAL
Doctors Alvino E. Fantini Director of Bilingual-Multi cultural
Education School for International Training and Timothy G. Reagan Department of
Educational Leadership University of Connecticut in their research book on Esperanto
concluded that "Based on the research that has been conducted thus far on
the teaching and learning of Esperanto, a number of conclusions can be drawn with
reasonable certainty. The empirical evidence, though far from incontrovertible,
is generally in accord with anecdotal evidence with respect to claims about the
ease of learn ability of Esperanto, its propaedeutic effects on learning additional
languages, its use in teaching students about the nature of language in general,
and its positive affective benefits for students" (33).
ESPERANTO PHENOMENON
"Esperanto appears simple, but it is a phenomenon of considerable complexity...an
ideological phenomenon and a psychosociological phenomenon. Thanks to the 'Lingvo
Internacia,' a movement came into being that today extends to over a hundred countries.
Although people of many nationalities and social backgrounds work together in
this movement, it maintains a fundamental unity of purpose, less because of its
formal organization than because of its psychological impetus... creating out
of them a genuine Esperantist consciousness, based on a broad sense of high ideals"
(Janton, Forster).
As the world becomes more international there is growing
need for commun ication between languages. Esperanto is the only planned language
that has survived and passed the test of time to become an actual living language.
"The fact that Esperanto, alone among the planned languages, acquired a large
community of speakers, merits special attention. Today it is used by individuals
and social groups [worldwide] for a wide variety of purposes (Janton 18).
Esperanto is the world's most modern and easiest to learn language. By scientific
design the grammar has 16 basic rules. There are no exceptions or irregularities.
It holds the world's record (Guinness 147). This eliminates hundreds of pages
of grammar and the hundreds of hours needed to master them in all other languages.
The present, past and future tenses of all verbs in the language can be learned
in one minute. No other language even comes close to that. Eastern people find
it five times easier to learn than English. By using word endings, prefixes, and
suffixes, the vocabulary has been simplified so it is one fifth the size of most
languages, and this has been accomplished without any loss of meaning. Even the
42 member French Academy of Sciences stated that Esperanto was "a masterpiece
of logic and simplicity" and should be introduced into the teaching of science,
used as the official language of international conferences, and used in scientific
publications (Janton 83).
"Grammatically it is a synthesis of the Indo-European
family of languages, while its morphology is agglutinative" (Edward Symoens
8). Esperanto is based on international word roots of many languages. This makes
it easier to learn because many of the word roots are already known. Example "hotel"
is the root word for "hotel". By knowing English one can recognize thousands
of Esperanto words. For English, French, Spanish, German or European speakers,
Esperanto is easy to learn and one also learns many of the words from those languages.
This combined with its scient-ifically designed word building feature makes Esperanto
learnable in one-fifth of the time needed to learn all other languages. The California
Esperanto Education Commission states in its Esperanto Handbook For Teachers that
Esperanto is five times as easy to learn as any other language. It has been called
The Articulate Language, meaning it is clear, effective, and ready of expression.
Esperanto efficiently uses prefixes and suffixes to eliminate memorization of
thousands of words. For example the prefix re when placed in front of any word
creates a new word. Mal placed in front of any word gives it the opposite meaning.
By just learning one little prefix, one saves the time consuming effort of learning
thousands of words which one would have to learn in any other language.
Esperanto
belongs to the most frequent language type the SVO subject-verbobject. The use
of the "n" to name the object permit translations to and from many languages
that are impossible to do with English, French or many other ethnic languages
(Janton 67-73).
One can often say things in Esperanto that are impossible
to express in many other languages. Often one word in Esperanto may replace several
words of another language. There are many words in Esperanto that are missing
from other languages, even English. All this can be accomplished even by beginners
without need for extensive memorization.
"The flexibility and variety
of compounds in Esperanto allows for remarkable lexical economy...it nevertheless
provides a conciseness and density of expression that many ethnic languages cannot
match" (Janton). "Esperanto can assimilate to itself more structures
than any individual ethnic language. In this adaptability lies its true internationality.
Although it is not limitless, it far exceeds what is possible in other languages,
making Esperanto an international language in the fullest sense" (Janton
85). The World Almanac and Book of Facts states "Esperanto was savaged by
Nazism, Stalinism, Fascism, the Japanese militarists of the 1930's, and chauvinistic
groups in many other countries. Not until the late 1950's did the number of speakers
begin to show the steady increase which continues...." It is the greatest
success story of any language as it was spread at the grass roots level by people
who fell in love with it and not by money or power. They learned it because they
wanted to, not because they were forced to. They took on learning a language on
their own. Esperanto works. It has beaten the odds as the people's choice in spite
of overwhelming odds against it. "Esperanto alone became a living language,
spoken by more people than 95 percent of the known languages of the world... Esperanto
stands apart from the ethnic lang-uages in that it alone is capable of fully performing
the role of an international language... all ethnic languages remain essentially
national, based on national cultures, while Esperanto is essentially universal"
(Janton 132).
PUBLICATIONS
More novels have been
published in Esperanto in the past fifteen years than appeared in the previous
ninety (Janton 106). Over 30,000 works of literature have been put into Esperanto
(Eichholz 392). An estimated 10,000 works have been translated into Esperanto.
"There are over 160 specialized dictionaries in fifty or more fields, including
cybernetics, mathematics, informatics, law, medicine, theology, chemistry, meteorology,
gastronomy and so on...taken together, they constitute a collection that relatively
few languages could equal" (Janton 82). "There are more than 2,100 Esperanto
textbooks in over fifty languages" (Janton 122).
TAXONOMY
The taxonomy used in the following studies is the one most used by Esperanto researchers
namely that there are three essential classes of morphemes (units of meaning):
roots, affixes and endings. This system is very simple. Roots are syllables or
groups of syllables that indicate meaning such as a concept. (tabl, pur, turn).
Affixes are syllables which modify or limit the meaning of the root. (re, mal,
in). Endings are ending sounds which add to the meaning. (as, a, o). Other researchers
use other words to describe root such as lexeme, moneme, word, lex and lexical
morpheme. Note the word "root" is not used in this book in the English
sense meaning etymology.
RESEARCH
ON AND IMPORTANCE OF WORD FREQUENCY STUDIES
Word frequency is not only important
in the designing of teaching materials. Recent discussions have centered on using
a basic vocabulary of international Esperanto words world wide giving the possibility
of promoting greater interest in Esperanto. Most people world wide are not talented
in learning languages and do not have the inclination to learn another language.
Most people feel that they do not have the time to learn another language. Many
feel that it would be too difficult. Many have already decided that they are not
going to learn another language. "Even among the many people sympathetic
to the cause of Esperanto, who support it in theory and in principle, relatively
few take the step of actually learning the language" (Janton 126). There
is also a psychological resistance to learning another language as an adult as
noted by Claude Piron and Janton (Janton 127) (Eichholz, Piron 518).
The idea
of a small basic vocabulary of international words overcomes much of this resistance
perhaps because people can rationalize that they are only learning a vocabulary
which gives them a big payoff of inter-language understanding and communication
without years of work. If a basic international vocabulary of international words
were available that could cover 90 percent of common communication many persons
may decide to learn it.
In the process they learn about Esperanto and hopefully
go on to learn more Esperanto, which for many, still symbolizes world friendships,
brotherhood, and peace. "Esperanto continues to symbolize the idea of world
understanding and a universal order" (Janton 127). In talking to many people
particularly Americans, it is discovered that most will not commit to learning
a language, but many consent to learning a vocabulary of international words.
There are great promotional possibilities for Esperanto
in advertising a basic international vocabulary of basic Esperanto roots. It could
also be used on the internet between individuals as the need for quick inter-language
communication becomes a necessity in coming years. Here documents can be easily
composed at home and work. The few unknown words are looked up, then the text
is saved on disk, then transmitted. Indeed many are already doing this, including
this researcher, who reports successful communication with many speakers of other
languages around the world over the internet and by letters.
Zlatko Tisljar,
a researcher, states that it takes 2000 words to cover 80 percent of the words
of most Indo-European languages whereas Esperanto only requires 563 words. He
also states that it appears that Esperanto requires about one forth the elements
to be learned as other languages. Zlatko Tisljar in his Frekvencmorfemaro De Parolata
Esperanto (Internacia Kultura Servo Zagreb 1980) examined word frequency by taping
conversations in the international language with permission and then analyzing
them. He found that only 467 roots gave a 95% level of understanding in most common
conversation. He found that only 786 roots provided a 98% level of understanding
and that for basic language knowledge only 460 morphemes suffice. Easy novels
contain about 500 morphemes. The first 15 morphemes covered 47 percent of the
corpus.
The first 100 covered 77 percent
117 covered 80 percent
172
covered 85 percent
265 covered 90 percent
467 covered 95 percent
520
covered 95.8 percent
786 covered 98 percent
1343 covered 100 percent
A word frequency study done on hundreds of international letters written in Esperanto, gave approximately the same results as Tisljar. It showed that a basic vocabulary consisting of approximately 288 roots covered 90 percent of the words used in common international letters. Wesley Arnold M.A., who spent months doing this study, was not aware of the work of Tisljar at that time.
Rudiger Eichholz who is a member of the Esperanto Academy states, "Not much study is needed to read and understand 95 percent of an average Esperanto text" (Eichholz 449).
A study using the American Heritage
Dictionary Corpus of over 5 million words showed that 90 percent of the most common
6000 words in the American Heritage Corpus could be covered by about 850 basic
Esperanto word roots and grammar. Those six thousand words constitute over 90
percent of all written English.
A BASIC VOCABULARY OF 850 WORDS COVERED:
100% OF THE FIRST 500 WORDS;
99% OF THE FIRST 1000 WORDS;
98% OF THE SECOND
1000 WORDS;
90% OF THE NEXT 4000 WORDS.
Two word
frequency studies of Esperanto used on the internet, by Wesley Arnold analyzed
over 200,000 words each. Results showed that 90 percent was covered by 450-500
word roots with a total of 1200 roots used. This was with proper nouns, removed
because these would have to be learned anyway regardless of language.
See
"Aktoj de la Akademio II" page 38 for results of lists from 16 million
words.
An analysis done on the 1000 most frequently used English words on
the internet. The 1000 words came from 343,945,617 total words copied by Rick
Walker from one year of internet Usenet news group messages. The analysis showed
that only 397 International Vocabulary morphemes were required to form the 783
most used English words. The remaining items were: proper nouns such as names
of persons; letters of the alphabet, parts of addresses, technical abbreviations
or duplicate words. The analysis shows that Esperanto only requires about one
half of the number of words to be memorized than English for the most common 1000
English words. This analysis agreed with one done on the 1000 most common words
based on the 5 million word American Heritage Dictionary Corpus. Both analyses
done by Wesley Arnold M.A.
Of the highest frequency 6000 word level of English,
which covers 90 percent of all written English, Esperanto only requires 14 percent
of the words required by English. This fact is easily verifiable by simple count.
It is often claimed that Esperanto is 1/12 the size of any language but that depends
on which language one compares it with. English has over a million words while
Esperanto has 16,000 root words. This is 1.6 percent or 1/63 the size of English.
All other languages are smaller than English. Exact figures and percentages are
not meaningful to many people or may bring on arguments. Anyone promoting Esperanto
can safely claim that it requires less than a quarter the number of words to be
memorized in total.
What all this adds up to is that this vocabulary can enable persons to communicate directly between languages in significantly less time and with significantly less cost. By using simple prefixes and suffixes thousands of words can be formed with specific meanings that are quite useable and concise all without having to memorize that word in advance.
PROOF THAT A BASIC ESPERANTO VOCABULARY WORKS
Kontakto a world wide magazine for new Esperantists and young people uses a 450
word basic list plus grammar for all basic articles. For its advanced articles
authors must clarify any word not on a list that includes 457 additional words.
This magazine is very successful. Indeed many new Esperantists prefer it.
Language expert Claude Piron referred to the basic list above and basic Esperanto
usage which can be taught in 32 hours. He proposed that it could be taught in
just ten minutes a day during the school year (Piron 317).
Juna Amiko magazine
uses a basic word list of 950 words for all of its articles. Authors must explain
any word not on this list.
According to Edward Thorndike, 10,000 English words
account for 98 percent of all running words. 10,000-20,000 account for only 1.7
percent and 20,000 to 30,000 only account for 0.5 percent. The average vocabulary
is about 10,000. The most common 1000 words account for about 80 percent (Thorndike,
Teachers Wordbook of 30,000 words, 1944).
Vilho Seta'la's research finds that
English requires a basic vocabulary of approximately three times that of Esperanto.
Only 790 Esperanto roots as compared to 2350 English words from ordinary text
reached a level where readers needed to look up one in every 10 words. For a level
of one in fourteen words only 965 Esperanto roots were needed as compared to 3000
English words. From La Genio de Zamenhof: Efekta Lingvo de Vilho Seta'la' in the
Memorlibro pri la Zamenhof-jaro compared English and Esperanto.
Resto de nekonataj
vortoj
en ordinara teksto Lernitaj vortoj unknown words
Angla Esperanto
16/o 1400 550 1 in every 6 words
10 2350 790 1 in every 10 words
7 3000 965 1 in every 14 words
3,2 4700 1400 1 in every 31 words
1,0 7000
2000 1 in every 100 words
0,25 10000 2800 1 in every 400 words
0,15 ?
3000 1 in every 666 words
"La ekzemplaj ciferoj estas elektitaj parte
por povi kompari ne nur saman kvoton de kompreno, sed ankauh la efekton che kono
de sama vorttrezoro.... Sed aliparte, montrighis, ke che tiel malgranda lingvoscio,
se la konataj vortoj vere estas elektitaj el la plej ofte bezonataj, donas la
eblecon interkomprenighi en simplaj, chiutagaj temoj. Ghuste chi tie la bezona
vorttrezoro angla kaj esperanta ne estas strikte kompareblaj. char lauh la esploroj
de Thorndike jam la 850 plej oftaj anglaj vortoj havas sume pli ol 21.000 sencojn,
dum la 550 bazaj vortoj de Esperanto estas praktike po unusencaj. Des pli okulfrapa
estas la konstato, ke jam tiu vortnombro, 1400, kiu en angla lingvo
sub certaj
kondichoj donas la eblecon al apenauh kontentiga chiutaga babilado, en Esperanto
sufichas por facila legado de ordinara teksto 3,2% da nekonataj vortoj, el kiuj
la plej multaj estas t.n. internaciaj kulturvortoj... La rezulto, nekomprenata
resto de 0,25% (2-3 vortoj el mil tekstvortoj), fakte jam signifas posedon de
la lingvo. Sed se oni en la lernejo povas atingi la aktivan konon de 3000 anglaj
vortoj apud la enkapigo de _ia gramatiko (12424 formoj lauh Thorndike) kaj vasta
kolekto de fiksaj dirmanieroj, kiom pli certe oni atingus la aktivan posedon de
2800 esperantaj radikvortoj, apud ghia simpla gramatiko kaj vortfarado, sen la
fiksaj frazkonstruoj. Ghi estas, baze de la vortaro sole, kelkdekoble pli granda
ol la efekto de angla lingvo, kiu tamen ghenerale estas konsiderata unu el la
plej facilaj el la historie evoluintaj lingvoj."
VERSATILITY OF ESPERANTO
Edward Symoens stated "The creation of new words is limited only by the limits
of meaning" (Symoens 10).
The extensive research of Charles K. Ogden
proved that most books could be translated into works using about 1000 words with
a glossary for special terms. Ogden and his fellow researchers stated that around
1000 English words could give near 100 percent understanding of most human communication.
Hundreds of books were translated into Basic English and were promoted by Winston
Churchill and others. He proved that 1000 words did the work of 20,000 words.
He published a dictionary that used about 1000 words to form 20,000 words and
40,000 senses. A basic Esperanto vocabulary of only 800 roots far surpasses that.
Also it was discovered that a basic vocabulary of 200 words could translate over
4000 verbs (Ogden).
From the first 288 Esperanto root words over 20,000 practical
meanings can be formed. At least 93,000 meanings including 20,000 practical meanings
can be made from 288 basic words. From 800 basic roots a total of over 50,000
practical meanings is estimated. Just from the root "help" 840,000 meanings
were actually created of which over 3,000 are practical.
Edward Symoens states
"Originally there were 904 roots making possible about 10,000 words. Today
the roots number about 15,000, and from these it is possible to construct about
200,000 words. These numbers are continually growing in line with human development.
Indeed, there is no limit to word or morpheme combinations in Esperanto other
than that dictated by the meaning of the combination" (Symoens 12). Rudiger
& Vilma Eichholz state that there are over 16,000 roots from which 160,000
words can be formed (Eichholz 17).
TOTAL ROOTS
The
total number of Esperanto root words is over 16,000. The Plena ilustrita vortaro
of 1970 has about 15,250 and the 1987 supplement has 850 additional roots.
PADERBORN
Educational experiments done at the Instituto pri Kibernetika Pedagogio
at the University of Paderborn in Paderborn, Germany are according to Edward Symoens
some of the most recent and most important. Professor Dr. Helmar Frank supervises
a team which reports on experiments which show scientific confirmation of Esperanto's
advantages. In teaching language awareness, an introduction to foreign language
study for children ages 8-10 was conducted using Esperanto as a reference norm.
"Because it is so well suited to children, it has been found very effective.
Scientific measurement has shown that: - children's interest in varieties of European
culture and language grows considerably; it requires less time than that which
is saved later in learning other foreign languages; it facilitates the teaching
of even the native language, of geography and mathematics; it creates at an early
age the ability to communicate across ethnic boundaries, so that the children's
horizons are not limited to the homeland of one privileged language. It thus opens
the way to improved understanding between peoples, free from linguistic discrimination."
Symoens adds that these experiments have so far taken place in schools of the
Federal Republic of Germany, France and Hungary. (Symoens gives his source as
Minutes of the annual November meetings in Paderborn, "Laborkonferencoj -Interlingvistiko
en Scienco kaj Klerigo"
Students competence was subjected to a practical
test when 85 students not selected for their academic success . . attended a vacation
school program in one of the five countries. Since students did not have a common
language except the Esperanto that they had learned in class that language was
used to teach lessons at the vacation camp. The staff, and students who were of
diverse language back grounds and even visitors used Esperanto successfully for
all communication (Wood 1975 64).
Doctors Fantini and Reagan state
The
results obtained by the researchers at the Institute pri Kibernetika Pedagogio
are of quite high quality, and generally appear to support both claims about the
ease of learn ability of Esperanto and claims about its propaedeutic benefits.
Perhaps most interesting publications of the Instituto pri Kibernetika Pedagogio
have been Professor Frank's work on the development of a cybernetic-pedagogical
representation of the relative propaedeutic benefits of Esperanto. . . (32).
FACILITATES LEARNING OF OTHER LANGUAGES
"The study of the international
language Esperanto facilitates the acquis ition of English." On page 25 Symoens
states "After 80 hours of "language awareness' teaching, pupils in the
fifth year of elementary school had a slightly greater amount of prior knowledge
for starting to learn English than had their peers without 'language awareness'
(respectively 9% and 7.7%). After 36 hours of English, this difference in competence
did not diminish, it actually increased four times, proving that there was in
addition a transfer of knowledge. This gain repays the time invested in the language
awareness course within three years." Symoens gives as the source: Evelyn
Geisler, "La unuaj mexuradoj pri la lernfaciligo inter internacia kaj angla
lingvoj" in Europa Dokumentaro 21/1979, pp. 9-10 (Symoens 26).
Learning
Esperanto increases success in learning English. At the Instituto pri Kibernetika
Pedagogio a study done in 1978 using 194 children, showed that those who learned
Esperanto as a model foreign language in years three and four of elementary school
were more successful in learning their first foreign language English. The source
was Dr. Brigitte S. Meder, "Efikoj de la lingvo-orientiga instruado al la
lernsukceso in la mezgrada lernejo" in Europa Dokumentaro 20/1978, pp. 15-18.
Dr. Mario Pei Professor of Romance Philology at Columbia University, respected
linguist and author of many books states: Esperanto has been tested in the schools
as an introduction to the study of foreign languages, and the experiment has successfully
demonstrated that Esperanto-trained youngsters did better in the languages they
took up later than did the ones who did not have the training.
The famous
studies of Edward L. Thorndike also found that the learning of Esperanto facilitated
learning other languages. See the following paragraphs.
LEARNING
TIME
The famous educational psychologist Edward L. Thorndike directed a study
that focused on issues as learn ability and propaedutic effects of Esperanto study
and fount that "An average college senior or graduate in twenty hours of
study will be able to understand printed and spoken Esperanto better than he understands
French or German or Italian or Spanish after a hundred hours of study" (6).
The report makes an even stronger claim: "On the whole, with expenditures
of from ten to a hundred hours, the achievement in the synthetic language [Esperanto]
will probably be from five to fifteen times that in a natural language, according
to the difficulty of the latter" (7). The report also found that studying
Esperanto first gave students a framework which helped them learn other languages
(Thorndike 6).
In Edward Symoens's book The Socio, Political, Educational
and Cultural Roots of Esperanto on page 25, Professor Helmar Frank stated it took
1500 hours of study on English, 1800 on French and only 60 on Esperanto and he
found that he was still at a loss for writing a paper in English and French. Professor
Frank found that 1500 hours of instruction are needed for a French child to reach
the baccalaureate level in English but that only 150 hours are sufficient for
the same competence in Esperanto (Janton 123). "This conclusion agrees with
the findings of other experiments. All of them reinforce not only that Esperanto
can be learned with relative ease, regardless of the student's linguistic background,
but also that Esperanto helps students to learn their own languages and other
foreign languages better, and increases their motivation to learn about other
countries" (Janton 123).
Symoens also shows a study by Gard Meinhardt
"Latent knowledge of vocabulary of the international language, arising from
ones native language." in Europa Dokumentary 18/1978, pp. 13-15. This study
showed that the latent knowledge Esperanto of French, German and Dutch-speaking
children could be measured and was 33.6%, 13.85% and 13.1%. It also took the three
groups 48.1 hours, 52.6 hours and 52.7 hours to complete a vocabulary and grammar
of a given Esperanto course (Symoens 26).
Former UN translator and language
expert Claude Piron states that only 32 hours is necessary to learn basic Esperanto.
He states that one year of Esperanto study gives the same level as the highest
level of university study. (It is so easy that most people learn it on their own.)
He states that only 10 minutes a day for 190 days which is one school year is
sufficient to learn a basic Esperanto (Piron 319).
Tibor Sekelj said that
enough Esperanto can be learned for general reading knowledge in a few months
to a year (Eichholz 393).
"Controlled experiments show that because of
its logical structure, phonemic spelling, and regular grammar [Esperanto] can
be learned to a given criterion of performance in from 1/20 to 1/5 the time needed
for the learning of a typical national language" (Hoffman, 1992 601).
David Richardson stated "Thousands set out to teach themselves a foreign
language few actually succeed, but for the vast majority the task is to great.
By contrast a substantial proportion of the Esperanto speakers, world-wide, have
learned the language on their own, often from a book. "Students in high school
& college generally learn Esperanto in a remarkably shorter time" than
they would have spent studying a foreign national language (Richardson 29).
Esperanto is the only international language in which fluency is acquired readily
by peoples outside of the Indo-European language area (Eichholz 229).
Esperanto
is one of the most expressive languages in world some people learn it in a few
days (Richardson, 1988 20). Richardson quotes Pierre Janton, L'Esperanto, Que
Sais-Je Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, [no date] "Recent experiments
in some English schools have shown that the average student there can learn as
much Esperanto in six months as he can learn French in four years." He goes
on "The comparison seems to be even more striking for Asians, who have a
great deal of difficulty learning Western languages" (Richardson, 1988 20).
Former UN Translator and renown linguist Claude Piron states that it is extremely
difficult to master a foreign language. In spite of 40,000 hours spent with English,
he, a professional translator feels that he has attained only 78 percent proficiency.
But in Esperanto, he attained 100 percent proficiency in significantly less time.
He states that at the UN, often people who have studied English for years speak
it so poorly, that sometimes even the translators cannot understand them. Sometimes
they just make up parallel speech. There are many mistranslations in the direct
translation of speech as well as in the written translations printed by the UN.
He estimates that it takes about 12,000 hours to become fluent in a foreign language
such as English but even 40,000 hours will not serve to place the foreigner on
an equal footing with the native speaker. He mentions that English is a "briar
patch of unclear expressions." He gives an example of students who had studied
English for six years yet were unable to understand a simple phrase from an American
magazine. The phrase was "done in". He states that English is very hard
to pronounce and to understand from listening as there are many vowels which sound
like one vowel to most foreign ears and he gives examples. Piron states this difficulty
of understanding spoken English has contributed to airplane crashes because the
pilot could not understand the English coming from the tower. In spite of the
clarity compared with Italian, English was selected to be the language of international
aviation. He states that not a few people have died because of this unfortunate
use of English. He states English is unsuitable not only because of the above
but also due to its illogical spelling. He reveals that the American Heritage
Dictionary gives eleven ways of spelling the sounds sh and ee. More than forty
sounds in English have from between two and eleven ways in which they are spelled
(Piron).
A look at any large English Dictionary will show that the forty four
(note the spelling of four and forty) have 232 ways of being spelled and are highly
irregular.
There are thousands of English words whose spelling must be memorized
because they do not necessarily correspond to their sound. This places a burden
of hundreds of hours of memorization time on those striving to learn English.
There are millions of native English speakers, indeed the majority, who after
13 years of school cannot even type a page without misspelling words because of
antiquated English spelling. English spelling rules have so many exceptions that
it is unclear why they bother to call them rules. Indeed are there any English
spelling rules without exceptions. Since English has over a million words, and
since there are no valid spelling rules, the learner of English must memorize
the spelling of every word to be sure it is spelled correctly.
Professor Bruce
Sherwood reported that Japanese speakers claim to find Esperanto "five to
ten times easier to master than English" (Sherwood, 1981, 2). "French
linguist Pierre Janton tells of Japanese students who, after some eight years
study of French, could speak it only with difficulty, whereas they spoke fluent
Esperanto after two to three years. (Richardson, 1988, 118). English as a Second
Language teachers find that average people may take over 10 years to master the
speaking and writing of English. Many students of English even after many years
of study still make many grammatical errors in speaking and cannot write a business
letter.
The massive failure of English teaching in communist China is verified
in an article in the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Journal.
In an article entitled The dilemma of English Language Instruction in the People's
Republic of China by Keith P. Campbell and Zhao Yong it states that China has
created foreign language institutes where following six years of secondary school
English instruction students study English 16-18 hours per week for 2-4 more years.
"Unfortunately, even the most diligent students with the most responsible
teachers often cannot communicate effectively with the target population after
10 years of studying English" (4).
Even learning a first language is
a gradual process taking years. A conservative estimate for learning time of the
first language is 12,000-15,000 hours (Lightborn 1985 in TESOL Quarterly).
Consider
the fact that the average person takes over 10 years before he writes, reads and
speaks with full fluency. Many people don't do much better by age 18.
The
fact that speaking and writing fluency can be achieved in Esperanto in under year
shows that the design is very time efficient-much more so than with any other
language.
ESPERANTO IN SCHOOLS
Renowned educational psychologist Edward
L. Thorndike found that one year of Esperanto instruction at the college level
equaled four years of instruction at that level in French or German. In a study
at Columbia Teachers College. (Eichholz 449) (Thorndike), experiments sponsored
by UNESCO (1973-1976) with around 1000 school children from various European countries
confirmed Thorndike's finding (Janton 123).
An experiment in Central and Western
Europe involved 145 10-11-year- old students in separate countries. Each group
as follows did not speak each others language.: 52 German speakers; 34 french
speakers; 45 Dutch speakers; and 14 Croatian speakers. They received instruction
in Esperanto for two hours per week (140 total hours). The students from separate
countries were brought together for a week at the end of the study. The conclusion
was that "Esperanto showed itself to be a completely suitable means of mutual
understanding and a thoroughly satisfactory means of instruction in the various
subjects." source Helmut Sonnabend, Esperanto - Lerneja eksperimento, 1979
(Symoens 29).
A twenty-five year study at the Denton Grammar School of the
propaedeutic effects of Esperanto study included a four year study by Sheffield
University. These studies showed that Esperanto study had a positive effect on
further language study. Less academically able students in particular benefitted
from initial Esperanto instruction (Williams and Halloran).
There were two
"five-country" experiments the first from 1971-1974 the second from
1975-1977. Nearly 1000 students from 32 schools were taught Esperanto as their
first foreign language. The findings were: that in a classroom setting students
are likely to learn more Esperanto than they would a national/ethnic language
over the same time period; That Esperanto can be successfully taught in the classroom
setting in ways comparable to the teaching of other languages; that the claims
of the ease and speed of learning Esperanto were strongly supported [Fantini].
In comparison to the German control groups the studies showed that
"Children
learning Esperanto were able to learn more in two years than other children learning
English in three or four years. . . the Esperanto groups would require a total
of 2.5 years to obtain 100 percent mastery of the material presented in this test,
whereas the English groups would require 5.3 years to achieve a corresponding
result (Maxwell, 1988: 58).
Doctors Fantini and Reagan add "This is
especially impressive when one takes into account the fact that the Esperanto
group were three to fours years younger than the English group -- thus, the Esperanto
students are learning more, faster, and at an earlier age" (32).
In schools
where Esperanto has been tried the students, staff and administration have given
it good reviews. Even UNESCO has given it the recommendation for use in schools
worldwide.
At Terrace Elementary School, a teacher reports that the kids were
not profiting from Spanish so the teaching was discontinued. When the teacher
introduced them to Esperanto they responded well. "Something unique happens
in teaching" Esperanto. "The children learn how language functions;
the puzzle--or word-building--unravels" (E-0 USA 1992(5) 7).
At the Alcott
Elementary School after only three weeks of instruction mostly during lunch time
students were able to demonstrate basic skills to an audience of teachers and
the Board of Education. The class is now corresponding via post cards to over
twenty countries. The president of the local school council was quoted as being
very pleased with the inclusion of International Language in their curriculum.
The staff hopes that the kids being turned on to languages will learn other languages,
so they will become literate in more than one language (E-o USA 1992(5) 6).
Esperanto turns many students on to languages; it sometimes motivates them to
learn other languages.
In the elementary grades, pupils soon find themselves
putting the language to practical use. Doris Vallon, reporting on forth, fifth
and sixth grade classes in some California schools, noted that some of the brighter
children were writing Haiku and Cinquain poems in Esperanto after only five weeks,
and performing puppet shows and skits. Ms. Vallon's forth grade class. "learned
enough Esperanto in one and a half school years to correspond with classes in
ten countries." [remember this was only after a few minutes a day of instruction]
(Vallon, 1968, 8013). This could have been 100 countries as once they know enough
to correspond they can write to any other person knowing the basics of the language
in over 100 countries. Vallon goes on: They wrote one another about family, school,
hobbies, music. They learned to read folk tales in Esperanto from many countries
. . . . They developed poise (talking with) Esperanto speaking visitors from many
lands. . . . We were overwhelmed by the natural understanding they showed of pupils
in other lands. The fact that they and their friends abroad had each came half
way toward understanding by learning a common tongue seemed to remove the insidious
distinction between 'native' and 'foreign' that might have arisen if neither group
had been using the language of the other. The children took a new, heightened,
personal interest in geography, a subject that previously meant little to them
(Vallon, 1968 in Richardson 1988).
Another teacher noticed that elementary
students became much more motivated to learn about other countries and peoples
when shown letters from real people in other countries they could actually write
letters to.
Claude Piron, in his new book on the language situation, describes
a pedagogical experiment done with 11-year old children from two countries where
the languages were very different. (Slovine and German) The children were given
only 24 hours of instruction in Esperanto. The two classes were brought together
and it was discovered that they were successfully conversing quite well on the
topics of ordinary life (Piron 316).
Piron goes on to say that the return
on Esperanto is so high that a few hundred monemes gives astonishing expressive
power. He feels that students could be taught as few as two morphemes a day in
about two minutes then eight minutes for sentences and practice. This can even
be integrated into other subjects. He stated that in only 10 minutes a day for
38 weeks the face of the world history could be changed. We could have a complete
generation of humans who can understand each other (Piron 317).
He gives another
example about a mechanic who was sent to another country. This mechanic did not
speak the language of that country, but was expected to train workers in certain
kinds of repair. He did manage to find an interpreter but things went very slowly.
Piron points out that if both the mechanic and the students could have spent only
30 hours studying Esperanto, the inter-language instruction would have gone much
smoother and in fact would have taken less time in the end.
Piron states
that learning Esperanto helps students understand their native language better.
It can also decondition the student from the arbitrary rules and habits of the
native language without having to recondition oneself to the habits of a foreign
people (Piron 320).
Knowledge of languages is greater and deeper in a sampling
of people who learned Esperanto then in the general population (Piron 320).
Learning Esperanto often leads to the desire to learn additional languages (Piron
320). It prepares the ground for learning other languages. It is like a preparatory
exercise. It provides an easy transition to learning languages. There is no sudden
shock as there is with other languages. There is even space around vowels making
them easier to pronounce. There is a lack of arbitrariness. The student progresses
rapidly getting a good feeling out of it, getting a good level of expression and
great satisfaction and confidence. The student can read texts from many countries
all over the world and feels respected. He is not dictated to, but rather can
create his own way. Esperanto is a language made for man rather than man for the
language. Man is not a slave to the language as with other languages where he
has to bow to the endless needless rules and exceptions. Esperanto is adapted
to the needs of humans. The student feels liberated as he has the right to invent
words and apply linguistic creativity. He can express a single idea by many ways
without being discouraged. He acquires the means of analyzing semantic relationships
and grammatical relations (Piron 323). He learns to relativize the concepts of
his mother tongue. He exercises speech without doing a foreign model. This first
apprenticeship builds power, and flexibility and positive feelings (Piron 324).
Both convergent and divergent thought are used in learning Esperanto. The same
idea can be expressed in many ways. Students found 70 ways to say a sentence.
Divergent intelligence is used more in Esperanto. Often words are created that
have no equivalent in the native language of the speaker. Students are not hindered
by arbitrary rules as in other languages. With Esperanto students have freedom
from the straight jacket of rules and exceptions (Piron 328).
WHERE
TO FIND ESPERANTO TEACHERS
In "Teach Children and Children Will Teach
the World" Charlotte Kohrs mentions that Teachers to teach Esperanto can
sometimes be recruited from the ranks of classroom teachers. In 1994, 19 expert
teachers, some of whom are still working on the free postal course, introduced
Esperanto to children. This proves that for introductory courses one does not
have to be an expert Esperantist to teach Esperanto to children. They are using
the book by Charlotte Kohrs entitled "Dek Demandoj" which provides immediately
usable pages for classroom teachers and for Esperantists who are not necessarily
expert teachers of children. It is noted that the teachers are not trying to make
them into expert Esperantists. Sometimes the classes are held twice a week during
lunch, and sometimes they use guest Esperantists. "In overcrowded school
curricula, very few teachers are able to find more than one hour a week for Esperanto."
Children's immediate response to the idea of a world language, their eagerness
and successes, and by achievements in a few schools where children can study Esperanto
daily, may encourage more teachers to fit Esperanto into their schedules for at
least half an hour twice a week and the needed 10 to 20 minutes daily practice
(Kohrs 3). In 1994 just in these 19 schools, 756 children were favorably introduced
to Esperanto. If both parents and one friend are then touched with a favorable
impression, then about 3000 people that have received a good impression about
Esperanto (Kohrs 15).
MONDO-RONDO (World Round)
In the above article Kohrs
mentions that they make learning Esperanto fun and help the children discover
that they can use it to learn about other countries, peoples, and customs. They
can even find friends around the world. Mondo-Rondo is a project in which groups
of children in many countries exchange picture postcards on which they write short
Esperanto messages about the cards. This stimulates interests in other class subjects
such as geography. Kim Keeble reports from Nova Scotia that Mondo-Rondo has been
successful and adds "Children who have been studying French for several years
can say more in Esperanto than they can in French." She also notes that the
Mondo-Rondo and the Geography in the booklet La Bela Planedo are what sold the
program to the school (Kohrs 15).
THE INTERNATIONALITY
OF ESPERANTO LEXEMES
In "La tipologia loko de Esperanto" in Lingvistika
Simpoziumo it is shown that the vocabulary of Esperanto is related to the Indo-European
group. In respect to phonetics to Malay, Bantu, Iranian and Italian. And in respect
of linguistic structure it is related to the isolating group (Malagasy, Chinese,
Vietnamese...) and also to the agglutinative group (Turkish, Japanese, Hungarian)
(Symoens 27).
"Seventy-five percent of the lexemes in Esperanto come
from Romance languages, primarily Latin and French; 20 percent come from Germanic
languages; the rest include borrowings from Greek (mostly scientific words), Slavic
languages, and, in small numbers, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, and other
languages" (Janton 51).
Edward Symoens in his book The Socio-Political
Educational and Cultural Roots of Esperanto continues by giving the proportion
of lexemes common to Esperanto and other languages as: 91.64 percent French; 89.50
percent English; 89.12 percent Italian; 87.79 percent Portuguese; 87.12 percent
Spanish; 81.70 percent German; 64.78 percent Latin; 53.26 percent Russian. Symoens
gives at his source I. Szerdahelyi, Medodologio de Esperanto Budapest 1975, based
on the 4,155 lexemes of the Naulingva Etimologia Vortaro of Bastien.
"Latin
lexemes tend to be chosen because of their internationality and hence perhaps
40 percent are immediately comprehensible to a Slav...Compared to other planned
languages, the basic vocabulary of Esperanto displays a reasonably satisfactory
balance among the various Indo-European languages, in proportion to their actual
occurrence in international relations" (Janton 51). Janton notes that English
is the most international of the national languages and that it draws over half
of its words from the romance languages and that only 25 percent of its vocabulary
is native. He also shows in detail how Esperanto words were formed to avoid homophony,
confusion, polysemy and to achieve greater internationality.
Rudiger Eichholz
a member of the Academy and expert Edmond Privat have both stated that Esperanto
was 70 percent recognizable to an English speaker. (Eichholz 6). Others have counted
the words in dictionaries and came up with 60-70 percent.
ESPERANTO
WORD ROOTS ARE INTERNATIONAL
Are most Esperanto words common to several languages?
Most Esperanto word roots are similar to word roots in several languages, the
most common being English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German. But
it was surprising to discover a similarity with Danish, Norwegian, and even Rumanian.
But a few Esperanto words were common to none.
Lexemes found only in Esperanto:
.09 percent
common with 1 language: 2.65 percent
common with 2 languages:
3.99 percent
common with 3 languages: 3.17 percent
common with 4 languages:
3.30 percent
common with 5 languages: 5.45 percent
common with 6 languages:
18.10 percent Most words,
common with 7 languages: 35.30 percent 81.35 percent,
common with 8 languages: 27.95 percent are here.
The coefficient of attainment
targets reached: in Russian 30 percent; German 40 percent; English 60 percent;
Esperanto 130 percent Symoens gives as his source Universo 1961 (Symoens 27).
Here are some common international words given in English form: chocolate banana
bank brown bus dollar energy engineer fabricate grade hospital hotel hour in industry
insect info June coffee carton chemical clear cost long March May machine metal
minute mustard name nerve neutral night nose November numeral oil October packet
paper pare park passport pill plant regulation religion restaurant risk rice rich
sack salt soap September six ski special state student soup sugar taxi tobacco
theater telephone television tiger tomato tea tri-cycle wine.
BASIC
ESPERANTO INTERNATIONAL VOCABULARY
Basic Esperanto has been called international
vocabulary for reasons presented above. For communication between speakers of
different languages it is unsurpassed due to its: international vocabulary, ease
of learning, efficient grammar with no exceptions, no difficult sounds, clear
distinct sounds, no irregular verbs, quickness with which people can put it to
use for reading speaking or writing and that it ends language discrimination by
putting everyone on neutral ground. With basic Esperanto everyone wins. There
are helpers-contacts around the world in hundreds of cities where one can be personally
greeted by a native speaker one can understand. One can be an international person
with contacts around the world.
There are a few good reasons for calling
it international vocabulary as opposed to Esperanto at least from a salesmanship
point of view. Many people confuse Esperanto with Spanish. Many people are turned
off by the word Esperanto which to them equals "foreign." As noted above
there is a tremendous psychological resistance to learning foreign languages.
From a marketing point of view much of the public favors "international words"
over "foreign words" and they favor "a vocabulary" over "a
language" because it sounds easier. Basic Esperanto is mostly vocabulary
and very little grammar. After a person has accepted the idea of learning an international
vocabulary h/she usually doesn't mind learning how to use it by way of a few simple
rules with no exceptions. One can experience almost immediate success, something
that eludes most learners of other languages. Remember many people have already
made up their mind that they will never have the time to learn any foreign language,
but they do more readily accept the idea of learning a basic inter-national vocabulary.
They soon find that this is a language called Esperanto, but by then they have
discovered what a good idea it is and that it is not nearly as diffi cult as learning
other languages. In short it is just a good marketing idea to first present a
more attractive concept as a first impression. Research shows that first impressions
are often critical to the acceptance of an idea, and are often lasting.
IT
CAN SAVE BUSINESSES THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
A basic Esperanto vocabulary can
save businesses thousands of dollars in training and translation costs. Most businesses
today are still training foreign workers in native languages, a task that takes
years, and is very costly. Since training people in Esperanto can be done in much
less time it can be done at much less expense. Most research indicates the learning
time is from 1/4 to 1/10 the time of other languages because it eliminates the
memorization of thousands of genders, irregular endings, irregular verbs, inflections,
duplicate words, irregular grammar rules, irregular pronunciations, regular spellings,
irregular accents, idioms, and exceptions and other irregularities of English
and other languages. Also learning Esperanto first facilitates people learning
other languages especially English in less time. Since there are so many international
words, people are actually learning many words from English, French, Spanish,
German, and many other languages. Also people learn a simple, but complete grammar
framework which helps them in later studies. See studies above that show that
learning Esperanto first actually pays off timewise. (Two languages can be learned
in less time than one if basic Esperanto is learned first.)
Translations
to and from several languages are very expensive. The UN for example could save
millions of dollars in translation costs by using Esperanto according to former
UN translator Claude Piron.
GROWING INTERNET USAGE
The presence of Esperanto on the internet is growing. There now are: Esperanto
Yellow Pages, Blue Pages, Home pages, texts, dictionaries, correspondence courses,
newsgroups, chat groups, organizations, and even lists of esperantists showing
over 1000 E-mail addresses in over 50 countries. Since a small vocabulary of 300-999
Esperanto root words can cover 90-99 percent of most common human communication
people can use this for E-mail messages between languages. Postings in languages
other than English are now becoming more frequent on the internet. No one owns
the internet so one is free to use whatever language they want to use. This vocabulary
is the most time efficient, easiest, quickest path to international communication
between languages. It makes possible meeting the need for all humans to be able
to understand each other around the world.
USING
THE PRO LANGUAGE FORCES
The pro-English forces are very strong and many Americans
feel that everyone should learn English. We can gain some support from them by
pointing out that: this international vocabulary is a stepping stone to learn
English; that it is more like English than any other language; that people can
actually learn English faster after learning this regular framework first; in
the process of learning Esperanto they are learning a lot of English words. And
we can enlist support of enthusiasts of other languages in the same way, and also
by taking the position of promoting the learning of languages in general. There
is much more to be gained by cooperation than by confrontation in this matter.
There are many potential esperantists in the ranks of language enthusiasts around
the world. Suppose we joined forces with language teachers at a local college
in promoting several languages and succeed in having Esperanto promoted also.
Everyone wins and benefits, and especially Esperanto.
PROMOTION
Esperanto is not being marketed to an effective degree. What few efforts are made,
often make it appear as a foreign language. Most people do not want to learn a
foreign language. But the appeal of a basic international vocabulary that is quickly
learned, if promoted well, might open the door to millions of young people and
others around the world learning Esperanto. Give them good reasons to learn it.
According to the World Almanac, English speakers (both native and non native)
now account for only 8.2 percent of the world's population. That means that over
90 percent of the world's people do not understand English, and that percentage
is increasing. English is losing ground to Spanish and some other languages.
If a wall chart showing basic Esperanto words to other languages were placed in
classrooms, hospitals, bus stations, air terminals, train stations and other good
public places this could greatly promote Esperanto. Short cable lessons daily
presented on the new cable networks now being set up in schools world wide could
give Esperanto a real boost. It appears that Esperanto is barely being promoted
at all. If it is to succeed it needs more and better promotion.
SUCCESSES
USING BASIC ESPERANTO VOCABULARY
Kontakto, a world wide magazine, regularly
uses 450 morphemes in its basic articles and an additional 457 roots in the advanced
articles.
Juna Amiko, a world wide youth magazine, uses up to 950 roots for
all articles.
The following books which all are very popular and successful
use basic Esperanto. "Vere au fantazie" uses 405 morphemes and teaches
more. "Karlo" uses 500. "Gerda Malaperis!" uses 684 roots.
"Mary kaj Sulo" 500 roots. "Lauta Vekhorlogo." "Verda
Koro" 940 roots. Plus, thousands of beginners and people talking to them,
use basic language with success.
Durr's research on high frequency words found
in children's books found that 188 English words provided 64 percent understanding.
All of those words are included in the basic Esperanto vocabulary. All of Dolch's
words from the famous Dolch sight word list are also included.
Word frequency
studies on newspaper front pages show that a basic vocabulary can provide about
90 percent understanding.
Comparison with the words in the American Heritage
Dictionary Corpus, which has over five million words, also verifies that a basic
Esperanto vocabulary of about 850 roots is able to do the work of the 6000 highest
frequency words which account for 90 percent of all written English in the world.
Apple Computer installed an 800 word vocabulary into its latest notebook
computer which it claims reads most common communication.
The international
organization Children Around the World uses a textbook by Charlotte Kohrs which
uses a vocabulary of basic Esperanto.
Researchers such as Gates, Horn, Rinsland,
Greene, Loomer, Harris, and Jacobson, have found that in general students, from
elementary to college, use the same high frequency words. The basic Esperanto
vocabulary uses these most needed high-utility words.
Research on conversations
by Tisljar using International Language found that for common conversations, only
786 morphemes covered 98 percent of the total corpus.
COMPARING
LANGUAGES
Results of a university masters project of scientifically surveying
most of the world's languages to find which one is best to be taught in schools
around the world follows.
A scientifically designed test instrument was developed
with criteria for a suitable international language and with an empirically verifiable
section proving learning difficulty and suitability. It had a total of 104 questions.
Over 1300 languages were scientifically screened by asking 60 questions such as:
Is there information available about that language; Has it spread out of its tribal
area; does it have a writing system, has it been proven suitable for all uses;
is it found in many countries, are helping groups available; is it neutral, is
it likable enough that people want to learn it on their own; are there publications
in that language; if adopted will it help end language discrimination, are text
books available, are there many international words in this language; is the vocabulary
sufficiently developed for professional people; is the writing phonetic; is the
writing, structure and grammar easy enough for elementary school use; can fluency
be achieved in less than 4 years by an average person; is it free of: irregularities,
exceptions, unnecessary inflections, genders, irregular accents, excess characters,
difficult sounds, useless letters, tones, excess idioms, sexual bias.
The
languages that achieved the highest scores were then subjected to 44 more questions
which scientifically empirically showed each languages' difficulty level. This
was achieved by counting the number of facts to be memorized such as total number
of genders, verb inflections, adjective inflections etc.
The average suitability
score for all languages was four. The Best candidate Esperanto tested out at 92.
The closest runner up on this score was English with 32.
In Global Awareness
(considered as the number of countries where the language is currently written)
the best candidate was again Esperanto with a score of 113. The closest runner
up was English with 50. Note, if global awareness was accessed from the point
of view of how many actual countries pen pals were available from, Esperanto would
score 84 and English about 12.
The empirically verifiable level of difficulty
shows how difficult a language is to learn. For this the lowest score is the most
desirable.
RESULTS OF RESEARCH
The results of
research into the suitability and difficulty of languages were astounding. It
should be noted that one language scored so much above all of the others that
it stood out scientifically and empirically as the easiest and best.
No other language, not even English, is even close to it. The questions used in
the study provide an empirically verifiable level of difficulty showing how difficult
a language is to learn. The language easiest to learn and use was basic Esperanto
(A SCIENTIFICALLY DEVELOPED VOCABULARY OF HIGHEST UTILITY WORDS using international
words, 70 percent English) which tested out at only 1224 memorization units. The
full International Language (also known as Esperanto) tested out at 12,000 memorization
units for average adult understanding. The next closest candidates were Malay
with 40,000; Burmese with 64,000; and English with 122,520. The Average difficulty
of languages evaluated was 201,000 memorization units. That means that the average
language was about 200 times as difficult as the easiest. The most difficult languages
had over 1000 times more memorizations than the most efficient. The figure in
the middle is the number of memorization units needed for 90-100 percent understanding.
Name
Suitability Difficulty Number of Countries
(higher is better) (Lower is better)
with pen pals
basic Esperanto 92 1,224. 116
Esperanto 92 12,000. 116
English
32 122,520. 50
Albanian 7 947,000. 1
Arabic 16 338,000. 16
Basque 8 778,000.
2
Bengali 10 231,000. 4
Bohemian Czech 12 1,558,000. 1
Bulgarian 7 588,000.
5
Burmese 9 66,000. 1
Byelorussian 8 796,000. 2
Cantonese 24 605,000.
2
Chinese 24 605,000. 5
Czech 12 1,558,000. 1
Danish 8 260,000. 3
Dutch
9 490,000. 3
Estonian 11 299,000. 3
Finnish 13 951,000. 2
French 17 1,243,000.
40
German 24 573,000. 12
Gouyu 24 605,000. 1
Greek 11 1,830,000. 4
Hindi
12 142,000. 6
Hindustani 12 142,000. 6
Hungarian 8 734,000. 3
Icelandic
10 1,249,000. 1
Irish 8 924,000. 1
Italian 11 451,000. 8
Japanese 9 1,557,000.
3
Korean 11 4,042,000. 5
Latin 12 1,139,000. 0
Lithuanian 6 1,133,000.
3
Luxemburgian 16 573,000. 1
Malay 15 40,000. 6
Mandarin 24 605,000.
5
Old Bulgarian 7 1,847,000. 5
Persian 9 582,000. 2
Polish 11 647,000.
3
Portuguese 12 464,000. 3
Rumanian 6 1,472,000. 3
Russian 18 902,000.
15
Serbian 6 880,000. 4
Siamese 2 62,000. 1
Slavonic 6 1,883,000. 1
Slovak
6 550,000. 5
Slovene 7 526,000. 2
Sorbian 7 1,462,000. 1
Spanish 20 897,000.
20
Swedish 8 157,000. 3
Ukrainian 7 736,000. 3
Urdu 12 142,000. 3
Welsh
5 854,000. 1
Wu 24 605,000. 1
Languages not shown had a suitability score
of four or less or information was unavailable.
Fluency in English requires
nearly ten times the memorization facts required for Esperanto. This makes Esperanto
from 3.3 to 300 times easier to learn than other languages and 10 times easier
to learn than English. For English speakers it is even easier because 60-70 percent
of Esperanto vocabulary is similar to an English word with a similar meaning.
How does this compare with other researchers? Per Thorndike, Esperanto is four
times easier. Per Sherwood, five to ten times easier. Per The California Esperanto
Education Commission, five times easier. Per The World Almanac, five to twenty
times easier. Per Janton, eight times easier than French.
HOW
TO VERIFY SUITABILITY AND DIFFICULTY OF LANGUAGES
The following is a method
to verify the suitability of any language as a candidate to be the international
language.
Questions 1-60 are to be answered yes or no. For scoring give 1 point
for a yes, 0 points for a no. Unknown answers leave blank.
The total gives
an approximate score of suitability. Questions 61 through 103 are totals of facts
to be memorized. Number 104 is the grand total of facts to be memorized for fluency
for the first seven years of schooling. Question 105 gives the direct global awareness
score for teachers. Question 108 yields a standard measure of the grand total
of memorizations needed for full adult fluency. Numbers 104 and 108 could be considered
difficulty levels. However there is at least one more extremely important factor
which is the similarity to the learners own language particularly to the word
stock. For example, English, Spanish, and French readers can recognize about 50-70
percent of the Esperanto words in an Esperanto dictionary. This makes learning
Esperanto much easier than learning Chinese. Additional empirical quantifications
may be made by comparing similarities. These items are questions 109-110. Question
111 is any other factors not covered in 61-111. Number 112 is the Grand level
of learning difficulty.
THE QUESTIONS IN DETAIL
1. Does the language have
enough of a following so books are written about it? If a language is so inconspicuous
that there is little or nothing written about it, then it is highly unlikely that
it would be a practical candidate for the ideal international language to be taught
in the elementary school. And where would one obtain textbooks dictionaries etc.
Most of the languages of the world do not even have writing systems, textbooks
and dictionaries to several major languages that are available to the public.
2.
Has it spread out of its tribal area? A candidate for the international language
would have to have been good enough to have spread out of its tribal area. Others
would have noticed its worth and spread it. Most of the languages of the world
have not spread out of their local area.
3. Have non native speakers found
it suitable for all uses? Since many people are biased with regard to their own
native language, it is better if the language is looked at by a non native speaker.
4.
Is the language distributed in many countries so that there would be at least
a base for international teaching of it? To be practical this would have to be
the case.
5. Are there national, local, and international groups that can help
the classroom teacher if needed?
6. Is the language neutral? No one wants
to have someone's culture or politics forced upon them. Many Americans would resent
having to learn Russian. People in many countries resent being told that they
have to learn English. "The big obstacle is the opposition of speakers of
other tongues . . . There is a vast difference between studying a foreign tongue
so as to be able to use it, and accepting it as an international medium of communications
in preference to your own. Since a national language is the vehicle and mouthpiece
of a national culture the citizens of each nation hesitate to place themselves
at a cultural disadvantage vis-a-vis another group. This is perhaps the main reason
why so many citizens of small nations prefer 'neutral' Esperanto, which belongs
to no nation or culture in particular and requires a commensurate effort on the
part of every learner. (This point of view was perhaps best expressed by Ali Gerad
Jama, Minister of Education of Somalia, in these words: 'It is humiliating for
small nations to be obliged to learn the languages of the large. Only a neutral
language like Esperanto can eliminate that cultural dependency')" (Pei).
7.
Do people find the language likeable enough to learn it on their own? The human
test is most important. If people don't like it they will resist learning it.
8.
Is the language practical for world use in elementary classrooms? Are there publications
in this language which elementary children can read and use? If the kids learn
it, can they do anything with it, such as write to pen pals around the world?
Are there people in other countries who speak it. Will it promote global awareness
in the elementary school? Is it unethnocentric, unnationalistic, free of religious
and political implications, and free of any factors that would cause it to be
unpractical. This is a general test. Edward Sapir renowned language expert states
"A common creation demands a common sacrifice, and perhaps not the least
potent argument in favor of a constructed international language is the fact that
it is equally foreign, or apparently so, to the traditions of all nationalities.
The common difficulty gives it an impersonal character and silences the resentment
that is born of rivalry. English, once accepted as an international language,
is no more secure than French has proved to be as the one and only accepted language
of diplomacy or as Latin has proved to be as the international language of science.
Both French and Latin are involved with nationalistic and religious implications
which could not be entirely shaken off, and so while they seemed for a long time
to have solved the international language problem up to a certain point, they
did not really do so in spirit. English would probably fare no better, and it
is even likely that the tradition of trade, finance, and superficial practicality
in general that attaches to English may, in the long run, prove more of a hindrance
than a help to the unreserved acceptance of English as an adequate means of international
expression" (Mandelbaum, 1968,113). Another expert on languages Dr. Mario
Pei Professor of Romance Philology at Columbia University states "The world
language should be a language for the world...not restricted to any nation or
group of nations, or to any social, cultural, or professional group. It should
not be a device for the reading of scientific or learned papers, read and understood
with difficulty by a polyglot audience, but rather a common tongue, used with
absolute ease and fluency by everybody, spoken and written with the same ease
with which the bulk of the population of any civilized land today speaks and writes
its own language...its proper function...is to supply an absolutely free means
of communication and interchange of ideas among all of the world's people, whatever
their station in life" (Pei, 183).
9. Will the language help end language
discrimination? Millions of people have been forced to learn another national
language other than their own. This is language discrimination. The native speaker
of that national language is given a big advantage over the non native speaker.
This causes resentment and embar rassment because people are not put on even footing.
When a mistake is made the non native speaker becomes the butt of jokes, fun,
or ridicule. Along with the national language one has to learn the customs, culture,
idioms even religious and ethnic beliefs and practices of the culture of that
national language. Often people resent being forced to participate in another
culture other than their own. Cultural imperialism can be charged for any national
language.
10. Does the language have a writing system? A language without
a writing system would not be practical.
11. Are there text books published
about this language? To be used at all there would have to be a learning text
at least for teacher use.
12. Are there technical books published in this language?
A language without any technical books would be worthless.
13. Are there poetry
books published in this language? Is the language capable of having good poetry.
If so there would be poetry books.
14. Are there reading books published in
this language? To learn the language students would have to have reading books.
15.
Are most of the words spelled phonically?
16. Is the estimated minimum time
necessary for the average human to become fluent in it to a level of fourth grade
competency less than four years? If the language is so difficult that it can not
it be learned as a second language in this time frame it would not be practical.
17.
Does the language include international words making it easier to learn? Rutherford
notes that "learning takes place more quickly, and what is learned is retained
for a longer period of time when that which is to be learned relates directly
to something which is already part of the learners know-ledge" (1976,138).
Having international words makes the language not only easier to learn but people
learn many words from other languages as well.
18. Is the vocabulary sufficient
for use by professional people? This is absolutely necessary for the language
to be practical. Many languages are not sufficiently developed to include terms
necessary for professional communication which is a necessity. Example does the
language have words for transistor, software, compact disk, interface, mouse,
floppy diskette, floppy drive, CPU, VDU, stereo, aids, communications satellite,
laser, cybernetics, etc. It would take considerable time and labor. . . . to create
the needed modern terminology. . . .[for a language that doesn't have it]. . .
. One of the reasons why many speakers of Hindi and Arabic prefer to use English
or French for scientific purposes is that the terminology is already there in
English and French, while it is still being painfully elaborated in their own
native tongues (Pei).
19. Is the language clear enough for international radio
communication? Some languages such as the click languages are not clear enough
for use by aircraft, ships, and spacecraft. Communication is the main job of any
language and if it can't do that clearly and well it should be ruled out. Several
languages are not clear sounding with clashing consonants and sounds not well
reproduced over busy communications channels.
20. Does the writing system correspond
to the phonics? Writing is really the sounds of a language put into written form.
Anything other than letters corresponding to the sounds would be ludicrous, unnecessary,
inefficient and a hindrance to learning.
21. Does the language have a writing
system easy enough for elementary instruction? This language will be taught in
the elementary schools of the world.
22. Does the language have a phonic system
easy enough for elementary schools?
23. Does the language have a simple enough
structure for elementary school use?
24. Is the language suitable for machine
translation? The ideal international language would have to not be ambiguous.
The international language should be capable of being the intermediate media in
a machine language translation operation. Machine language translation is becoming
a multi million dollar business and soon a business necessity.
25. Is the language
suitable for international correspondence and are pen pals available in many countries?
26.
Is there an authoritative body to monitor all proposals for new forms to standardize
the language and insure that there should be no dialectal variation, in order
to avoid the risk of reduced intelligibility.
The following questions survey
the potential candidate for difficulty. This does not mean that a few no answers
disqualifies the language rather just shows that the language is more difficult
in that area.
27. Is the language free of irregularities?
28. Is the language
free of exceptions?
29. Is the language free of unnecessary inflections?
30.
Are all the verb forms regular?
31. Is the language free of unnecessary verb
inflections?
32. Is the language free of the necessity of learning genders?
33.
Is the language free of unnecessary noun inflections?
34. Is the language free
of unnecessary adjective inflections?
35. Is the language free of unnecessary
pronoun inflections?
36. Is the language free of unnecessary article declensions?
37. Is the language free of unnecessary adverb inflections?
38. Is the
language free of irregular accentuation?
39. Is it free of excessive characters
to be learned in the alphabet?
40. Is the alphabet free of complex or difficult
to learn characters?
41. Is the sound system free of difficult sounds?
42.
Is the sound system regular? (one sound per character)
43. Is the writing system
free of useless letters?
44. Do the words sound exactly as they are spelled?
45.
Is there a universal opposite to save memorization?
46. Are there many affixes
to cut down on memorization?
47. Are grammar rules simple?
48. Is the language
free of excessive grammar rules?
49. Is the language free of many grammar rule
exceptions?
50. Is the language free of difficult tonal systems?
51. Is
the language free of sexual bias?
52. Is the language free of excess idioms
to be memorized?
53. Is the language free of excess facts to be memorized?
54.
Is the language translatable easily to other languages?
55. Can it easily accommodate
translations from most other languages?
56. Is the syntax flexible?
57.
Is the vocabulary free of excessive duplicate words?
58. Has it been accepted
by the UN?
59. Is the language standardized in form?
60. Is the language
free of any other factors hindering its use?
EASE OF LEARNING is important as it must be easy to learn by ALL elementary students,
not just the intellectually gifted. Humans come in a very diverse range of mental
ability. The ideal international language must be simple enough for all to learn.
An international language that was made for intellectuals thereby excluding most
of the population of this planet would not be a functioning international language.
Question number 61 is the estimated number of word roots that must be memorized
for 97 percent comprehension, 5,000 for elementary and 20,000 for full adult use
is used as a basis. Otto Jespersen the famous linguist stated in his book Language
Its Nature Development and Origin states that school children at age six know
about 3000 words and that Swedish peasants know at least 26,000 words (with little
to no education at all) (Jespersen, 1964). Russell Stauffer states that it has
been estimated that elementary school children's vocabulary ranges from 2,500
to 12,500 (1969, 142). Jean Temple notes that studies show that school children
are exposed to as many as 88,500 words in school text books printed in school
English. She states "Because good students do learn vocabularies approaching
88,000 words, it is clear that learning new words from reading is not only possible,
but the only feasible answer for students who must cope with the enormous vocabulary
burdens (1986, 28). Gillet notes that third graders can have vocabularies averaging
7425-25,000 words (1986, 26).
Albert J. Harris and Edward R. Sipay, authors
of one of the best reading texts state: The average child entered first grade
with a knowledge of the meanings of about 2,500 words and increased his vocabulary
at a rate of about 1,000 a year...vocabulary would be about 8,500 words in sixth
grade...
Dale (1965, 449), an authority on vocabulary research, summarized
the best available evidence as follows: 'If we assume that children finish the
first grade with an average vocabulary of 3,000 words, it is likely that they
will add about 1,000 a year from then on. The average high school senior will
know about 14,000 to 15,000 words, the college senior 18,000 to 20.000' (1980,
449).
The above puts the approximate number of words at about 8000. Of course
this is for English. How does this compare with other languages. David Crystal
in his book The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language states that languages have
major statistical regularities. He quotes the famous linguist George K. Zipf (1902-50)
whose best known law shows a constant relationship between the rank of a word
in a frequency list and the frequency with which it is used in a text. Zipf stated
take any text, count the words, put in decreasing frequency and the first 15 will
account for 25 percent of the text, the first 100 words will account for 60 percent
of the text, the first 1000 85 percent of the text and the first 4000 will account
for 97.5 percent of the text (1987, 87). [Note it has been discovered that Zipf's
law is for ethnic languages. With a planned language the number 1000 can be cut
down to about half and the number 4000 can be cut by about one quarter.]
How
does this correspond to English? The American Heritage Intermediate Corpus contains
86,741 different words found in the 5,088,721 words of running text tokens that
were sampled to produce the American Heritage Intermediate Corpus. This Corpus
was used to produce The American Heritage Dictionary. Analysis of the lists are
as follows.
Since the lists do not indicate the information needed. This
researcher had to use a computer to compute the data.
This researcher's computations
show that the first 100 most frequent words account for 48.97 percent of the word
usage.
The next 100 account for 7.88 percent
The next 100 account for 4.359
percent
The next 100 account for 2.359 percent
The next 100 account for
2.293 percent
The next 100 account for 1.906 percent
The next 100 account
for 1.686 percent
The next 100 account for 1.376 percent
The next 100 account
for 1.277 percent
The next 100 account for 1.179 percent
The first 1000
words account for 73.905 percent of the words used.
The next 1000 account
for only 7.27 percent
The next 1000 account for only 3.69 percent
The
next 1000 account for only 2.338 percent
The next 1000 account for only 1.695
percent
The next 1000 account for only 1.259 percent
The next 1000 account
for only 0.010 percent
The next 1000 account for only 0.008 percent
The
next 1000 account for only 0.006 percent
The next 1000 account for only 0.005
percent
Therefore the first 1000 accounts for a total of 73.9 percent
Therefore
the first 2000 accounts for a total of 81.1 percent
Therefore the first 3000
accounts for a total of 84.8 percent
Therefore the first 4000 accounts for
a total of 87.2 percent
Therefore the first 5000 accounts for a total of 88.9
percent
Therefore the first 6000 accounts for a total of 90.1 percent
Therefore
the first 7000 accounts for a total of 91.1 percent
Therefore the first 8000
accounts for a total of 92.0 percent
Therefore the first 9000 accounts for
a total of 92.6 percent
Therefore the first 10000 accounts for a total of 93.2
percent
The above is similar to other word studies.
The difference between
this and Zipf's law is explained by the huge number of words in the English language
which is now larger by far than any other language. Unfortunately bigger is not
better because there are many duplicate and ambiguous words. For example, Guinness
indicates that the word "set" has 184 meanings in English. (Guinness
148)
The LOB Corpus (Lancaster-Oslo/Bergan Corpus) is a million-word collection
of present-day British English tests using 500 samples or approximately 2,000
words each distributed over 15 text categories. As far as frequency of parts of
speech, the LOB Corpus shows approximately Nouns 27 percent, Verbs 22 percent,
Determiners 13 percent, Prepositions, 13 percent, Adjectives 8 percent, Adverbs
5 percent, Conjunctions 5.5 percent, Numerals 2 percent. Determiners can be adverbs,
or pronouns, such as, "all, let all, that".
The matter of word
frequency is important in calculating the difficulty of learning. The student
has to first learn the word itself, plus perhaps 96 endings for the verb form,
plus 20 additional endings for the noun form, then 36 endings for the adjective
form. Plus, if the forms change with gender an additional set of endings must
be learned. To come up with an empirically verifiable figure then the number of
verbs and nouns must be known to calculate the total number of individual facts
that must be memorized.
This needed to be explored because when the actual
word list which was based on real life testing was compared to a straight vocabulary
study such as theirs one could see that their figures were different. Their figures
are based on their definitions of words, and for the entire language. What was
needed was data based on the actual words the young people will have to learn.
Not finding any data on this, this researcher had to do his own study. To determine
the difficulty level involved with learning a language one needed to find out
how many word forms had to be learned for 5000 thousand words. The following data
is the result or this study.
For the thousand listed below there are the following
order.
Nouns verbs adjectives adverbs pronouns prepositions other
618
523 490 92 81 46 28 (first 1000)
649 422 533 41 35 5 24 (next 1000)
2032
1276 453 111 86 5 15 (next 3000)
3299 2221 1476 244 202 56 67 (total 5000)
66 % 44 % 29 % 5 % 4 % 1 % 1 %
Of course it adds up to more than 100 percent
because many words can be used for several parts of speech and still endings have
to be memorized for each in many languages.
Some students have to go over
language items many times in order to learn them. Jean Temple notes that programs
to teach students new vocabulary require enormous repetition. One program required
between 26 and 40 repeated exposures to achieve a learning rate of 86 percent
(1986, 28).
Mario Pei states that every (national) language is "laden
with idioms" (1949,144). An idiom is an expression that is unique to a particular
language. Idioms are an important factor. Richard Spears Ph.D. Professor of Linguistics
at NW University lists over 8,000 contemporary American English idioms in his
National Text Book Company's American Idioms Dictionary (1987). He lists 1,500
common idioms in his Essential American Idioms. Frederic Wood lists about 1,200
verbal idioms alone (1964). Adam Makkai Ph.D. Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Illinois lists 5000 idioms in his Dictionary and lists 2,500 "commonly
used idioms" in his idiom handbook (1984, 1987). Tan Hay Pang states that
there are a few thousand Idioms in Chinese and that most school children learn
about 250 (1986). Many books on many languages show 2000-3,600 common idioms.
There
are numerous bits of commonly used language, for example, that are seldom if ever
touched upon in textbooks. One whole such area is that of the so-called extra-sententials,
that vast collection of syntactic forms of many varieties which, in linguistic
terms never form a constituent with the sentences to which they are attached,
yet are indispensable for communicative precision and for the natural-sounding
give-and-take of discourse. (Rutherford, 1976,157)
Question 62 is the total
number of genders that must be memorized.
63. The estimated number of words
for which genders must be memorized. The estimated figure for the number of nouns
in the language in 5000 words which is roughly 3000. He can state that because
he actually counted over 3000 nouns in the first 5000 most common words. Of course
by definition one can state that a language has no nouns but in practice a name
for an object is a noun and still has to be learned. These are units of memorization
not just linguistic definitions of words.
64. The total number of genders
that must be memorized. This is question 62 times 3000.
65. The total number
of noun inflections that must be memorized for each individual noun.
66. The
estimated number of nouns for which inflections must be memorized which is 3000.
67. The total number of noun inflections that must be memorized which is question
65 times 3000.
68. The number of verb inflections that must be memorized per
verb.
69. The estimated number of verbs. Which is 2000 as the 5000 most common
words there are about 2000 verbs.
70. The total number of verb inflections
that must be memorized is question 69 times 2000.
71. The number of adjective
inflections that must be memorized.
72. The estimated number of adjectives.
This researcher counted 1476 and will use the rounded figure of 1400.
73.
The total number of adjective inflections that must be memorized which is question
72 times 1400.
74. The number of pronoun inflections that must be memorized
based on the individual count for that particular language.
75. The estimated
number of pronouns in the most common 5000 words of the language. This researcher's
count was over 200 so the rounded figure 200 was used.
76. The total number
of pronoun inflections must be memorized which is question 74 times 200.
77.
The number of article declensions.
78. The total number of articles in the
language.
79. The total number of article declensions, question 77 times 79.
80. The number of adverb inflections based on actual count.
81. The estimated
number of adverbs.
82. The total number of adverb inflections that must be
memorized.
83. is how many different characters are in the writing system.
84.
The number of excessive characters to be learned in the alphabet. Note there is
a difference in number of characters needed to be memorized and the number of
"letters" in the alphabet.
85. The number of complex characters in
that particular language by actual count. A complex character is defined as any
letter that takes more than 6 strokes.
86. How many sounds must be learned.
87. How many characters have more than one sound per character.
88. The
number of words with irregular accentuation.
89. The total number of words
not spelled phonetically and regularly.
90. Whether the language has a universal
opposite affix or word which creates the opposite meaning and works with most
words in the language and which thereby reduces memorization of opposite words.
91. The number of opposites in a language. There are about 1500 opposites
in the base of 5000 words.
92. The total number of opposites that need not
be memorized. If the language has a universal opposite 750 would not have to be
memorized.
93. The other affixes or words that cut down memorization?
94.
The estimated savings in memorization from 93.
95. The total number of grammar
rules that must be learned.
96. The total number of exceptions to rules of
grammar that must be memorized.
97. The number of tones to be memorized.
98.
The total number of words for which tones must be memorized.
99. The total
number of additional memorizations needed for tones.
100. The estimated number
of idioms. Just knowing the meaning of each word does not suffice: "up the
creek, on the lamb, on duty, take a gander, take a licking, take a powder, take
a hike, take up room, kick the bucket, break wind". Most languages have thousands
of idioms.
Question 101 is the total number of variations of the language's
standardized form that must be memorized.
102. The estimated number of duplicate
words. In English for example there are hundreds of duplicate words. (auto, car)
103.
The total number of other facts that must be memorized. Multiple meanings for
the same word. Example the word "set" in English has nearly 200 meanings.
In English there are also a couple hundred "troublesome words" that
require extra attention of the learner such as lie, lay lie. Even native English
speakers often misuse these. Also there are over 130 irregular plurals. There
are also contractions, abbreviations, classifier words and special grammar oddities
such as homonyms.
Question 104 is the grand total number of facts that must
be memorized.
105. What is the number of countries pen pals are available from
using this language.
106. What is the total number of countries helpers are
available from who could help the learner.
107. What is the number of countries
which have speakers of this language.
108. Question number 104 times four gives
a standard figure of total memorizations needed for full adult fluency.
109.
Total number of word roots which are dissimilar to the language of the learner.
110.
Total other facts to be that need to be memorized that are dissimilar to the native
language of the learner.
111. Any other factors or facts not included in the
above.
112. The Grand Grand total of 62 thru 103 and 108 thru 111.
Here
are the results question by question for Esperanto.
1. Does the language have
enough of a following so books are written about it? Yes, in fact, there are thousands
of books about this language. "Esperanto is the only living international
language; it has a worldwide body of speakers, a large literature, regular use
at international conferences, and textbooks in 54 languages." (Encyclopedia
International, 1978,353) "More than 30,000 books have been published in Esperanto"
(Hoffman, 1990,142).
2. Has it spread out of its tribal area? Yes. It has spread
to over 100 countries. The annual yearbook of the Universal Esperanto Association
lists members in over 100 countries. In the 1970's Esperanto was taught in over
600 schools and 31 universities. President Franz Jonas of Austria, himself speaking
Esperanto opened the 55th World Esperanto Congress in Vienna in 1970... In 1987...6000
delegates from 70 countries (Hoffman, 1990,143) attended a convention and even
though over they were from all over the world not one translator was needed. The
fact that this language has become one of the major living languages of the world
in spite of no nation or major political group promoting it, and that it has continued
to grow in spite of the genocide (Hoffman, 1990; Heller, 1985; Boulton, 1960)
of its speakers on a massive scale in several countries, is remarkable. One of
this researchers pen pals has possibly been murdered in Haiti. His only crime
was writing in a language the regime did not understand.
3. Have non native
speakers found it suitable for all uses? Yes, and these nonnative speakers are
from over 100 countries. This researcher has spoken directly with and/or corresponded
with people from over 70 countries who express their satisfaction with Esperanto
as a complete fully useful language. 4. Is the language distributed in many countries?
Yes in over 100 countries. Encyclopedia Americana states "30 universities
and colleges offered courses in Esperanto, and it was being taught to approximately
16,500 primary and secondary school pupils in over 30 countries" (1991, 583)
"Esperanto is the most widely used international language. People in about
90 countries speak Esperanto" (World Book Encyclopedia, 1990). English however
is the most widespread (McFarian, 1990,119). Note English is a national language
spoken internationally.
5. Are there national, local and international groups
that can help? Yes there are national groups in most countries, local groups in
many countries. The Universal Esperanto Association is headquartered in Europe
(Rotterdam, Netherlands) with offices in Switzerland and elsewhere.
6. Is
the language neutral? Yes one of the very few that are.
7. Do people find the
language likeable enough to learn it on their own? Yes In fact most speakers liked
it so much they are self taught. This language is growing at the grass roots level
by people who fell in love with it, learn it out of a teach yourself text books
and then tell others about it. In all of The reading this researcher has done
there was no other language that can rival this unique phenomenon.
8. Is the
language practical for world use?
(unethnocentric, current periodicals, etc.)
Yes. "There are over 110 periodicals in regular publication" (Encyclopedia
Americana, 1991,583). This researcher has corresponded in Esperanto with over
200 people from many diverse countries, ages and occupations. This researcher
simply ran two line ad in a magazine named Esperanto and a magazine from China.
These have resulted in more correspondents than he has time to write to. "Approximately
8,000,000 people throughout the world speak Esperanto" (Groiler International,
1980,194). Mario Pei noted linguistic authority stated 10,000,000 (Pei, 1969).
The World Almanac which is very conservative gives two million speakers (Culbert,
1990). However one of the beauties of this language is that one does not have
to learn how to speak it to use it. The average person can learn enough in part
time study in a few months to be able correspond with people in over 100 countries.
This researcher has talked to teachers who said that their students were corresponding
with classes in other countries after only a few weeks of study. This researcher
has had letters from young students in many other countries who were just beginners
in learning the language. This researcher did not find this with any other language.
In all other languages it appears that it takes much longer often several years
before average students can correspond with people in other countries.
9. Will
the language help end language discrimination? Yes. This language puts people
on equal footing. See comments in review of literature.
10. Does the language
have a writing system? Yes. Same as English but with a ^ over 6 letters roughly
equivalent to adding an h after the letter.
11. Are there text books published
about this language? Yes. see remarks above. "Books in and about Esperanto
number over 8,600 and there are approximately 145
Esperanto periodicals. Examples
of the world's great literature have been translated into Esperanto and original
works of fiction and poetry have been written in the language" (Groiller
Universal Encyclopedia, 1968, 204).
12. Are there technical books published
in this language? Yes. "Literature in Esperanto includes poetry, novels,
and plays...works of modern authors...works in Esperanto are being produced at
the rate of a little over one a week" (Encyclopedia Americana, 1988, 583).
See remarks in review of literature as to publishing.
13. Are there poetry
books published in this language? Yes and they are from many nations and cultures
which reflects the internationality of this language.
14. Are there reading
books published in this language? Yes and they are from many countries. "it
has an extensive literature" (Colliers Encyclopedia, 1983). The current Catalog
of the Universal Esperanto Association. lists over 3000 of the best which anyone
can obtain by mail from any country in the world.
15. Are most words spelled
phonically? Yes.
16. Is the Estimated minimum time necessary for the average
human to become fluent in it to a level of fourth grade competency less than four
years? Yes many people learn it in under a year. Edward Thorndike a very noted
educational scholar found that it can be learned in at least one quarter of the
time of other languages (Harvard, 1967). Other linguists have given estimates
that it can be learned in as much as one twentieth the time.
Controlled experiments
show that because of its logical structure, phonemic spelling, and regular grammar
Esperanto can be learned to a given criterion of performance in from one-twentieth
to one-fifth the time needed for the learning of a typical national language (Hoffman,
1990, 805).
Pei stated that one can learn the grammar in under an hour (1958).
Which is true as this researcher did it. There are accounts of persons learning
it to fluency in less than a month.
17. Does the language include international
words making it easier to learn? Yes In fact the major basis for new words is
their internationality. The name of the language really is "Lingvo Internacia"
(Language International). There are in the world's 5000 languages the problem
is that for old words there is for example 5000 different words each for "help,
orange, hotel, telephone, international". Some languages don't even have
a word for "orange". In Esperanto the root words for those things are
"help, oran_, hotel, telefon, internacia" The old words in Esperanto
were created from the most important languages of the time which were the languages
of Western Europe. (The Indo-European language group from which these international
words were based still covers about half of the world's populated area and about
half of the world's population speaks languages in this group.) They were picked
for clarity and functionality as an easy to learn second language for international
use.
18. Is the vocabulary sufficient for use by professional people? Yes.
There are Esperanto organizations for such professionals as doctors, lawyers,
and scientists, many of whom, publish studies in the language. Many tourist brochures
are printed in Esperanto and government agencies in Hungary, West Germany, mainland
China, Bulgaria, and Spain, among others, publish Esperanto magazines or books
about their countries (Encyclopedia Americana, 1988, 583). There are at least
"22 professional associations that use Esperanto" (Britannica, 1980,
560).
19. Is the language clear enough for international radio communication?
Yes. In fact it was one of the few languages that was declared suitable for international
telegrams back in the days when radio reception was poor. "Some corporations
with international sales advertise in Esperanto, and 19 radio stations broadcast
regularly in the language" (Encyclopedia Americana, 1988, 583). This researcher
picked up Bern Radio Switzerland broadcasting in Esperanto on his shortwave radio
just last week.
20. Does the writing system correspond to the phonics? Yes
exactly.
21. Does the language have a writing system easy enough for elementary
instruction? Yes. See remarks about elementary students in California schools
and other remarks in review of Literature. This researcher found that many kids
like to write down a few sentences in Esperanto because to them it is fun and
since it is so similar to English they can write and speak sentences in a foreign
language almost immediately. It actually turns many kids on to language. It even
gives then a secret language to communicate with to some of their friends. Many
kids have asked this teacher for addresses of pen pals in other countries.
22.
Does the language have a phonic system easy enough for elementary schools? Yes.
23.
Does the language have a simple enough structure for elementary school? Yes.
Esperanto
is considered easier to master than any national tongue, for its grammar rules
are consistent, and a relatively small number of basic roots can be expanded into
an extensive vocabulary by means of numerous prefixes and suffixes. The French
Academy of Sciences has called Esperanto 'a masterpiece of logic and simplicity'
(Groiller Universal Encyclopedia, 1968, 204). This researcher has taught the entire
past, present and future forms to several classes of elementary and also to adults
in under five minutes as a substitute teacher just for fun for the kids. Since
This researcher also taught an English as a Second Language class for several
years he can state that neither this researcher nor any other teacher has been
able to teach students the English equivalent even after many semesters of teaching
at four hours a day.
24. Is the language suitable for machine translation?
Yes. In fact it is now being used for machine translation. See Review of Literature.
25.
Is the language suitable for international correspondence? Yes. As a matter of
Fact this researcher can produce about 600 letters this researcher has received
from around the world. He can understand them as long as the writer had legible
handwriting. See comments at question eight.
26. Is there an authoritative
body to monitor proposals for new forms to standardize the language? Yes. There
is an international language committee which approves suggested words and helps
keep the language standardized.
27. Is the language free of irregularities?
Yes. It may be the only living language that is.
28. Is the language free of
exceptions? Yes and it may be the only living language that is also.
29. Is
the language free of unnecessary inflections? Yes.
30. Are all the verb forms
regular? Yes. Not only are they all regular but there are no exceptions to memorize.
The Guinness Book of Records shows that this language holds the record for the
least irregular verbs none (Guinness 147).
31. Is the language free of unnecessary
verb inflections? Yes. In fact unless one counts the single ending there are none.
32.
Is the language free of the necessity of learning genders? Yes. There are no genders
to learn.
33. Is the language free of unnecessary noun inflections? Yes. None.
34.
Is the language free of unnecessary adjective inflections? Yes.
35. Is the
language free of unnecessary pronoun inflections? Yes.
36. Is the language
free of unnecessary article declensions? Yes.
37. Is the language free of unnecessary
adverb inflections? Yes.
38. Is the language free of irregular accentuation?
Yes. In fact it is completely regular.
39. Is it free of excessive characters
to be learned in the alphabet? Yes.
40. Is the alphabet free of complex or
difficult to learn characters? Yes.
41. Is the sound system free of difficult
sounds? Yes.
42. Is the sound system regular? (one sound per character) Yes.
43.
Is the writing system free of useless letters? Yes.
44. Do the words sound
exactly as they are spelled? Yes. One of the most dreaded tasks is learning to
write and especially to spell in another language. This teachers English as a
Second Language students must struggle over hundreds of words that are not spelled
the way they sound. "knee, knife", etc. I have read in more than one
source that about half of all English words are not spelled phonetically.
45.
Is there a universal opposite to save memorization? Yes. This saves memorizing
at least 750 vocabulary words plus a tremendous amount of time in speaking because
all one has to do is put "mal" in front of any word and that creates
the opposite word which in the long run results in a savings of thousands of words
one does not have to memorize.
46. Are there many affixes to cut down on memorization?
Yes. "There is an extensive set of suffixes that can be added to word roots
to allow various shade of meaning or newly derived forms" (Britannica 560,
560). The count in a 15,000 word pocket dictionary found 1221 words using affixes
which was 15 percent. Since the vocabulary was limited in this dictionary because
of space it is quite possible that affixes in this language could provide as much
as a 25 percent memorization savings to adult speakers.
47. Are grammar rules
simple? Yes. In fact there only 16 basic rules.
48. Is the language free of
excessive grammar rules? Yes.
49. Is the language free of many grammar rule
exceptions? Yes. English and many other languages have hundreds of exceptions
that need to be memorized. Exceptions are frustrating. Especially the spelling
rules.
50. Is the language free of difficult tonal systems? Yes.
51. Is
the language free of sexual bias? Yes.
52. Is the language free of excess idioms
that need to be memorized? Yes. Many languages have many idioms that must be memorized
for understanding in addition to just vocabulary.
53. Is the language free
of excess facts to be memorized? Yes. Some languages have additional facts that
have to be memorized not covered in the above questions. In the review of literature
are the definitions of the types of languages for which this question helps to
evaluate.
54. Is the language translatable easily to other languages? Yes.
55.
Can it easily accommodate translations from most other languages?
56. Is the
syntax flexible? Yes. The syntax is extremely flexible.
57. Is the vocabulary
free of excessive duplicate words? Yes This researcher compared Esperanto to English
and found that there are very few duplicate words in Esperanto. However in English
there are thousands of duplicate words which create a nightmare for anyone learning
English. Guinness states for Example that the word "inebriated" has
2,241 synonyms (McFarian, 1990, 144). This researcher's English as a Second Language
students were often befuddled by so many duplicate words for the same thing or
idea. Of course the ambiguity of many English words is an even more difficult
barrier. The word "set" in English has about 184 meanings. The World
Almanac lists on page 808 64 English words meaning a group of, and 45 words in
English that all meant the young of animals. In Esperanto the one suffix "op"
connotes the meaning group of to any fitting word and one suffix "id"
added to a any fitting word connotes the meaning young. One could infer from this
that there are many memorizations that can be eliminated for the person studying
Esperanto. This researcher feels homophones should also be counted. English has
many which cause much confusion such as "to, two, too, or aie are, ayer,
ayr err, e're, ayre, ere, eyre and heir." My English as a Second Language
students are frustrated by these. Esperanto has to my knowledge none.
58. Has
it been accepted by the UN? Yes. See Review of Literature. (In fact this researcher
discovered that the United Nations has passed a resolution that states that Esperanto
should be encouraged and taught in all countries of the world. The UN has official
consultative relations with the Universal Esperanto Association which now has
an office in the UN complex in New York.)
59. Is the language standardized
in form? Yes.
60. Is the language free of any other factors hindering its use?
Yes.
EASE OF LEARNING is important as it must be easy to learn by all elementary
students not just the intellectually gifted. The following yields an empirically
verifiable measure of learning difficulty. FOR A LEVEL OF FLUENCY SUFFICIENT FOR
THE USUAL CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION IN A 6TH GRADE CLASSROOM:
61. Estimated number
of word roots that must be memorized for 97 percent comprehension? 5000
62.
Number of genders that must be memorized. 0
63. Estimated number of words for
which genders must be memorized? 0
64. Total number of genders must be memorized?
62*63 0
65. Number of noun inflections that must be memorized? 0
66. Estimated
number of nouns for which inflections must be memorized? 0
67. Total number
of noun inflections that must be memorized? 65*66 0
68. Number of verb inflections
that must be memorized? 0
69. Estimated number of verbs 2000
70. Total number
of verb inflections that must be memorized? 69*68 0
71. Number of adjective
inflections that must be memorized? 0
72. Estimated number of adjectives. 1400
73.
Total number of adjective inflections that must be memorized. 72*71 0
74. Number
of pronoun inflections must be memorized? 0
75. Estimated number of pronouns.
200
76. Total number of pronoun inflections must be memorized? 0
77. Number
of article declensions. 0
78. Total number of articles. 1
79. Total number
of article declensions. 77*79 0
80. Number of adverb inflections. 0
81.
Estimated number of adverbs. 200
82. Total number of adverb inflections that
must be memorized? 0
83. How many different characters are in the writing system?
There are 28 letters. This is multiplied by four because there are four sets of
characters one has to learn to use with the Roman alphabet. (lower case printing,
upper case printing, lower case writing, upper case writing) this gives 112 plus
8 common symbols (.,?!"-;:) total 120.
84. Number of excessive characters
to be learned in the alphabet? 0
85. Number of complex characters? 0
86.
How many sounds must be learned? 32
87. How many characters have more than
one sound per character? 0
88. Number of words with irregular accentuation?
0
89. Total number of words not spelled phonetically and regularly? 0
90.
Universal opposite affix or word? Yes.
91. Number of opposites. 1500 See above
remarks.
92. Total number of opposites that need not be memorized. -750 (For
this language this researcher did an actual count.)
93. Other affixes or words
that cut down memorization? 100
94. Estimated savings in memorization. - 750
95. How many grammar rules must be learned? 16
96. Number of exceptions
to rules of grammar? 0
97. Tones to be memorized. 0
98. Number of words
for which tones must be memorized. 0
99. Total number of additional memorizations
needed for tones. 0 100. Number of idioms that must be memorized? 100.
101.
Number of variations of the language's standardized form? 0
102. Number of
duplicate words? 10
103. Total number of other facts that must be memorized?
0
104. GRAND TOTAL NUMBER OF FACTS THAT MUST BE MEMORIZED? 3028.
Remember
this information was based on survey information. Your help in providing better
information is greatly appreciated particularly needed are answers to the questions
on the following pages for all major languages of the world.
1. Number of
genders ________
2. Total number of possible noun inflections
3. Total
number of possible verb inflections per verb ________
4. Total number of adjective
inflections
5. Total number of possible pronoun inflections 6. Total number
of possible article inflections
7. Total number of articles ____
8. Total
number of possible adverb inflections
9. Total number of characters in alphabet
_____
10. Total number of sounds ____
11. Total characters with more than
one sound
12. Percentage of words with irregular accents
13. Percentage
of words not spelled phonetically ____
14. Is there one word used as a universal
opposite? ____
15. Total number of universal affixes _____
16. Total number
of exceptions _________
17. Total number of idioms _______
18. Total number
of duplicate words _____
19. Total number of difficult sounds _____
20.
Is there 1 sound per character _____
21. Are there any silent or unused letters
____
22. Do the words sound exactly as spelled ___
23. Are females and males
treated differently in the language ___
24. Can positions subject and object
be switched without loss of meaning
25. Total number of tones _____
26.
Total number of words with tones ______
27. Total number of forms of this language
____or standardized? ____
28. Modern scientific vocabulary ____
29. International
words ____
30. Authoritative body to standardize language ____
Show the
entire alphabet.
Translate the following into the language.
THE PEN THE
MAN
THE WOMAN THE CHILD
THE COMPUTER COMPUTER SOFTWARE
COMPUTER HARDWARE
I HELP
I AM HELPED YOU (ONE) HELP
YOU ARE HELPED HE HELPS
HE IS HELPED
SHE HELPS
SHE IS HELPED IT HELPS
IT IS HELPED WE HELP
WE ARE HELPED
YOU (MANY) HELP
YOU ARE HELPED THEY HELP
THEY ARE HELPED I AM HELPING
I AM BEING HELPED I DO HELP
I DO GET HELPED I SHALL HELP
I SHALL BE
HELPED I WOULD HELP
I WOULD BE HELPED I HELPED
I WAS HELPED I WAS HELPING
I
WAS BEING HELPED I DID HELP
I DID GET HELPED I HAVE HELPED
I HAVE BEEN HELPED
I HAD HELPED
I HAD BEEN HELPED I SHALL HAVE HELPED
I SHALL HAVE BEEN HELPED
I WOULD HAVE HELPED
I WOULD HAVE BEEN HELPED HELP!
BE HELPED! IF I HELP
IF
I BE HELPED IF I HELPED
IF I WERE HELPED IF I SHOULD HELP
IF I SHOULD BE
HELPED THE MAN HIT A MAN WITH A MAN. IT IS THE MAN'S PEN
Dr. Mario Pei professor
of language at Columbia University stated: "One of the greatest needs in
the world of today is a language spoken and understood by everybody. But this
need will be far, far greater in the world of tomorrow, the world of our children
and their descendants."...."What would happen if most of the children
in the world learned another language along with their own? Not just another language,
but the same language? In thirty years there would be no need for interpreters.
Our children could travel around the world and learn the customs and thoughts
of other people in foreign lands first hand, easily and naturally."...."A
single international language, carefully governed by a single international language
academy, would prove an inestimable boon to trade among the nations." "To
be effective, the teaching of this language should start in the first grade, side
by side with the national language.".... (Pei).
"Esperanto is an artificial language about the same way that an auto is an artificial horse...."
"That
language is best which is easiest for the majority".... "Whatever tongue
is chosen, natural or constructed, it must be phonetically spelled"...."Zonal
Languages are merely a recognition of the status quo and offer no true solution.
Combinations of zonal languages--means that people would have to learn several
languages....If things are to be done speedily and well, the world's choice will
have to fall upon a single language A Gallup poll conducted in small European
countries like the Netherlands and Norway showed that Esperanto was second only
to English as the people's choice for an international language." (Pei)
David Richardson stated "Thousands set out to teach themselves a foreign
language few actually succeed, but for the vast majority the task is to great.
By contrast a substantial proportion of the Esperanto speakers, world-wide, have
learned the language on their own, often from a book.
UNITED NATIONS TRANSLATION
The United Nations now wastes about a third of its budget on translation and interpretation.
It is a fact that simultaneous translations are often inaccurate and the vast
majority of the translations are unread. The cost of this waste is in the hundreds
of millions of dollars. If Esperanto were used most of this money could be used
to prevent blindness in children, fight diseases, and make third world farmers
independent rather than dependant. Piron tells how expensive and unproductive
translating is in his book Le defi des langues. He stated that when the World
Health Organization added two working languages Arabic and Chinese that the additional
cost of translating these was $5,000,000 a year. Because of this expense the assembly
voted down a carefully devised program that would have improved health and saved
lives in third world countries because it would have cost $4,200,000 because of
lack of funds. He adds that many children go blind because of lack of a medicine
that costs twelve cents per child per year. This might equal the cost of translating
one word into all of the working languages.
The cost of translating one page
of text into six languages is over $100 per page and there are well over 10,000
pages per year. In 1975 the UN translation division had over 500 employees plus
181 interpretation employees at a cost of 21 million dollars (Eichholz 199). In
1976 indirect language services were over 10 million (Eichholz 265). The production
of a UN translator averages 5 pages a day (Eichholz 214).
THE HIDDEN AND PERVERSE
EFFECTS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
Dr. Sylvan Zaft
summarized part of the description of a speech given by The world famous former
UN Translator and linguist Claude Piron who spoke in May of 1994 at the International
Youth Forum. Parts of Dr. Zaft's summary follows. Piron stated that: Frequent
and important errors are the norm when it comes to matters of translation. Some
of the perverse effects are: 1. When certain languages are selected for use in
international gatherings, all those people who are not fluent in those languages
are automatically eliminated. 2. A tremendous amount of misinformation is generated
by translations which are incomplete and faulty. 3. Enormous amounts of money
are diverted from useful ends to pay to support a small army of translators. 4.
Because good technical information is only available in a few, very difficult
languages, such as English and French, people in poor countries have to do without
that information. This greatly hinders the economic development of those poor
countries. 5. Many people are placed in an inferior position because they have
to speak in a foreign language that they are not confident in. (Imagine how you
would feel if you had to study Japanese for many years and then speak fluently
in that language in order to be effective in important international meetings.)
But if Esperanto were universally adopted this would do away with the above. 1.
Anyone who spent just one year seriously studying Esperanto could take part in
international meetings. 2. There would be no errors of translation because people
would be speaking directly to each other. 3. The money paid to support translators
would be freed up for productive use. 4. technical information would be available
throughout the third world in a language that people could learn in a year. 5.
everyone would be speaking in a neutral language that they studied for international
use, and so everyone would be operating on a much more equal level.
Additional
points made by Piron were: Students can learn Esperanto in a small fraction of
the time that they would need to spend studying a foreign language. The reason
they can do so is that students of Esperanto can safely rely on their innate reflexes,
on the process of "generalizing assimilation". Because students of Esperanto
can always safely generalize, they save an extraordinary amount of time. This
is why one year of Esperanto is worth a great many years of English or other national
language when it comes to effective communication. If Esperanto took the place
of former colonial languages, ordinary people could spend a single year studying
it and then share in the privileges of the elite who conduct business in languages
other than the population. However many members of the elite might not be thrilled
by that and will ridicule the idea of using of Esperanto (Zaft, 1994).
LANGUAGE
PREJUDICE
There is a lot of prejudice about languages. Renowned linguist Edward
Sapir states: that the speakers of a national language are under profound illusions
as to the logical character of its structure...."What is needed above all
is a language that is as simple, as regular, as logical, as rich, and as creative
as possible; a language which starts with a minimum of demands on the learning
capacity of the normal individual and can do the maximum amount of work."
Piron and others have stated that people make up many rationalizations against
Esperanto which are often unfactual.
QUALIFICATIONS
TO BE THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE.
No other language can prove that it has
even the following qualifications for being the international language:
1.
Esperanto is the easiest language to learn. 2. More people can learn it because
of fewer demands on their time for memorization. 3. Esperanto is politically neutral.
4. Esperanto is culturally neutral. 5. All of the verbs are regular. 6. The grammar
is the simplest of any language. 7. All people can learn it, not just the intellectually
gifted. 8. Esperanto works as a language for scientists and professional people
as well as for common people. 9. When people are given the facts it is the people's
choice. 10. Esperanto is a major international language with speakers in over
100 countries. 11. Esperanto stops language discrimination. One is no longer forced
to learn and use someone else's native language. 12. Esperanto is endorsed by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization who recommends
that it be taught and used in schools all around the world. 13. Helpers around
the world are available to help new learners. 14. It has actually proven to be
fun to learn and use. 15. It has been scientifically and empirically proven to
be the most suitable language for international use.
If Esperanto was picked
as the international language everyone would win. Everyone can still keep and
use their own native language with all of its richness or communication within
their native groups. And Esperanto provides efficient communication between speakers
of all languages without discrimination. In Interlinguistics Andre Martinet states
"I came to the conclusion that, in international contacts, linguistic communication
is much easier and more profitable it is carried out in a language which is not
the native one of either interlocutor. My conclusion is that the problem of a
language for international communication presents itself as the conflict between
a planned language, Esperanto, which is known to function to the satisfaction
of its users, and a hegemonic national language, which, as we all know, is, today,
English...[even the enemies of Esperanto admitted]...'Esperanto, it works!'"
(Schubert, 1989).
HOW MANY LANGUAGES ARE THERE?
Charles
Berlitz states that the number of languages has decreased in the last 100 years
from over 10,000 to 2,796 (1982 3). Most languages are spoken by just a few thousand
people and are probably headed for extinction.
The current language situation
is that there exists great language barriers of over 2000 languages (including
about 227 languages with over 1 million speakers). This presents major problems
in understanding often resulting in personal loss, misunderstanding and sometimes
death.
Gyulsa Decsy states that as of 1985 there are 2,800 Native Languages
in the world spoken by 4,845 million people (Decsy, 1985). Barbara Grimes lists
6,170 languages and her index lists 33,000 names of languages (Grimes, 1988).
Erik Gunnemark estimates there are 5,200 languages and lists 350 in his book (Gillet,
1986). Eugene Nida shows pictures of 1,399 languages that the Bible has been translated
into (Nida, 1972).
Charles Berlitz states that parts of the bible has been
translated into 1,710 languages (1982, 2). Meritt Ruhlen classifies over 700 languages
and indexes 5000 language names (Ruhlen, 1987). Charles Voegelin lists over 25,000
language names (1977). John Wright states that there are 4,000 to 10,000 languages
and 20,000 to 50,000 dialects (1991). Per Charles Berlitz language expert there
are 2,796 languages now spoken in the world (1982). Per Guinness the total of
languages and dialects is 3,000-5,000, of which 845 come from India (Guinness
146); the language spoken by most people is Mandarin; most widespread English
(Guinness 146).
THE CURRENT LANGUAGE SITUATION
The world language situation is truly something of major importance not only to
our economic well being but also to the survival of the human race. There are
about 3000-5000 languages in current use in the world today (Guinness 146). Well
over 200 are major languages with millions of speakers (Culbert, 1990, 808). If
a person from one part of the world travels to a much farther away place the chances
are that she or he may not be understood. The foreign visitor in many countries
is often taken advantage of and ridiculed. If that person has a sudden serious
medical problem or other important need to communicate in an emergency situation
they are most likely not to be understood because it is a sad fact that most humans
on this planet cannot understand most other humans. This could result in loss
of life and property. In the United States prior to 1965 one could go hundreds,
even thousands of miles in any direction without language problems but this is
not true in most other countries where languages change in short distances often
under 100 miles. Now in the United states 15 percent of the population does not
understand English well. In many areas and cities the percentage is much higher
in the order of 30-60 percent.
The following statistics
taken from the World Almanac and other sources show the TOTAL SPEAKERS IN THE
WORLD. This includes Native and non native. FLUENT IN, millions, (and percent
of world)
CHINESE (total dialects) 1,300, 20 percent
MANDARIN (China) 930,
16.6 percent includes several dialects
HINDUSTANI (INDIA, PAKISTAN) 498, 8.9
percent
ENGLISH (USA, Canada, UK) 463, 8.2 percent
HINDI (India) 400, 7.1
percent
SPANISH (Spain, Mexico, Cntr Amra) 371, 6.6 percent
RUSSIAN (USSR)
291, 5.2 percent
ARABIC (Middle East) 214, 3.8 percent
BENGALI (India) 192,
3.4 percent
PORTUGUESE (Brazil) 179, 3.2 percent
MAYLAY (Indonesia) 152,
2.7 percent
JAPANESE (Japan) 126, 2.3 percent
FRENCH (France) 124, 2.2 percent
GERMAN
(Germany) 120, 2.1 percent
URDU (Pakistan, India) 98, 1.7 percent
PUNJABI
(Pakistan, India) 92, 1.6 percent
KOREAN (Korea) 74, 1.3 percent
TELUGU
(S.E.India) 72, 1.3 percent
MARATHI (Maharashtra, India) 68, 1.2 percent
TAMIL
(India, Sri Lanka) 66, 1.1 percent
WU (Shanghai, China) 65, 1.2 percent
CANTONESE
(China, Hong-Kong) 65, 1.1 percent
ITALIAN (Italy) 63, 1.1 percent
JAVANESE
(Java, Indonesia) 63, 1.1 percent
VIETNAMISE (Vietnam) 63, 1.1 percent
TURKISH
(Turkey) 58, 1.0 percent
The following have less than 1 percent
MIN (Malaysia)
50 THAI (Thailand) 49
SWAHILI (Kenya, Tanz, Zaire, Uganda) 47
UKRAINIAN
(Ukraine) 46 POLISH (Poland) 44
KANNADA (S India) 43 TAGALOG (Philip.) 43
GUJARALI (India, Pak) 40 HAUSA (Nigeria) 37
MALAYALAM (Kerala) 35 PERSIAN
(Iran,Af) 34
HAKKA (SE China) 34 ORIYA (India) 31
BURMESE (Burma) 31 ROMANIAN
(Roman.) 26
SUDANESE (Sundan) 25 ASSAMESE (Assam) 23
PASHTU (Pakistan) 21
FLEMISH (Nedrld) 21
YORUBA (Benin) 19 AMHARIC Ethiopia 18
SINDHI (Pakistan)
17 IGBO (Nigeria) 17
ZHUANG (S China) 15 AZERBAIJANI Azer 15
HUNGARIAN Hungary
14 NEPALI (Nepal) 14
UZBEK (Uzbek) 13 CEBUANO (Philip.) 13
FULA (Cameroon)
13 SINHALESE SriLanka 13
CZECH (Czechlka.) 12 GREEK (Greece) 11
AFRIKAANS
S Africa 10 MADURESE (Madura) 10
OROMO ((Ethopia) 10 BYELORUSSIAN (SSR) 10
KURDISH
(Cas sea) 10 BULGARIAN (Bulgra) 9
CATALAN (Andorra) 9 MALINKE-BAMBARA 9
SWEDISH
(Sweden) 9 KAZAKH (Kazakh) 8
QUECHUA (Peru) 8 SHONA (Zimbabwe) 8
RUANDA
(Rwanda) 8 TARTAR (Tartar) 8
ILOCANO (Luzon) 7 KHMER (Thailand) 7
SOMALI
(Somalia) 7 UIGHUR (Xnjiang) 7
XHOSA (s Africa) 7 ZULU(Natal, Lesoth) 7
EFIK
(Nigeria) 6 LINGALA (Zaire) 6
THE WORLD HAS A HUGE
HINDRANCE TO INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING known as the language barrier. Most people
in the US are not aware of this problem because they can go hundreds of miles
in any direction using English. Once you leave the US, Canada, the United Kingdom
or tourist traps, you will discover that 92 percent of the world's people do not
speak English. In fact the percentage that speak English is declining. The US
Census bureau reports that a growing number of Americans speak a foreign language
at home with more and more city residents having trouble understanding English.
In New York 41 percent ages 5 and up speak a foreign language in their homes and
half indicated that they did not speak English very well. In Miami 3/4 speak a
language other than English at home and 67 percent indicated they do not speak
English well. Near Dearborn Michigan are 300,000 Arabic speakers many of which
are not fluent in English. 50 percent of Paterson NJ, 40 percent Santa Fe NM,
40 percent Hartford Conn, 30 percent in Providence RI, 30 percent LA students,
26 percent in Boston etc. 1 in 7 people in the USA speak a language other than
English at home. (A 35 percent increase since 1980) In California this ratio is
1 in 3. 20 percent of those do not speak English (S.F. Chronicle 5-83). Nearly
18 million people in the US speak Spanish. Other languages in descending order
are: French, German Italian, Chinese, Tagalog, Polish, Korean, Vietnamese and
Portuguese (S.F.Chronicle May-1993).
Some countries have tremendous language
problems. Haiti's leaders insist that French be the only language used in the
countries schools even though nearly 100 percent of the people speak Creole. Students
do not understand what is being taught. Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria are countries
where citizens often do not understand each other because of language differences.
In the world today virtually no students exit their public school life with the
ability to communicate with most people of the world. The language situation is
changing. There is a trend towards large zone languages, English over North America,
German in Europe, Arabic in Middle East, Spanish and Portuguese in Central America,
Russian in the USSR, Hindustani, Indonesian, & Chinese over their areas. This
is speeding up because of Electronic communications.
MISCELLANEOUS
INFORMATION
IDEAL TIME TO LEARN A LANGUAGE From A Survey of Applied Linguistics
"the period between age two and puberty as a biologically critical period
for language learning" (Wardhauch, 1976, 139).
A Harvard University study
that showed that students who have had foreign language exposure in grade school
are more likely to take a language in high school than students without this background.
"On average, students who started in elementary school were distinctly superior
(in foreign languages) at graduation from college" (Harvard, 1967).
Introduction
of foreign languages is best done at the elementary levels.
All languages are
easy to learn from childhood but this applies only to spoken language...In writing,
languages have intrinsic ease and intrinsic difficulty, based on the relation
which the written form bears to the spoken. Where the written
form of the
language is thoroughly phonetic (that is to say, where the actual
sounds of
the language are accurately isolated, and each one is given an individual written
symbol to represent it) it is easy to learn to read and write . . . Where the
spelling does not accurately reflect the sound, as in English, or where there
is no connection whatsoever between written symbols and spoken sounds, as in Chinese
it is difficult to learn to read and write even when one speaks and understands
the language fluently (Pei, 1958, 187).
An experimental program in Munich Germany
with 386 kindergarten children showed that with only thirty minutes of exposure
to French a day, the children learned to use about fifty French words in a simple
grammatical form. "Most astonishing of all was the side-effects of learning
French--the way it helped these children in their use of their mother tongue"
(Nordwest Zeitung, 1979). Teachers told stories in French, like Little Red Riding
Hood, that the children knew. Such a program is clearly achievable in any school
district.
Scherer stated that the audio lingual method of teaching (stressing
speaking and listening before reading and writing) has proven to give students
better speaking skills according to his scientific experiment. He suggests that
with cable hookups, a good idea would be to have perhaps ten minutes of language
instruction twice a day (1964).
The great success of the direct method and
the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) at least show that they work well. ALM supporters
claim that it is the fastest method. It may be faster than total immersion. Results
of the combination of ALM and total immersion have shown that languages can be
learned beyond the survival level in 30 days. When It should also be noted that
most esperantists have been self taught through reading and practice. Then their
skills were improved through actual use.
Doctors Fantini and Reagan state
"Despite research contributions on both L1 and L2, however, it continues
to be difficult to substantiate the superiority of one approach to language education
over another. As with most social research dealing with human beings, the variables
are generally too numerous, complex and interrelated, and there difficult to isolate
and control" (40).
"The relative effectiveness of teaching by explicit
instruction of rules compared with inductive methods is greater for Esperanto
than for any national/ethnic language (Pool, 1992: 1).
Lack of simplicity in
English, and French, all appearances to the contrary, could be multiplied almost
without limit and apply to all national languages. In fact, one may go so far
as to say that it is precisely the apparent simplicity of structure which is suggested
by the formal simplicity of many languages which is responsible for much slovenliness
in thought, and even for the creation of imaginary problems in philosophy. . .
. What has been said of simplicity applies equally to regularity and logic (Sapir,
1968, 117).
No important national language, at least in the Occidental world
had complete regularity of grammatical structure. . . . It is well known that
the tense systems of French, English and German teem with logical inconsistencies
as they are actually used (Sapir, 1968, 117).
The priori school made the bad
error of trying to treat as a logical entity that which is by its very nature
illogical. Language is based on the acceptance of symbols, and symbols, being
unreal, cannot be logical...A logical language even if it could be achieved would
present enormous difficulty and an unbearable strain on the memory. . . . What
is syntax in one language may be vocabulary in another (Wardhauch, 1976, 119).
The second language learner has to read just his optional and obligatory categories
in the language he is learning. Tense, for instance, is obligatorily realized
in English, but optional in Malay; conversely Malay has an obligatory purposive-nonpurposive
distinction in the verb system which is optional in English (Wardhauch, 1976,
130).
LANGUAGE EDUCATION
The United States is
a virtual desert when it comes to language education prior to college. Fewer than
4 percent of high school graduates have more than two years of a foreign language
(Simon, 1980, 2). Less than .1 percent of American students learn a second language
prior to college. In fact many American students have a sad revulsion to learning
any foreign language. The world is becoming smaller in the sense that we have
increasing needs to communicate with other people in the world. When one tries
to do so it is soon discovered that there is a tremendous barrier to world communication
called the language barrier. The United States has a shameful record of language
education compared to much of the rest of the world. "The United States can
be characterized as the home of the brave, and the land of the monolingual"
(Simon, 1980, 1). Paul Simon states we should erect a sign at each port of entry
into the United States "WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES--WE CANNOT SPEAK YOUR
LANGUAGE." Since many Americans are prejudiced when it comes to language
even the mention of any candidate other than English may bring out the hidden
bias most people have towards their native language. The screening for a suitable
candidate for the international language should be scientifically done with an
unbiased and empirically verifiable test instrument.
Since about 98 percent
(Culbert, 1990, 808) of all people do not write English, and since average people
in most countries do not understand English, finding people who students could
correspond with is difficult.
The presidential commission that was formed
to study the educational language situation, found that only 15 percent of American
high school students take a foreign language and only a third stayed with it long
enough to gain even minimal competence. Only 8 percent of American colleges and
universities required a foreign language for admission in 1979, compared with
34 percent in 1966. The commission reported that America's "scandalous incompetence"
in foreign language studies contributes to a "dangerously inadequate understanding
of world affairs. Our schools gradate a large majority of students whose knowl
edge and vision stops at the American shoreline" This was from Strength Through
Wisdom, a Critique of U.S. Capability, a report to the President from the Presidential
Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies (1979, 6). Richardson
states that American students study French Spanish and German thus ignoring 80
percent of the world's people who speak other tongues. When President Nixon visited
Peking in 1972, the president was obliged to use the Chinese leaders' own interpreters
(1988, 8). The Presidents commission found that "the US government has no
qualified translators at all for most of the world's languages" (Simon, 1980,
4).
Tests show that of those who study foreign languages, only 17 percent
in the United States learn to speak, write, and read it with ease but in other
countries this goes up to 63 percent (Simon 1980, 5). As a bridge language Esperanto
has many times served translators who not knowing the original language of a work,
base their translations on the Esperanto version. This technique is usually used
when translating between two less commonly known languages such as Polish/Vietnamese,
Chinese/Rumanian ..The procedure can give quite satisfactory results, since Esperanto
translations are very often closer to the original than those in any national
language (Auld, 1982, 111-158).
WHAT ESPERANTO OFFERS
THE ELEMENTARY TEACHER
This language offers the elementary teacher several
things that no other language offers. 1. The teacher can begin teaching Esperanto
within a few hours of beginning study in it. (There is a book for teachers put
out by the State of California Esperanto Education Commission with teaching suggestions)
2. The research this researcher saw proves empirically that Esperanto is the easiest
language to learn, and teach, since the grammar is so simple and it uses many
international and English words. 2. It is a very practical language which the
classroom teacher can use for other subjects. For example, when this teacher had
unsuccessfully tried to get my sixth grade class to learn about other countries
it seemed nothing worked as well as me showing them, and reading letters this
researcher received from Esperanto pen pals from several countries. Suddenly there
was a rush for the encyclopedias in the room. Many students, on their own and
began reading about countries and cultures. Several students have asked me if
they can learn Esperanto so they can correspond with others around the world.
3. It is often difficult to find pen pals for kids from many countries unless
one uses Esperanto sources which have hundreds of addresses. 4. Esperanto offers
the elementary teacher an excellent tool to teach global awareness, geography
and other subjects. 5. It offers the elementary student the opportunity to learn
more about many cultures and countries and other subjects by inspiring them to
do so. 6. Esperanto offers students the opportunity to write directly to another
person or class in almost 100 countries around the world, to ask any questions
they would like, and to obtain a reply. This researcher has not been able to do
this in English because most people in the world do not speak or write English
as it is so difficult as a second language for them particularly elementary students.
Also with English it is difficult to even find a source not to mention a "free"
source as many pen pal organizations charge for addresses. 7. Esperanto often
increases students interest in languages. It turns them on to languages. 8. People
learn other languages faster after learning Esperanto. See proof above.
To
education Esperanto offers the opportunity to broaden its horizons not only for
global awareness, but to actual communication between classes and students around
the world. If two classes write to one another and tell each other about each's
respective culture and daily life, both sets of students learn much about themselves
and about others in the world, but that is not all. In the process friendships
are made, global awareness is made personal, and kids find out that people on
the other side of the globe are more than statistics, they are real living friends
with the same human feelings and desires. This is a lesson that is best taught
through personal contact. More classrooms could communicate using Esperanto, than
could with any other language.
Facts from Guinness Book of Records are as
follows: Esperanto has the least irregular verbs-none; most complex Chippewa with
6,000 verb forms; Tabassaran with 48 noun cases; Inuit 63 forms of present tense
and simple nouns have 252 inflections; most complex character is a Chinese character
with 64 strokes; longest alphabet Cambodian with 72 letters; shortest is Rotokas
with just 11 letters; Guinness and others show English to have the most words,
greatest number of irregular verbs, longest words (although German and some other
languages also have many long words, most synonyms, most duplicate words, most
antonyms, most homonyms (Guinness 148).
The Scholastic Dictionary of Synonyms,
Antonyms and Homonyms lists 12,000 Synonyms 10,000 Antonyms and 2,000 Homonyms
(Scholastic Dictionary of Synonyms, Antonyms and Homonyms, 1965). Berlitz lists
656 points of usage. Exceptions and other facts. The Barron's Educational Series
on languages lists well over 1001 extra facts that need to be memorized in several
languages. English has over 200 irregular verbs (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1980).
Charles Berlitz states that English has a vocabulary more than twice the size
of any other language and the next in size is German (1982, 311).
Mario Pei
comments that half the vocabulary of civilized languages consist of science and
technical terms (1949).
How many languages can one learn? It is doubtful that
a human can maintain fluency in more than 20 to 25 languages. George Campbell
worked with 54 languages. Dr. Williams worked with 58 languages (Guinness 147).
ROMAN
ALPHABET
Mario Pei states that the Roman alphabet is the most widely spread
"as well as the one providing the greatest possibility of simplicity"
(1949, 92). The entire nation of Turkey switched from Arabic to Roman writing
because the Roman offered a more efficient system, and also that the Roman alphabetic
system is among the best for recording sounds (1949, 92). Many other alphabets
mostly record consonants. Pei states that no (national) language has absolute
script for sound correspondence (1949, 93).
The Roman alphabet known as the
Latin alphabet is the most widely used in the world. It is even taught now in
China and Japan. The areas of the world that don't use it are in Arab countries,
Iran, Afganistan, parts of Indo China, and parts of the former USSR. However English
is making some inroads into some of these areas (Piron 318).
Edward Thorndike
of Columbia University, who is a noted educational researcher concluded, after
a careful study, that one year of college Esperanto is equivalent to four years
of a national language. This is per Columbia University, Institute of Educational
Research, Language Learning summary of a report to the International Auxiliary
Language Association (1933).
Many students go on to study other languages and
do very well with them. In Somero, Finland, pupils were taught one year of Esperanto
followed by two of German. A control group spent the same three years studying
German alone. At the end of the first year, the test group knew enough Esperanto
to be taught their geography lessons in that language. After the third year, the
Esperanto learners had all but overtaken the control class in the amount of German
material covered, and they spoke and wrote German with more confidence and enthusiasm
than those who had studied only German (Markarian, 1964, 8).
TOPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION
In order to understand languages the following short topological classification
of languages is included. This is based primarily by present-day structure and
shows four classifications of languages. The following shows Dr. Pei's breakdown.
1.
Inflectional languages in which grammatical relations are indicated by internal
changes in words, endings, and prefixes by combination of bound and free morphemes.
"the free morphemes are sharply reduced in number, since bound, adjectives,
and verbs cannot generally be used in their root forms, but only in conjunction
with an ending (example Latin root mut-, 'wall' cannot appear by itself but only
in case forms such as murus, muro, muris). 2. An agglutinative language adds separate
suffixes which, unlike the inflectional endings, may enjoy separate existence
as free morphemes. Example Esperanto 3. Isolating uses only free morphemes shows
grammatical relations by word order. Example Chinese. 4. Polysynthetic or Incorporating
combines within a single utterance numerous bound morphemes so that the unit is
not the word but the word group or sentence. Example Oneida g-nagla-sl-I-zak-s
means I am looking for the village. The g means I, nagla means living, sl makes
nagla a noun changing its meaning to village, zak with the prefix I makes it a
verb meaning look for. Pei states that none of these parts would convey any very
definite meaning if used by itself (Pei, 1965).
The supposed inferiority of
a constructed language to a national one on the score of richness of connotation
is, of course, no criticism of the idea of a constructed language. All that the
criticism means is that the constructed language has not been in long-continued
use. As a matter of fact, a national language which spreads beyond its own confines
very quickly loses much of its original richness of content and is in no better
case than a constructed language. . . . We need not allow avowed or minor imperfections
to keep us from putting it into immediate operation (Mandelbaum, 1968, 118).
Distribution was ruled out as a major factor in selection. No language is spoken
by more than 16 percent of the population. Some languages are spoken worldwide.
In order of worldwide distribution appears to be English, French, Esperanto, Arabic,
Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Hindustani,
Japanese, Bengali (Pei, 1958). If a language was to be selected primarily on basis
of greatest number of speakers, it would be Chinese because nearly one fifth of
the world population can read it.
In the future machine language translation
will play an important part. Therefore it would be helpful if the language chosen
is one that works well with machine translation. Several languages have been rejected
for machine language translation including English because of ambiguity. Esperanto
has been selected and is now being used by a commercial company doing work for
the European Economic Community.
The Danish electronics company Christian Rovsing
and a Dutch consultancy company D.S.O. have won a major development contract from
the Commission of the European Community which may ease the E.E.C.language problem.
The system will translate, to and from, eight E.E.C. languages. Each language
will be translated first into Esperanto and then into a new language. Esperanto
is especially suitable for the purpose because if its simple grammatical structure....Internacia
Lingvo (Esperanto) in particular satisfies all the six criteria listed here for
the choice of an Intermediate Text Language (Kelly, 1983, 1,3).
Edward Sapir,
a noted linguist and intellectual states that an international auxiliary language
must facilitate the growing need for international communication. He states that
just spending an enormous amount of time, labor, and money on translation services
is largely a waste. He states that an international auxiliary language should
serve as a broad base for every type of international understanding "which
means of course, in the last analysis, for every type of expression of the human
spirit...and all human interests...But this is not all. The modern mind tends
to be more and more critical and analytical in spirit, hence it must devise for
itself an engine of expression which is logically defensible at every point and
which tends to correspond to the rigorous spirit of modern science." There
is a lot of prejudice about languages. Mr Sapir states that the speakers of a
national language are under profound illusions as to the logical character of
its structure. Perhaps they confuse the comfort of habit with logical necessity.
"If this is so--and I do not see how it can be seriously doubted that it
is--it must mean that in the long run the modern spirit will not rest satisfied
with an international language that merely extends the imperfections and provincialisms
of one language at the expense of all others" (Mandelbaum, 1968, 50).
Jean Temple notes that: When children do have trouble understanding words, sometimes
the problem is not that they have an inadequate vocabulary, but that the sentences
in which the words appear are structured in a fashion too complex for them. What
the students experience as confusion over individual words is, in fact, a confusion
over syntax (1986).
Edward Sapir states: "What is needed above all is
a language that is as simple, as regular, as logical, as rich, and as creative
as possible; a language which starts with a minimum of demands on the learning
capacity of the normal individual and can do the maximum amount of work; which
is to serve as a sort of logical touchstone to all national languages and as the
standard medium of translation. It must ideally, be as superior to any accepted
language as the mathematical method of expressing quantities and relations between
quantities is the more lumbering methods of expressing these quantities and relations
in verbal form (Mandelbaum, 1968).
NOTES ON ENGLISH
English is the largest language with over one million words and the most widespread.
It is one of the "easier languages", although it is abut 100 times as
difficult as the easiest. But English suffers some major problems: It holds the
record for the most words not spelled as spoken (estimated to be over 500,000).
Over half of its words are not spelled as pronounced. It has the worst spelling
in the world. It holds the record for the most irregular verbs 283 (Guinness 147).
It has over 8,000 idioms. It has hundreds of words that present continuing problems
even to native speakers. It has the most ambiguous vocabulary of all languages.
The word "set" for example has 58 noun uses and 126 verb uses. The English
word 'inebriated' has 2,241 synonyms. The English word 'isosceles' has 259 spellings
and 'cushion' has about 400 spellings (McFarian, 1990 p 144). It has words that
are too long for common use such as the English word praetertranssubstantiationalistically
(37 letters). The longest real word is floccipaucinihilipilification (from the
Oxford English Dictionary) 29 letters (McFarian, 1990, 144-146). The English vocabulary
contains 490,000 words plus 300,000 technical terms the most of any language.
"but it is doubtful in any individual uses more than 60,000; The membership
in the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry (no admission for IQ's
below 148 have an average vocabulary of 36,250; Shakespeare employed a vocabulary
of c. 33,000 words (Guinness) English has the most duplicate words. There are
hundreds of exceptions to the over 1,400 grammar rules (Houghton-Mifflin).
The Barron's Educational Series on languages lists well over 1001 extra facts
that need to be memorized in English. Charles Berlitz states that the average
speaker uses about 2,800 different English words daily. The Sunday newspaper has
about 25,000 words. He states that well read speakers can recognize 25,000-50,000
words (Berlitz, 1982, 137). Charles Berlitz also states that English has a vocabulary
more than twice the size of any other language and the next in size is German
(1982, 311). Mario Pei states that every (national) language is "laden with
idioms" (1949, 144). Charles Berlitz states that one of the big disadvantages
of English is its "nonphonetic spelling. One splendid example is the phrase
'though a rough cough and hiccough plough me through'--in which -ough is pronounced
six different ways" (1982, 314).
English has many difficulties and often
takes average people over 10 years to master the speaking and writing. Many students
of English, even after many years of study, still make many grammatical errors
in speaking and cannot write a business letter.
HOW DOES ESPERANTO COMPARE
TO ENGLISH?
Esperanto is more like English than any other language in the
world. Writing fluency in Esperanto can occur in 1/10 the time of English because
Esperanto does not suffer the drawbacks of English. (The worst spelling &
pronunciation and the most massive ambiguous vocabulary of all languages with
over 8,000 idioms) As a second language English is very difficult for the average
person to learn. In Esperanto every letter has only one simple sound and all words
are phonetically spelled--no exceptions. There are no difficult sounds to pronounce.
The vocabulary is well developed and concise with few ambiguities or idioms.
English
has 1400 grammar rules with hundreds of exceptions. Esperanto has 16 rules that
fit on one hand written page and has no exceptions. Research shows that the first
200 basic Esperanto words replace over 4000 verbs (Ogden). Research also shows
that the basic Esperanto vocabulary and grammar do the work of over 20,000 words
(Ogden). This is possible because of the large number of synonyms in languages
and because many words represent a kind of wordshorthand in which one word takes
the place of two or more other words. Examples of word-shorthand are: enter for
go in, exit = go out, disembark = go off the ship, capsize = overturn, carnal
= of the body, glee = great pleasure, inflection = change in form, patron = one
who uses, perpetual = always, proverb = wise saying. Over 30 common affixes can
be used alone or will work with most words to form thousands of additional meanings
without having to learn any new words. The affix mal for example forms the opposite
meaning to any root word. Learning this one word permits the creation of thousands
of words without having to learn thousands of words.
NEUTRALITY
Learning any national language requires learning some of the customs and culture
of the home country. Many people resent being forced to learn someone else's national
language. There is much resentment against English in several countries. This
is also true of other national languages. The native speakers of the language
have superior knowledge of the national language, take advantage of non-native
speakers. The non-native speaker may make embarrassing mistakes and be ridiculed
causing more resentment. Esperanto successfully ends language discrimination by
putting all speakers on a neutral and equal footing. Speakers are not forced to
learn someone else's national language. There is something almost magical about
Esperanto as people seem to get along better. Perhaps it is the lack of resentment,
or may be the feeling of brotherhood. It is impressive to see people from about
80 countries fully understanding each other without the need for interpreters.
"That language is best which is easiest for the majority" (Pei, 1958,
185).
Because of the tremendous language barriers in the world most human
beings are not able to understand most other human beings on this planet. This
has been a major contributing factor to many wars, battles, violence, and has
resulted in thousands of deaths.
At the United Nations each page translated
into 6 languages costs over $100. This could prevent blindness in many children
or make a 3rd world family self sufficient. If Esperanto were adopted, hundreds
of millions of dollars would be saved, and better inter-language communication
and world understanding, would result.
Esperanto provides the opportunity,
and most time-efficient potential way for every human to communicate with every
other human on this planet. Better inter-language understanding is needed now
world wide where mis understanding and lack of communication between speakers
of different languages are common, even in the USA.
A common world language
would yield benefits such as savings of human lives; better world trade, better
standards of living world wide, better world health, more international friendships
and better understanding world wide which will result in a safer world for all
of us.
There are many situations when we need to speak with someone who does
not understand English. Most people find learning another national language even
English too difficult.
If we learned English, Spanish and French we could understand only 17 percent of the world's people.
Why
haven't you learned Chinese, the biggest language in the world, the one read by
over a billion people? Note Chinese consists of many spoken languages. Or why
don't people learn Russian, and Portuguese? The answer is the same. As a matter
of fact if one learned all of those languages they could still understand less
than 30 percent of the world's population. If one substituted Italian, Polish
and Swedish for the difficult Chinese one could understand less than 30 percent
of all people on Earth. English is being taught in many countries, but just like
our high schools here, most people end up remembering only a few phrases.
The major factors against Esperanto are the lack of publicity and promotion, and
the small number of speakers (estimated to only be about two million). This small
group of people from all walks of life are individually battling the massive political
and social clout, propaganda, and publications of the big languages. Most English
speakers feel that English should be the international language in spite of the
shortcomings of English. There is practically no advertising about Esperanto compared
with millions spent promoting other languages. So the world as a whole is uninformed
about it. Teachers of other languages want it kept a secret because if the students
found out that there was a language that was international and learnable with
one-quarter the effort, the students would flock to the Esperanto classes. The
status quo would be upset. In educational institutions there are many teachers
of other languages and departmental personnel who oppose its teaching because
they fear loss of their jobs. Many others simply oppose the teaching of anything
that threatens their sacred English.
Alfred Petrov, an excellent Esperantist,
has been teaching English for three years at a university in Nagoya, Japan. Many
of his students have studied English for up to 10 years; yet, they can't write
a scientific paper in English. Nagoya, a city of 300,000 population, has 1000
members in its Esperanto Club (California Education Commission, 1988, 4).
People usually pick the easiest solution and Esperanto is it. The World Almanac
and Book of Facts states "Esperanto was savaged by Nazism, Stalinism, Fascism,
the Japanese militarists of the 1930's and chauvinistic groups in many other countries.
Not until the late 1950's did the number of speakers begin to show the steady
increase which continues...." (Hoffman, 1990). It is the greatest success
story of any language ever as it was spread at the grass roots level by people
who fell in love with it and not by money or power. They learned it because they
wanted to, not because they were forced to. They took on learning a language on
their own. So there must be something about Esperanto that attracts people to
it. After 100 years it has been fully tested, refined and found to be completely
adequate for all uses. Esperanto works and has won as the people's choice in spite
of overwhelming odds against it. Even The Universal Esperanto Association has
been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Now we need to market it to the world.
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The following list shows
how the highest utility words compare between the Kontakto, Juna Amiko, letter
studies, conversation studies, basic language, Durr, and Internet usage. LEFT
TO RIGHT First is the International Vocabulary word, next the English translation.
Totals are shown at the top.
Column K shows words listed in Kontakto's most
basic list as K and Kontakto's next highest list as k. This is a very popular
Esperanto monthly magazine which does fine using around 1000 word roots. As does
Juna Amico shown in next column.
J indicates roots found on the Juna Amiko
list a populat children's magazine.
B shows words on C.K. Ogden's basic list
from his brilliant extensive research.
R roots on Durr's list of words from
children's books.
E shows roots very much like English words and e lesser so.
AR shows the approximate average word ranking in frequency from all studies.
UNT
Internet ranking based on millions of words counted.
LTR Ranking found in hundreds
of letters.
AhRk lists the rank of the English translation word in the American
Heritage Dictionary extensive word frequency study based on millionsof words studied.
Ranking
of the word root from extensive research by European researcher Zlatko Tisljar.
Column
A lists the HIGHEST UTILITY ROOTS. These roots have been found to be highest in
frequency and need in several studies. These roots should be learned first by
beginners in order to achieve maximum utility. This grouping is based on studies
of over 5 million words. This group could change in minor ways as research continues.
None of these groups are set in stone. Basic word lists are going to change over
time and are only a reflection of the usage and needs of the people communicating.
Studies indicate that students may achieve 80-93 percent understanding from this
group plus the common endings and affixes.
Column B is the second highest
utility group. These roots should be learned as soon as possible after group A.
Studies indicate students may achieve 85-95 percent understanding when this group
is mastered in addition to group A.
Column C is the next lower usage group
of high frequency usage words. Further studies are necessary to determine with
accuracy placement of roots in these groups. Column L lists words that appear
to be a little Less high utility or usage.
Column "G" stands for grammar. This lists roots conveniently listed in the grammar group.
The columns did not transfer over here well. Feel free to request by email the document itself.
Dec
2009 808 808 300 300 193 15 231
basic words a K J B R E e AR UNT LTR AhRk Zrk
A B C G L
KELK a few K J 130 113 132 103 a
iom a little a little 255 155
175 79 60 g
PRI about K J B R e 38 27 37 21 a
APUD about K J R 23 24 330
392 b
SUPER above K J B R E 56 85 53 510 a
akcent accent E L
AKCEPT
accept K J E 800 274 374 b
kont account B e 800 c
ATING achieve k J e
328 268 324 416 b
akir acquire J e 464 c
TRANS across K J B E 179 184
186 a
AG act K J B e 800 395 256 614 209 b
AKTIV active k J E 386 598
b
EFEKTIV actual k J e 622 b
ADRES address K J E 800 220 51 373 a
avantagh
advantage E c
reklam advertisement k B 800 365 c
konsil advise K J E 477
c
AFER affair K J E 270 227 244 267 69 a
POST after K J B R E 66 45 a
DENOVE again B R 107 153 261 107 a
KONTRAUh against K J B e 195 162 378
198 331 a
AGH age K J E 415 198 520 b
agent agent E L
AER air K J B
E 117 363 416 119 b
PRESKAUh almost K J B 157 241 162 133 a
LAUh along
k J B 126 202 128 99 a
alfabet alphabet J E L
JAM already K J 76 205 148
63 a
ANKAUh also K J 88 58 33 86 36 a
KVANKAM although k J B 234 357 435
b
ChIAM always J 149 294 134 107 a
KAJ and K J B R 3 6 3 3 a
ANGUL
angle k J B e 443 426 b
KOLER angry k J B 589 554 b
BEST animal K J B
e 149 396 154 b
ANONC announce k E 525 b
RESPOND answer K J B E 192 77
195 300 a
po apiece k 800 328 g
APER appear K J E 544 312 512 210 a
pom
apple apple J B 642 167 318 L
aparat appratus k B E 800 375 c
april april
k J E 198 c
argument argument B E 800 L
brak arm k J B 427 414 c
ChIRKAU'
around K J R e 89 117 254 87 a
arangh arrange k J e 259 c
ART art K J
B E 620 310 577 b
artikol article K E 736 31 L
konstat ascertain 646 L
DEMAND
ask K J B R E 135 137 88 138 122 a
azen ass, donkey k J e 603 L
asert assert
E 345 L
asoci association K J e 746 526 c
ChE at K J B R 17 22 112 16 90
a
almenauh at least k J 242 c
atak attack k B E 725 627 c
ATENT attention,
pay k J B e 507 478 287 b
auhgust august k J E 158 c
auhtoro author E
L
AUhT(O)- automobile K J E 204 195 192 207 273 a
AUhTUN autumn K J B e
800 b
vek awake k J B e 800 c
babil babble, chatter J e c
ekvilibr
balance B e 719 625 c
banan banana J E 417 L
bank bank J E 529 499 c
bar
bar, dam k J E c
BAZ basic k B e 353 219 318 351 b
korb basket k J B e
762 643 433 c
ban bath k J B 800 L
BATAL battle k J B E 491 465 527 b
PRAV
be right k J B R 88 569 b
barb beard 605 L
bat beat k J e 456 674 c
BEL
beauty K J B 296 217 117 290 161 a
ChAR because, as K J B 94 64 53 93 41 a
lit bed k J B 350 245 484 c
bier beer k E L
ANTAUh before K J B R 75
91 74 72 79 a
kondut behave B e 675 602 c
JEN behold K J 127 b
KRED
believe K J B e 515 112 251 485 a
aparten belong k J 601 c
fleks bend
B E 800 635 c
KROM besides K J 578 292 230 547 356 a
INTER between K J
B E 112 122 42 114 85 a
preter beyond k J e 493 c
bicikl bicycle k J e
606 L
GRAND big, great K J B R E 64 110 61 109 106 a
BIRD bird K J B E
267 266 529 b
NASK birth K J B 459 437 359 b
bit bit B E 163 L
NIGR
black k J B e 219 359 221 663 b
sang blood k J B e 440 423 c
blov blow
k J B e 562 533 L
BLU blue k J B E 282 276 b
tabul board k J 475 583 c
BOAT boat J B E 303 297 b
KORP body k J B E 207 355 210 b
bol boil
k B e 800 L
bomb bomb E c
LIBR book K J B e 223 173 55 225 146 a
ambauh
both k J 129 116 131 c
BOTEL bottle k J B E 621 578 419 b
fund bottom
J e
bovl bowl 654 597 L
SKATOL box K B 320 368 b
KNAB boy K J B R 148
252 153 232 a
branc' branch B E 604 567 L
pan bread K J B e 536 504 669
c
ROMP break in two K J B 465 352 443 367 b
SPIR breathe k J B e 593 558
b
brik brick, bar of B E 612 L
pont bridge k J B e 705 618 568 c
BRIL
bright K J B e 371 363 b
hel bright k J B e 800 L
FRAT brother K J B e
452 108 433 326 b
BRUN brown k J B E 478 454 b
bros brush k B e 800 L
FUSH
bungle k 800 355 b
brul burn k J B 671 601 c
BUS bus K J E 391 571 377
b
KOMERC business K J B E 410 257 376 396 b
SED but K J B R 25 20 25 17
a
buter butter k J B E L
buton button k B E 800 L
AChET buy K J 233
243 151 235 143 a
PER by K J B E 356 300 22 95 a
kuk cake k J B 728 629
652 c
KALKUL calculate K J E b
kalendar calendar k J E c
VOK call
k J R e 68 378 65 b
kalm calm E 800 308 L
POV can K J B R 31 28 31 26 a
kapabl capable k J E 718 231 c
KART card K J B e 800 354 76 470 a
ZORG
care K J B 295 289 284 b
PORT carry K J e 730 292 152 b
kaz case k E L
kased
casette K e 800 309 L
KAT cat k J B E 444 427 b
KAPT catch K J e 354 430
349 262 b
KAUhZ cause K J B E 498 309 296 471 a
ches cease k J L
CENTR
center k J E 318 276 240 313 461 b
CERT certain K J B e 181 123 243 186 93
a
chen chain B e
ShANGh change K J B 191 172 194 175 a
chapitr chapter
e 639 709 L
charm charm J E 349 L
chas chase e
kontrol supervise k E
476 453 332 c
chek check E 329 325 c
fromagh cheese B
kemi chemical
B e 677 603 L
kest chest J B e 271 268 L
kok chicken J e 767 645 c
ChEF
chief K J B R E 315 331 140 312 370 a
INFAN child K J R e 144 299 275 149
145 a
chokolad chocolate J E
cigared cigarette k J E 530 L
cirkl circle
k J B E 346 341 c
URB city K J B e 198 252 201 270 a
KLAS class K J E
272 293 266 269 b
KLAR clear K J B e 339 297 402 334 312 a
lert clever
k J B 698 482 c
FERM close K J B R e 225 240 227 276 a
ChI closeness K
J a
TUK cloth, piece of k J B 557 527 514 b
VEST clothing k J e 450 430
589 b
NUB cloud k J B 524 494 b
klub club K J E 642 c
mantel coat
k J B e 585 552 c
KAF coffee k J E 662 410 600 b
KOLEKT collect K J E
134 b
KOLOR color K J B E 358 369 375 351 472 b
VEN come K J B R e 90
143 89 38 a
komfort comfortable k B E 800 c
koment comment E 315 L
komis
commission k 136 L
komitat committee k 336 150 L
KOMUN common K J B E 202
310 398 b
komunik communicate k E 800 407 643 c
KOMPANI company B E 594
559 b
KOMPAR compare k B E 533 501 b
konkur compete B e 800 361 547 L
kompil
compile e L
plend complain k J 676 c
KOMPLET complete B E 254 365 253 473
b
KOMPUT compute k E 800 193 109 b
koncern concern k E 800 431 c
konkret
concrete, not abstract k E 294 L
kondich condition k J B e 606 569 L
konfes
confess k E 644 L
gratul congratulate k J e 381 c
kongres congress k E
74 L
konsci conscious B 800 476 L
KONSENT consent K J E 631 222 204 b
KONSIDER
consider k E 597 279 562 645 b
KONSIST consist k J E 432 b
konstant constant
k E 549 L
KONSTRU construct K J B e 251 390 250 647 b
KONTAKT contact K
E 800 379 405 263 b
REG control k J B e 800 196 440 a
konversaci conversation
J E 650 L
KUIR cook K J B 509 480 295 b
KOPI copy k B E 419 230 409 406
b
KOREKT correct J E 349 344 b
korespond correspond k J E 27 550 c
KOST
cost K J B E 513 254 111 483 176 a
tus cough B 515 c
kurs course k J e
138 L
kovr cover k J B e 326 322 478 c
bovin cow k J 648 593 c
kre
create k J B e 727 388 268 a
krim crime B E L
kruel cruel k B E 800 434
c
KRI cry k J B R e 347 342 551 b
plor cry k J 495 c
kub cube E 697
L
KULTUR culture K E 800 385 182 205 b
TAS cup k J B 693 362 610 b
kurten
curtain B E 800 L
kurb curve B e 800 516 L
KUTIM custom k J 256 205 383
a
TRANCh cut K J B e 211 373 214 403 b
damagh damage B E 800
DANC
dance k J E 559 368 529 610 b
DANGHER danger k J B E 583 550 a
dat date
J E 349 c
TAG day K J B R 83 157 80 96 a
KAR dear K J B e 571 43 541 545
b
MORT death K J B e 453 353 434 b
decembro December k J E 232 c
DECID
decide K J B E 362 389 283 355 305 a
deklar declare J E 761 L
PROFUNDa
deep k J B e 292 286 b
defend defend k E 609 572 c
difin define k E 379
L
grad degree J B E 605 568 543 c
delikata delicate B E 800
POSTUL
demand k J 361 496 b
dens dense k E
dent dental k J B e 482 457 c
depende
depend J B E 753 397 639 c
dezert desert 528
DESEGN design k J B e 239
348 239 b
DEZIR desire K J B R E 218 341 45 220 243 a
detal detail k B
E 658
diabl devil J 211 L
diferenc differ k E 272 L
fos dig k L
digest
digest B E
DIREKT direct K J B E 423 410 615 b
diskriminaci discrimination
E 532 L
DISKUT discuss k J B E 712 225 624 353 b
disk disk k E 234 297
c
disput dispute E
distanc distance J B E 305 299 L
DIVID divide k
J B E 502 475 533 b
doktor doctor K E 558 360 528 618 c
dokument document
E L
HUND dog k J B R E 243 414 242 b
pup doll k 446 L
PORD door K J
B e 210 213 b
DUB doubt k J B e 376 619 b
rev dream, day J L
rob dress
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gut drip, drop J B
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konduk drive k J B e 650 446 c
SEK dry k J B e 299 293 b
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polv dust J B e 800 570 L
OREL ear
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FRU early K J B 232 333 335 234 309 a
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ORIENT east k J B E 550 519 441 b
FACIL easy K J e 311 281
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element element E 744
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energi energy k E 340 351 335 c
GHU enjoy k J 561 531 b
GAST
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medi environment k 367 c
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erar error k J B E 800 277 625 c
nepra essential k J 315
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ESTIM esteem k J E 154 b
evit evade 756 626 L
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VESPER evening K J e 477
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AJN ever k J 800 288 522 b
ChIU everyone
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ChIO everything J B R 27 30 201 27 100 a
CHIE everywhere
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ekscit excite 608
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SPERT experience K B e 599 224 564 369 b
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ekspozici exposition k e
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fabel fable J E
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FAKT fact K B E 304
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faktor factor 708
fabrik factory J e 754 L
sens faculty
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JUST fair k J E 430 537 b
fidel faithful J e
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fals false B E
FAM fame k J e 400 385 b
FAMILI family
K J B E 208 381 105 211 292 a
fartas fare k J 464 c
farm farm B E 345
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PATR father K J B R e 164 69 387 b
faks fax E
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plum feather k J e 800 L
februaro February k J E 209 c
palp feel k B e 800 261 L
SENT feeling K J B e 246 183 245 507 b
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fiction B e
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dosier file E 92 L
FILM
film K E 330 380 b
financ finance E L
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FINGR
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FAJR fire k J B E 247 246 627 b
firma firm E
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FISh fish K J B E 216 277 218 166 a
TAUHG fit k J 390 483 b
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fiks fix k J B E 800
flag flag k J B E 733
plank floor k J B e 301 295 566 L
flu flow k J B e 630
FLOR flower
K J B e 401 424 386 540 b
FLUG fly K J B e 361 338 354 540 b
nebul fog
k J B L
fald fold B
SEKVas follow K J e 168 179 173 218 a
NUTRAGh food
B E 142 377 147 b
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fork fork
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forum forum E L
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KVAR four k J e 153 324 237 158 163
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fram frame B E 743 633 L
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frost freeze k E 632 c
fresh fresh k J E 631 c
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AMIK friend K J B R 284 271 21 278 220 a
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k J B E 574 544 b
PLEN full K J B e 253 242 252 206 a
AMUZ fun k J B E
409 395 524 b
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PLU further K
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gajn gain k J E 634 c
LUD game, play K J B R 199 191 202 140
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gaj gay k J E
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DON give K J B R e 116 141 90 118 55 a
DONACo give
k J e 800 534 b
GLAS glass K J B E 324 320 b
glob globe B E 280 427 274
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GLU glue B E 800 348 b
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registar government
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gren grain k J e L
gram gram E 206 637 c
gramatik grammar
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nep grandson k J L
gras grease k B e
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SALUT greet, salute K J E 800
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GRIZ gray k J B e 516 486 b
GRUP group K J B E 212 129 425 215
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gvid guide k J B E 382 c
kulp guilt k J L
paf-il gun B e 573
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HAR hair k J B E 355 350 b
HALT halt k J B R E 275 286 271 638
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PEND hang K J B E 635 588 388 b
OKAZ happen K J e 322 121 318 115 a
FELICh happy K J B e 369 347 136 361
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chapel hat k J B e 514 484 L
HAV have
K J B R E 21 14 11 20 12 a
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k J B R e 154 313 159 b
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B e 188 169 222 192 129 a
KOR heart k J B E 800 122 302 a
hejt heat e
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halo hello L
HELP help K J B R E 103 142 94 103 190 a
HERB herb
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ChI-TIE here K J B R 800 G
kash hide K J e 737 430 c
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ALT high K J B e 163 42 157 168 323 a
HISTORI history K J
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TEN hold K J
B R e 143 185 148 164 a
tru hole k J B 488 462 L
feri holiday k J 628 c
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honor honor E L
hok hook B e
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cheval horse k J B 269 371 L
hotel
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HOR hour K J B e 300 239 238 294 293 a
DOM house K
J B R e 136 339 228 139 229 a
KIOM how much J 319 139 a
KIEL how, as K
J B R 14 19 57 13 52 a
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HOM human K J e 396
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CENT hundred J E 259 290 257 126 a
MI I K J B R E 20 5
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GLACI ice k J B e 302 296 b
IDE idea K J B e 236 187 79 296 327
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ilustras illustrate E L
imagas imagine
k J E 328 c
TUJ immediately K J 640 590 208 b
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in that way K J 363 356 56 a
KRESK incease K J B e 238 238 479 b
inkluziv
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JA indeed K J 293 165 a
indik indicate E L
individu individual
E 686 506 L
industri industry k B E 615 L
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freneza insane k e 800 428 c
INSEKT insect k J B E 545 513 b
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INSTRU instruct K J B e 368 96
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instrument instrument B E 588 553 L
intekekt intelect L
inteligent
intelligent k E 800 468 c
INTENC intention k J B E 800 331 b
INTERES interest
K J B E 413 201 49 400 119 a
INTERN internal k J E 231 233 640 b
interpret
interpret J E 469 c
PREZENT introduce K J B E 373 365 197 b
invad invade
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INVIT invite K J E 800 380 329 b
faktur invoice k
FER iron k J
B e 404 389 b
EST is K J B R 7 7 4 6 2 a
GhI it K J R 10 10 41 9 35 a
januar January k J E 126 c
sherc jest k J 711 c
aligh join B e 569
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vojagh journey K J B E 645 322 c
GhOJ joy k J E 81 519 a
jugh judge
k J B E 800 L
juli July J E 266 c
SALT jump k J B 800 467 504 b
juni
June J E 312 c
JhUS just now k J R E 69 44 66 b
GHUST just, exact K J
E 107 b
KONSERV keep, preserve k J E 667 548 b
KILO kilo k E 181 471 b
AFABL kind, affable k J B E 155 202 276 160 a
genu knee J B e
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KON know, be acquainted with. K J e 15 278 83
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LABOR labor K J B R E 91 80 38 90 98 a
MANK lack K J e 474 452
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lag lake K J e 618 575 178 c
LAND land K J B E 146 253 26 151 105
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LINGV language K J B e 334 265 31 330 157 a
LAST last K J B E 122 197
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DAUHR lasting K J 106 275 a
RID laugh K J B 497 470 501 b
legh
law k J B e 563 251 534 c
ESTR leader J B 448 370 429 193 b
folio leaf,
sheet k J B e 619 c
LERN learn K J B R E 138 304 23 142 313 a
preleg lecture
k 281 L
krur leg k B e 364 357 L
lecion lesson K J E 766 L
LAS let K
J B R 166 184 289 171 233 a
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liter
letter of alphabet k J e 629 269 L
NIVEL level k B 487 214 561 b
bibliotek
library k 418 L
LUM light k J B e 165 270 170 b
fulm lightening k
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like, prefer K J B R 446 428 b
LIM limit k J B e 489 317 463 656 b
LINI
line k J B E 118 115 120 a
lip lip k B E 750 637 L
likv liquid B e 596
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LIST list k B E 257 150 255 554 a
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literatur literature K E 800 183 384 c
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LOGh live at K J e 680 549 223 a
ShARGAS load e 684 520 b
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K J B R e 97 164 96 181 a
ShLOS lock k J B 527 317 498 596 b
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K J B R E 63 104 61 250 a
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ASPEKT look,
seem k J R E 131 406 135 415 b
PERD loss K J B e 342 337 337 389 b
lauht
loud J B E 565 536 L
AM love K J B 496 250 77 469 272 a
shanc luck k B
e 466 358 595 c
MAShIN machine K J B E 375 200 367 487 b
POShT mail K
J e 800 100 625 a
precip main K J e 444 c
FAR make K J B R 35 32 100 35
31 a
VIR man K J B R e 81 159 77 271 a
MANIER manner K J E 676 234 b
MULT
many K J E 42 63 41 64 a
map map B E 332 328 485 c
mart March k J 148
c
marsh march k J e 557 L
MARK mark K J B E 337 333 556 a
EDZ marry
K J B 456 103 436 289 a
MIR marvel K J e 518 487 489 b
material material
k B E 436 419 385 c
maj May J e 690 c
SENC meaning k J B E 460 387 438
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mezur measure k J B E 351 346 L
VIAND meat K J B e 500 473 b
RENKONT
meet K J 417 404 500 b
membr member K E 314 c
minac menace e L
menci
mention e c
merit merit k E c
MESAGH message E 745 197 a
metal metal
k B E 538 506 c
metr meter k e 800 c
METOD method K E 469 448 b
MILION
milion E 461 439 b
LAKT milk K J B e 397 383 655 b
MINUT minute K J B
E 379 369 195 b
mis- mis- J E g
MIKS mix k J B E 624 581 437 b
model
model 660 371 L
MODERNa modern k J E 408 394 660 b
MOMENT moment k J E
366 358 214 a
lund Monday k J 800 c
MON money K J B E 203 212 206 168
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simil monkey B 693 L
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lun moon
k J B e 287 281 L
PLI more K J R 48 41 45 46 a
MATEN morning K J B R e
205 208 251 a
PLEJ most K J 71 70 68 111 a
motor motor E 473 451 L
MONT
mountain K J B E 293 287 560 b
mus mouse J E L
BUSh mouth k J B 800 376
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MOV move K J B E 111 318 113 296 a
SINJOR Mr K J R E 114 237 116 185
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MUZIK music K J B E 335 216 331 a
DEV must K J R e 93 55 106 92 30 a
NOM name K J B e 579 103 115 94 a
NACIa national K J B e 543 511 279 a
NATUR nature K J E 382 371 b
PROKSIM near K J B E 161 152 166 267 a
NECES
necessary K J B E 421 346 408 360 b
kol neck neck k J B e 592 557 L
BEZON
need K J B 160 94 211 165 125 a
najbar neighbor J e 726 L
nev nephew k
L
nerv nerve B E L
ret net B e 800 113
neuhtral neutral k E 439 L
NOV
new K J B R e 79 71 75 86 a
GAZET newspaper K J B E 655 169 598 636 b
jhurnal
newspaper E L
venonta future, next B R L
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597 b
MEZ middle K J B e 392 377 213 a
NOKT night K J B e 167 307 172
280 b
NAUh nine k J 481 400 507 236 a
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noise k J B e 800 460 608 b
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nek nor
k J L
norm norm B E 610 380 573 L
normal normal k E 800 356 c
NORD north
k J B e 367 359 b
naz nose k J B e 485 L
NOT note k B E 263 54 262 684
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RIMARK notice K J 301 a
novembr November k J E 261 c
NUN now K J
B R e 54 78 51 47 a
nud nude J E 490 L
nombr number k J e 113 L
NUMER
number K J B E 108 108 108 337 a
nuks nut B e L
objekt object k J B R E
102 119 102 c
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odor odor k B E 628
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DE of K J B R e 2 3 7 2 13 a
FOR off K J B R 106 97 184 106 92 a
propon offer k B E 134 c
OFIC office K J B e 522 491 666 b
oficial
official E 562 L
OFTe often K J B e 133 233 137 440 a
ole oil k B e 407
393 L
oktobr Oktober k J E 81 c
SUR on K J B R e 13 13 12 114 a
UNU
one K J B R e 4 4 145 34 a
ONI one person K J e 800 294 23 20 a
PROPRa
own K J 109 679 b
NUR only K J B R 57 49 55 70 a
SOL only K J B e 327
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MAL opposite K J B e 458
107 40 a
AUh or K J B R 22 18 84 21 68 a
mend order k J L
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k J B e 224 206 226 316 b
ordon order k J e 255 L
ordinar ordinary k J
E 669 563 c
ORGANIZ organize K J B E 800 137 b
original original k E 668
L
ALI other K J B R 46 46 48 44 53 a
EL out K J B R 19 23 28 18 48 a
EKSTER
outside K J E 288 375 186 282 138 a
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PAGh
page K J B E 158 66 163 493 a
DOLOR pain k J B e 546 515 b
pentr paint
k J B 759 673 L
farb paint B
pantalon pants k J B e 800 L
PAPER paper
K J B E 176 368 181 265 b
PARDON pardon K J E 800 225 a
park park k J
E 713 671 c
PART part K J B E 95 135 94 158 a
FEST party K J E 800 229
538 b
PAS pass k J B E 279 298 273 317 b
PAG pay K J B 402 263 387 147
a
PAC peace K J B e 637 509 a
POPOL people K J R e 800 b
perfekt perfect
k E 390 L
PERIOD period k E 439 422 443 b
PERMES permit K J E 666 b
PERSON
person K J B E 55 145 52 159 a
FOT(O) photo K J B E 169 147 174 308 a
BILD
picture K J B 800 97 301 324 b
pec piece K J e 672 c
amas pile k J B e
575 578 258 c
PLAN plan k J E 374 366 298 b
plant plant k J B E 217 219
L
plastik plastic k E 800 605 L
teler plate k J B 643 591 453 c
PLACh
please K J B e 678 472 391 a
plezur pleasure K J B E 800 L
plus plus k
J E 677 L
posh pocket k J B 709 621 L
pint point B E 197 98 200 L
punkt
point k J B e 800 253 c
venen poison B e 800 c
polic police k E 710 622
c
ghentil polite k J E 734 631 L
POLITIK politics k B E 687 607 b
POPULAR
popular k E 617 392 b
eventual possibly k E 149 L
EBLE possible J B 61
60 59 44 a
afish poster J L
versh pour J 800 L
POTENC power B E 289
192 283 b
central power station E L
PRAKTIK practice, put into k E 431
416 678 b
PRECIZ precise k J E 411 570 b
prefer prefer K J E 641 497 c
PREPAR prepare K J E 688 362 b
preskrib prescribe B E L
prezid preside
K E 393 L
PREM press k J B 554 524 b
pregh prey k B e 560 530 L
PREZ
price k J B e 707 282 520 341 b
princip principle k E 445 L
PRES print
K B E 515 b
privat private B E 800 c
premi prize k e 571 L
probable
probably B E 266 124 265 L
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procez
process B E 248 L
PRODUKT product K J B E 370 334 362 394 b
profesi profession
J E 498 c
profit profit B E L
PROGRAM program k E 673 130 266 a L
projekt
project k E L
protekt protect E c
protest protest B E 573 c
PROV prove
K J B E 428 218 415 499 b
pruv prove E 800 L
proviz provide L
PUBLIK
public K B E 540 236 509 268 b
tir pull k J B 387 373 c
pun punish k B
e L
PUR pure K J B e 479 455 363 b
PUSH push k J B E 566 538 b
MET
put K J B R 104 131 104 167 a
kvalit quality k B E 763 644 653 c
kvant
quantity k E 607 654 c
DA quantity of K J R 102 66 a
PLUV rain k J B e
309 305 b
LEV lift, raise K J 663 357 b
RAPID rapid K J B E 261 267 259
199 a
RADI ray K J B E 468 364 447 680 b
LEG read K J B e 121 102 78 123
180 a
PRET ready K J B e 248 247 299 a
real real E 681 L
RICEV receive
K J B R E 73 43 70 120 a
KUSH recline K J 564 535 b
rekomend recommend
k J E 366 L
rekord record best B E 418 321 405 L
varb recruit L
RUGh
red k J B E 215 217 686 b
REGION region K J E 438 421 342 b
BEDAUhR regret
k J B 757 641 274 b
REGUL regular k J B e 462 364 b
RILAT relate K J B
E 595 560 173 b
relativ relative E 574 L
religi religion k J B E 800 382
L
REST remain, stay K J B E 320 316 a
ceter remainder k J 462 c
MEMOR
remember K J B E 228 189 230 182 a
lu rent 800 555 L
ripar repair E 800
684 L
ripet repeat K J E 747 636 c
RAPORT report K E 555 525 217 b
ripoz
repose, rest k J E 244 287 243 c
PET request K J B e 499 178 252 a
rimed
resource, means k J L
respekt respect B E c
restoraci restaurant e 683
c
REZULT result k E 451 303 431 b
RICh rich K J E 331 327 502 b
RAJT
right K J B E 85 285 82 198 a
DEKSTRA right not left K J B 124 86 126 420
a
ring ring B E 480 456 L
RIVER river K J B E 274 270 397 b
rok rock
rock B E 325 321 L
rol role E 800 685 L
rul roll k J B e 622 579 L
tegment
roof k J B e 681 604 L
ChAMBR room K J B E 193 326 196 285 b
radik root
B 556 343 526 c
shnur rope k 712 L
rond round k J B e 278 272 L
vic
row k J e 523 492 706 c
frot rub B e 800
rub, forjhetajho rubbish B e
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KUR run k J B R e 221 146 344 223 334 a
sak sack k J B E 591 556 687
c
sankt sacred k e 688 L
vel sail B 649
salajr salary J e c
salon
salon k E 398 L
SAL salt k J B e 542 510 503 b
SAM same K J B E 84 76 81
124 a
SAT satiated k J e 568 539 282 b
KONTENT satisfied K J E 800 307
648 b
sabat Saturday K J e 800 c
shpar save e 625 582 c
DIR say K
J B R 33 79 149 110 33 a
skal scale B E 510 181 L
apenauh scarcely k J
c
SCIENC science K J B E 333 274 329 226 a
medicin science of medicine
B E 800 L
tond scissors cut with k J B 800 L
MAR sea K J B e 194 197 486
b
SERCH search K J E 613 574 256 b
sezon season k J E 800 c
SEGh seat
K J B 549 518 b
sekund second J B E 760 642 690 c
sekret secret 694 611
L
sekretari secretary k B E 689 L
sekur secure B E 512 482 L
VID see
K J B R e 51 65 48 39 a
SEM seed B e 494 466 b
ShAJN seem K J B 262 125
260 81 a
MEM self K J B e 800 273 204 123 a
si self 567 325 80 g
VEND
sell, vender K J B e 406 391 187 a
SEND send K J B E 372 180 364 269 a
fraz
sentence J E 178 183 542 c
APART separate K J B E 537 289 384 505 350 b
septembr
September k J E 203 c
seri series k E 670 255 L
serioz serious k J B E
L
SERV serve K J B E 646 306 592 691 b
SEP seven K J E 399 400 384 219
a
plur several K e 182 340 a
seks sex k B E 800 290 506 c
sku shake
B 601 566 L
akr sharp k J B e 490 L
ShI she K J R E 41 90 40 62 a
shaf
sheep k J B 520 410 L
ship ship K E 411
chemiz shirt k J B e 800 L
ShU
shoe k J B E 521 490 b
MONTR show K J 132 188 136 215 a
FLANK side K J
B R E 147 235 152 325 a
sign sign k B E 586 420 692 c
SIGNIF signify K
J E 182 168 187 399 a
silent silent k J B E 483 458 c
SIMIL similar K
J E 50 33 47 448 a
SIMPL simple K J B E 307 245 303 142 a
KANT sing K
J B e 472 257 450 230 b
SID sit K J e 306 300 97 b
SITUACI situation K
E 748 314 398 238 b
SES six K J E 245 400 244 200 a
HAUhT skin k B 425
412 b
ChIEL sky K J B e 314 311 b
DORM sleep K J B e 403 388 306 b
glit
slide k B e 800 L
frakas smash B
fum smoke k J B e 623 586 633 c
glat
smooth 644
NEGh snow k J B 308 304 661 b
DO so K J B R 44 39 124 43 18
a
SOCI society k B e 711 329 623 577 b
MOL soft k J B R 177 186 182 a
solid solid B E 577 546 L
SOLV solve k J E 553 384 523 578 b
IO some
K J B R 43 38 171 42 73 a
ia some kind of J 136 51 170 g
iel somehow 800
429 g
IU someone K J 316 83 161 36 61 a
IAM sometimes, once J B 152 161
299 157 354 a
FIL son K J B e 464 153 442 629 a
BALDAUh soon K J R 172
351 179 177 604 b
SPEC sort, species k J B e 506 165 477 449 b
SON sound
K J B e 128 280 130 a
acid sour B E
font source k J e 657 238 c
SUD
south k J B e 359 352 450 b
SPAC space B E 230 210 232 a
PAROL speak K
J B e 276 175 33 77 a
SPECIAL special K B E 252 283 251 302 a
FAK specialist
K J 319 374 270 315 424 b
spirit spirit J E 755 640 L
KULER spoon k J B
800 552 b
sport sport K J E 800 L
PRINTEMP spring K J B 800 338 b
STAR
stand K J 258 256 303 b
stel star k J B e 580 401 c
KOMENC start K J B
R E 156 215 116 161 156 a
ShTAT state K J E 256 254 713 b
staci station
K J B L
STAT status k J e 800 171 581 b
shtel steal k e 517
shtup step
k J B 393 378 c
PASH step k J B 494 b
baston stick(wood) B e 721 459 L
ANKORAUh
still K J B R 240 150 88 58 a
shton stone k J E 695 c
BUTIK store J B
E 653 344 596 b
RAKONT story K J B e 174 247 179 395 a
forn stove B 800
REKT straight k J B e 352 132 347 396 b
strang strange k J B E 800 380
c
FREMD(a) strange k J B 395 239 a
STRAT street K J B E 281 275 400 b
FORT strong K J B e 264 372 267 263 244 a
student student E 682 695 c
STUD study K J E 170 175 a
stult stupid k 320 c
abon subscribe k 770
L
substanc substance B E L
SUKCES success K J E 720 626 227 a
TIA such
K J B 99 98 117 a
SUBIT sudden k J B 310 306 b
sufer suffer k J E 800
c
SUFICh sufficient K J B R E 151 128 156 101 a
suker sugar k J B e L
sugest
suggest B E 626 392 583 696 c
konven suitable, be k e 649 c
SUM sum k
J B E 445 338 237 a
SOMER summer K J B E 285 279 b
SUN sun K J B E 186
204 190 a
dimancho Sunday k J 800 c
SUPOZ suppose k E 381 383 401 b
surpriz
surprise J B E 572 542 L
DOLCh sweet K J B e 632 586 b
NAGH swim k J B
652 595 438 b
SISTEM system k B E 297 74 291 345 b
TABL table K J B E
227 229 511 b
PREN take K J B R 100 99 100 78 a
bend tape 308 528 L
task
task k J E 402 c
gust taste k J B 706 619 c
te tea k e 800 585 c
team
team E 441 301 424 c
shir tear k J E 372 c
teknik technical E 800 698
c
TELEFON telefone K E 651 302 594 a
DEK ten k J e 260 194 177 258 49
a
terur terrible k J E 740 207 c
tekst text k J E 275 452 c
OL than
K J B R 53 50 50 184 a
DANK thank K J E 703 170 56 517 221 a
KE that K
J B R 14 14 a
TIO that K J B 9 9 8 7 a
tiom that many J 239 g
TIU
that one K J 800 21 133 9 a
ties that one's g
LA the K J B R e 1 1 5 1
3 a
teatr theater k E 201 L
TEM theme K J e 424 291 411 121 a
TIAM
then K J B 40 57 39 87 a
TIE there K J B R 30 34 30 24 a
TIAL therefore
K J 486 461 454 b
ILI they K J R 16 26 60 15 25 a
DIK thick K J B 454
444 613 b
PENS think K J B R e 87 51 84 151 a
soif thirst k L
ChI-TIO
this J B R 18 17 50 b g
ChI-TIU this one 17 32 g
kvazauh though, as k
J 436 c
MIL thousand k J E 394 379 183 b
faden thread k B
TRI three
K J R E 92 199 91 71 a
JHET throw K J e 633 587 286 b
TRA thru K J B 74
118 71 321 a
JhAUhD thursday K J 518 b
bilet ticket k J B e 800 378 c
LIG tie, to K J e 576 265 545 335 b
TEMP time K J B R e 52 53 49 116 a
FOJ times K J 173 207 259 178 128 a
LAC(A) tired k J B e 535 503 b
AL
to K J B R 5 2 8 4 16 a
HODIAUh today K J 180 327 224 185 144 a
MORGAUh
tomorrow K J B 600 565 278 b
TRO too K J R 82 82 78 192 a
SUPR top K J
B R e 39 111 38 347 a
TUT total K J e 187 154 191 a
tush touch k J B 547
516 L
turism tourism k E L
tradici tradition k e L
trafik traffic k J
E 735 532 L
VAGON train K J B E 611 445 b
trajn train J E 467 587 L
trankvil
tranquil k J E 699 c
TRADUK translate K J 800 240 a
VETUR travel venture
K J B e 344 229 339 406 b
kurac treat medically k J c
trakt treat, deal
with k J e L
ARB tree k J B R e 206 391 209 b
GhEN trouble k J B 405 223
390 412 b
VER true K J B e 213 75 216 82 a
fid trust J e 800 316 c
PEN
try k J B R e 183 147 188 b
tub tube J B E 800 540 701 c
mard Tuesday
k J e 800 c
TURN turn K J B R E 196 296 199 a
televid TV K e 552 522 L
DU
two K J R e 49 69 72 46 37 a
tajp type E 584 c
onkl uncle k J E 511 L
SUB
under K J B R E 120 144 122 174 a
KOMPREN understand K J e 286 226 99 280
88 a
universal universal K J E 404 L
universitat university K J E 127 348
c
FRAUhL unmarried k J e 800 208 310 427 b
GhIS until K J 140 190 107
144 108 a
urgh urgent J E c
UZ use K J B E 60 56 58 405 a
UTIL useful
K J E 539 356 508 304 b
valid valid k E L
VALOR value K J B e 526 264 496
516 b
DIVERS various K J E 221 127 155 a
vast vast k J E 672 588 c
vegetal
vegetable e 691 609 L
TRE very K J B R 65 62 62 102 a
VENK victory k J
530 500 457 b
VIZIT visit K J E 489 408 b
VOCh voice k J B 265 366 264
592 b
ATEND wait K J B R E 433 75 417 228 a
promen walk,stroll k J e c
MUR wall k J B e 416 403 b
MILIT war K J B e 360 353 659 b
VARM warm
K J B E 226 456 a
AVERT warn e 800 a
LAV wash K J B e 699 613 553 b
AKV
water K J B R e 62 258 60 413 a
ond wave J B 442 425 L
VOJ way K J B R
e 58 61 56 459 a
NI we K J R 29 40 29 11 a
VETER weather K J B E 313 309
458 b
merkred Wednesday K J 558 c
SEMAJN week K J B 341 268 336 343 b
PEZ weight, heavy k J B 294 288 b
NU well k J 73 141 b
OKCIDENT west
k J B E 501 474 492 b
KIO what k J R 26 36 93 26 28 a
KIA what kind of
K J 72 217 249 a
RAD wheel k J B e 551 521 b
KIAM when J B R 28 52 188
28 76 a
KIE where K J B R 70 84 158 67 84 a
ChU whether K J 277 67 34
54 10 a
fajf whistle, fife J B e
BLANK white k J B e 175 352 180 b
KIU
who K J B R 32 37 39 32 15 a
kies whose J 348 343 c
KIAL why K J B R 101
105 226 101 130 a
LARGh wide K J B E 321 317 a
VOL will K J B R 36 29
141 51 a
VENT wind k J B e 241 240 704 b
FENESTR window K J B e 336 319
332 b
vin wine k J B E 590 L
VINTR winter K J B E 291 285 b
vish wipe
k J e 800 L
drat wire k B
sagh wise k J B e 732 630 447 c
KUN with
K J B R e 15 15 17 14 29 a
SEN without K J e 110 120 112 237 a
lign wood
k J B e 357 c
VORT word K J B E 67 174 64 241 a
verk work K J E 800 148
L
MOND world K J 137 151 140 235 a
vund wound J B E 800 c
volv wrap
k B 800 386 591 c
SKRIB write K J B e 80 35 76 132 a
JAR year K J B E
105 96 25 105 67 a
FLAV yellow k J B e 426 413 426 b
JES yes K J B E 250
231 160 249 19 a
HIERAUh yesterday K J B 752 638 261 b
VI you K J B R
8 12 7 6 a
JUN young K J B E 184 104 189 166 a
NUL zero K J e 229 231
b
je K J 164 135 g
sup soup J B E 800
salat salad E 800
sandvich sandwich E 800
rost roast J E
riz rice k B e
minus minus
K E
krem cream 729
jup skirt k J B 800
jak jacket e
jhele jelly
B E
hospital hospital B E
ideal ideal k E
bif stek beef-steak B E
647
BEB baby B e 384
bak bake 800
sav save k E
biskvit biscuit,
cracker J e
abel bee B L
akompan accompany J E
akt act, deed, document
E
aktual current, present E
aldon add
aljhustig adjustment B e
altir
attraction B 800
amar bitter B
anim soul J
apog support
aprob
approve B e
arghent silver J B 484
ark arch, bow B e
asekur insurance
B 800
auhtomat automatic B E 800
auhtoritat authoritative B e
avar
miserly, mean
bala sweep J
barel barrel J E
bari barier, fence 616
basen basin B E 800
ben bless e 800
benk bench J e
ber berry B
e
blok block 696
bot boot J B e
bret shelf B 800
brust breast
k J B e 800
bufed buffet J e
buked bouquet J
bulb bulb B E 800
bulten
ej bulletin board E
bulk roll J
gorgh throat B
grajn grain B E
GRES
grass B e 385
GRIMP climb J 668
gharden garden k J B E 447
harmoni
harmony B E 800
hobi hobby J E
honest honest J E
hont shame J B e
horlogh clock k J B e 800
ident identity 769
ie somewhere J 800
ies
someone's
imit imitate k e
impost tax B
impuls impulse B
ink ink
J B E
insign badge k J
insist insist E
insul island k J B 457
juvel
jewel B e
kadr cadre, frame k E
kajer ehercise book k J
kapr goat
B
karb coal k B E
kauhchuk rubber 612
kav hollow, tub e 570
kel
cellar J
kilogram k
kilometr k
kis kiss k J B E 800
klimat climate
661
klin incline k J B 702
kling blade B
kolbas sausage J
kolomb
pigeon, dove J
kom comma J
komb comb k J B E
kompat compassion k J
e
kompleks compleh B E
KONEKT connect B E
konsult consult E
konvink
convince k e
kord cord B E 532
kort court k J E
kostum costume k
kot
mud 634
koton cotton B 531
kovert envelope k J
krajon pencil k J B
e
kredit credit B E 800
krev burst B
kruc cross J
kudr sew k J
B
kupon coupon K E
kuragh courage k J E 714
kusen cushion B
kuv
tub e 765
kuz cousin k J e
kvadrat square k B 365
kverel quarrel J
e
lamp lamp J E
lan wool B
lang tongue k J B 679
latun brass B
laud praise J E
led leather B
legom vegetable k e
litr liter e
800
log lure J
magi magic 674
magazen container, stores J
malgrauh
in spite of J
martel hammer B
mastr master k J e
matur mature E
mebl
furniture k J
mens mind B
mensog lie J
menton chin B
menu menu
E
miel honey J
modest modest J
mok mock k J E
mord bite B e 800
mush fly k J
muskol muscle B e 659
muze museum k
muzel muzzle
J
najl nail J B E
nauhz disgust B E
nadl needle B
nod node, knot
B
obe obey k E
observ observ J B E 627
oksigen oxygen 602
ombr
shadow J B
ombrel umbrella J B E
operaci operation B E
oportun handy,
convenient E 800
orangh orange J B E 800
ornami ornament B e
ost bone
k B e 517
pacienc patience J e
pak pack k J B E 800
par pair k J E
paralel parallel B E 722
past paste B E
persist persist E 800
pik
prick k e
pilk ball k J
pingl pin B
pir pear J
plac public square
J
plafon ceiling k J
plat flat B e
plet tray B
plug plough B
poem
poem K E 603
poent point k
poez poetry k
polur polish B
pork pig
J B E
pot pot k B E 800
pozitiv positive E 800
progres progress k
E 758
promes promise k J E
propozici phrase 731
proz prose B E
prun
plum J
prunt lend, borrow k J
pulvor powder B e 800
pump pump B E
800
rab rob J
rajd ride J E 437
rang rank grade k
rav delight
ravish J
rat rat B E
raz razor shave J e
regh king k J
rekompenc
reward B
reprezent represent 723
revu review K E
rezerv reserve E
ribel rebel E
rifuz refuse E
rikolt harvest
ritm rhythm B e 749
roman novel k
roz rose k J E
rubrik rubric k E
sabl sand J B 432
sap soap B e 800
sauhc sauce E
scen scene B E
sekret secret B
E
serpent snake J B e
signal signal 692
silk silk B E
simbol symbol
614
SINCER sincere. E
soldat soldier k J e
songh dream J 764
sovagh
savage J e 312
spegul reflect, mirror k J
spez turnover k
spic spice
k E
stamp stamp B E
stang pole 717
stomak stomach B E
strech stretch
k B E 715
substantiv noun 724
surd deaf J
shal shawl J E
shel
shell 739
shmir smear, spread E
Shok shock B E
shovel shovel B E
Shpruc
spurt e
shrank cupboard k J
Shrauhb screw B 800
shtal steel B 541
shtof stuff fabric k E
shtop stop, plug clog B E
shtrump stocking
k J B 800
suld debt B
shultr shoulder J 581
shvit sweat J
tablojd
tabloid J E
tapish rug J
tarif tariff E
tend tent J
teori theory
k B E 800
tern sneeze B
toler tolerate E
tondr thunder B E
tord
twist B e 800
traf hit the goal k J
tram tram J E
trem tremble e 800
tritik wheat 638
tromp cheat deceive
tualet toilette E
turist
tourist k E
tur tower J
ung fingernail J B e
valiz brief case J
vapor
vapor, steam J B E
verb verb 700
verm worm B E
vers verse B E
vigl
vigilent k J E 800
vilagh vllage k J E 414
vitr glass k J e
vokal
vowel 587
vost tail k B 433
zon zone, belt J E
zum buzz, hum, zoom
J
chia J L
etos atmosphere 665
dors back k J
urs bear J 703
Char-o
cart B e
debet igi charge 685
bord edge k J e L
cifer figure e 378
hazard hazard E L
domagh spare, look after k J
formik ant B 716
ampleks
range B e 523 L
cerb brain B 704
difekt damage E L
citron lemon J
fizik
physics B E 768
See scientific
studies listed below also Edward Symoens The Socio-Political Educational and Cultural
Roots Antwerpen: Internacia Ligo de Esperantistaj Instruistoj. Eichholz, Rudiger
and Vilma. (1982). Esperanto in the Modern World. Bailieboro: Esperanto Press.
Et al. Edmond Privat
Arnold, Wesley. Important Language Research p 10. Tisljar
(1980). Frekvencmorfemaro De Parolata Esperanto. Zagreb: Internacia Kultura Servo.
Makkai, A Ph.D. Barron's Dictionary of American Idioms. New York: Barron's
Zamenhoff, L.L. Fundamento. Richardson D. (1988). Esperanto Learning and Using
the International Language. Eastsound: Orcas Publishing Co
Piron, Claude.
(1994). Le defi des langues. Paris: Editions l'Harmattan.
Thorndike, E. (1933).
Institute of Educational Research Language Learning Report New York: Teachers
College Columbia University. Arnold see above. Sherwood, B. (1981). Studies in
Language Learning. 3. p. 145-155.
World Almanac. Janton, Pierre. (1993). Esperanto
Language, literature, and Community. Albany: State University of New York Press.
USA Today Jan 18, 1996
WorldAlmanac 2003 p 184.
World Almanac 2002 p 183.
Makkai, A Ph.D. Barron's Dictionary of American Idioms. New York: Barron's
Ogden Charles K (1940) Basic English a General Introduction. London: Treber Co
Ogden see above reference
Janton see above. Pei, Pei, M. (1965). Invitation
to Linguistics. New York: Doubleday & Company. Arnold see above reference.
UEA Jarlibro (every year) Rotterdam Netherlands
Thorndyke see above reference
Arnold see above reference
Arnold see above reference
Ibid, Tisljar see
above reference