Je 09:45 AM 5/17/99 -0700, Robert J. Petry skribis:
 
...>the dictionary of Esperanto. =20
>From the section "How to Use the Dictionary". Also, there are no prefixes
>listed for -al, or -itat, so Esperanto is forced to have universal and
>universitat for roots to make up for the lack of affixes to cover them.
This is
>one of the reasons I prefer the Occidental method.
 
As you clearly already know (it's listed in the abbreviated affix
comparison list which you posted), in Esperanto one directly adds "-a" to
the root to form an adjective, rather than using /al/ as in Ido (and
Occidental).  Incidentally, thanks for the list -- it confirmed my guess
about the meaning of the Occidental /al/.  You will seek in vain for an
Esperanto suffix with this meaning, unless you treat the adjectival
indicator "-a" as the suffix you seek.  That, of course, is the normal
situation in Esperanto:
 
Esperanto  Occidental   English
---------  ----------   --------------
lingvo     lingue       language (noun)
lingva     lingual      linguistic, language (adj), relating to language
 
Unfortunately the list was cut before it reached the other affixes which I
asked about, such as /ita'/.  What meaning could that have when separated
from the root /univers/?  Is this really a productive affix, usable
throughout the language?
 
A couple of comments on the list:
 
>Esperanto/Ido/Occidental
>
>Prefixes:
>
>bo-/bo-/bel-
>ge-/ge-/(suppressed. i.e. not needed, or not used)
>mal-/des-/des-, in-, des-esperar, in-fidel
 
Q: Would "des-" be used with verbs, "in-" with other parts of speech?  Or
is this a case of separating out two different meanings of the Esperanto
"mal-"?  Mi ne komprenas.
 
>re-/ri-/re-
>dis-/dis-/dis-
>ek-/-esk/(suppressed) in-dormir se
 
Incidentally, here is a strong Romance connection (cf. Fr. "s'endormir"). =
=20
 
Q: Might there not be some confusion between the different meanings of the
"in-" prefix?  There certainly is in Romance languages (and in English).
By the way, I think that the presence of such patterns in "natural"
languages is an excellent argument for their inclusion in a planlingvo,
it's a natural thing!  One of the chief challenges facing the planner of a
naturalistic planlingvo is deciding which patterns to keep and which to
discard.  Keeping all would merely replicate the confusion inherited from
the source languages.
 
>Suffixes
>
>a-/-ala, -a/-al, -ic nation-al, hero-ic
 
Yes, here's the Esperanto "-a".
 
>-acho(?)/-acho/-ach
 
What does the question mark signify?  Was the author unsure about the
existence of the Esperanto affix "-ac^-"?  Yes, it is used.
 
>-ado/-ado/-da
 
Is "-da" here a typo for "-ad"?
 
>-ajho/-ajo/-age
>-ano/-ano/-an
>
>etc.
>
>Enjoy,
 
Oh, I was, until you cut it short.  Please consider posting the whole
thing, or if you feel it's too much for auxlang I'd appreciate a copy by
email.  The previous list without meanings is really not very helpful. =20
 
Actually I think this sort of comparison might be of great interest to many
sam-grup-an-o-j.  It really is the first concrete indication which we've
seen regarding the question of whether Occidental's system of affixes is
more productive and logically applied than Interlingua's, and consequently
very important in relation to your statements placing Occidental among the
logical word-derivation planlingvoj rather than in the naturalistic camp. =
=20
 
Dankon denove pro la mesag^o!
 
Ken
 
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  | Ken CAVINESS           Physics at Southern Adventist University |
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