A Complete Grammar of Esperanto

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A Complete Grammar of Esperanto

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Title: A Complete Grammar of Esperanto
Author: Ivy Kellerman
Release Date: March, 2005 [EBook #7787] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 25, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
The Esperanto alphabet contains 28 characters. These are the characters of English, but with "q", "w", "x", and "y" removed, and six diacritical letters added. The diacritical letters are "c", "g", "h", "j" and "s" with circumflexes (or "hats", as Esperantists fondly call them), and "u" with a breve. Zamenhof himself suggested that where the diacritical letters caused difficulty, one could instead use "ch", "gh", "hh", "jh", "sh" and "u". A plain ASCII file is one such place; there are no ASCII codes for Esperanto's special letters.
However, there are two problems with Zamenhof's "h-method". There is no difference between "u" and "u" with a breve, and there is no way to determine (without prior knowledge of the word(s) involved, and sometimes a bit of context) whether an "h" following one of those other five letters is really the second half of a diacritical pair, or just an "h" that happened to find itself next to one of them. Consequently other, unambiguous, methods have been used over the years. One is the "x-method", which uses the digraphs "cx", "gx", "hx", "jx", "sx" and "ux" to represent the special letters. There is no ambiguity because the letter "x" is not an Esperanto letter, and each diacritical letter has a unique transliteration. This is the method used in this Project Gutenberg e-text.

A COMPLETE GRAMMAR OF ESPERANTO
THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
WITH GRADED EXERCISES FOR READING AND TRANSLATION TOGETHER WITH FULL VOCABULARIES
BY IVY KELLERMAN, A.M., Ph.D.
MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND CHAIRMAN OF EXAMINATIONS FOR THE ESPERANTO ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA, MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL "LINGVA KOMITATO"
* * * * *
TO
DR. L. L. ZAMENHOF
THE AUTHOR OF ESPERANTO
* * * * *
PREFACE.
This volume has been prepared to meet a twofold need. An adequate presentation of the International Language has become an imperative necessity. Such presentation, including full and accurate grammatical explanations, suitably graded reading lessons, and similarly graded material for translation from English, has not heretofore been accessible within the compass of a single volume, or in fact within the compass of any two or three volumes.
The combination of grammar and reader here offered is therefore unique. It is to furnish not merely an introduction to Esperanto, or a superficial acquaintance with it, but a genuine understanding of the language and mastery of its use without recourse to additional textbooks, readers, etc. In other words, this one volume affords as complete a knowledge of Esperanto as several years' study of a grammar and various readers will accomplish for any national language. Inflection, word-formation and syntax are presented clearly and concisely, yet with a degree of completeness and in a systematic order that constitute a new feature. Other points worthy of note are the following:
The reasons for syntactical usages are given, instead of mere statements that such usages exist. For example, clauses of purpose and of result are really explained, instead of being dismissed with the unsatisfactory remark that "the imperative follows 'por ke,'" or the "use of 'tiel ... ke' and 'tia ... ke' must be distinguished from that of 'tiel ... kiel' and 'tia ... kia,'" etc., with but little intimation of when and why "por ke", "tiel ... ke" and "tia ... ke" are likely to occur.
Affixes are not mentioned until some familiarity with the general character of the language is assured, as well as the possession of a fair vocabulary. They are introduced gradually, with adequate