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The creator of ''' variation; and so there are disagreements, for example, as to whether Voicing Assimilation is allowed, expected, or forbidden in sequences like ''kz'' (found in ''ekzemple'' for example). It is also unclear whether the script is completely phonemic, since ''v'' and ''ŭ'' are in nearly Complementary Distribution . Zamenhof also failed to explicitly lay out Esperanto Phonotactics , only saying that borrowings "need to conform to Esperanto orthography". Therefore spellings have been adopted that appear to violate his intentions, such as ''poŭpo, ŭato, jida, matĉo''. However, many of these coinages have proven to be unstable, and have either fallen out of use or been replaced with pronunciations more in keeping with the original Esperanto vocabulary, such as ''pobo'' and ''vato'' for ''poŭpo'' and ''ŭato.'' ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION Zamenhof suggested using Italian as a model for Esperanto pronunciation. The Esperanto alphabet is nearly phonemic and coincides closely to the International Phonetic Alphabet . The letters, along with their IPA and nearest English equivalents, are, This inventory is rather similar to that of Polish, but is especially close to Belarusian , which was historically important to the creator of Esperanto. The main innovations, compared to Belarusian, are, :the absence of Palatalization in Esperanto, although this was present in Proto-Esperanto (''nacjes'', now ''nacioj'' "nations"; ''familje'', now ''familio'' "family") and arguably survives marginally in the affectionate suffixes ''-njo'' and ''-ĉjo'', and in the interjection ''tju!''; :the lack of a phonemic affricate , although again there are remnants in words such as ''edzo'' "a husband". Belarusian, the letters ''ł, l'' represent (phonetically ), and ''i, y'' represent (phoneticaly ), so these are accounted for by the absence of palatalization. It can also be argued that the Esperanto sequences ''kv, gv'' are phonemes, representing the phonemic /kʷ, gʷ/ of their Latinate and Germanic sources. On the other hand, the distinctions between several Esperanto consonants carry very light Functional Load s, though they are not in Complementary Distribution and therefore not Allophone s. The practical effect of this is that people who do not control these distinctions are still able to communicate without difficulty. These minor distinctions are ''ĵ'' vs. ''ĝ'' , found in ''aĵo'' "concrete thing" vs. ''aĝo'' "age"; ''k'' vs. ''ĥ'' vs. ''h'' , found in ''koro'' "heart" vs. ''ĥoro'' "chorus" vs. ''horo'' "hour", and in the prefix ''ek-'' (inchoative) vs. ''eĥo'' "echo"; and ''c'' vs. ''ĉ'' , found in a few minimal pairs such as ''caro'' "tzar", ''ĉar'' "because"; ''ci'' "thou", ''ĉi'' (proximate particle used with deictics); ''celo'' "goal", ''ĉelo'' "cell"; ''-eco'' "-ness", ''eĉ'' "even"; etc. For similarly practical reasons, there is no distinction between and in Esperanto, with ''v'' representing either. Belarusian seems to have also provided the model for Esperanto's diphthongs, as well as the complementary distribution of ''v'' (restricted to the Onset of a syllable), and ''ŭ'' (occurring only as a vocalic offglide), although this was modified slightly, with Belarusian ''oŭ'' corresponding to Esperanto ''ov'' (as in ''bovlo''), and ''ŭ'' being restricted to the sequences ''aŭ, eŭ'' in Esperanto. While ''v'' and ''ŭ'' may both occur between vowels, as in ''naŭa'' "ninth" and ''nava'' "of naves", the diphthongal distinction holds: vs. . (However, Zamenhof did allow initial ''ŭ'' in onomatopoeic words such as ''ŭa'' "wah!".) The semivowel ''j'' likewise does not occur after the vowel ''i'', but is also restricted from occurring before ''i'', whereas the Belarusian letter ''i'' represents . Later exceptions to these patterns, such as ''poŭpo'' "poop deck", ''ŭato'' "Watt", East Asian proper names beginning with ''Ŭ'', and ''jida'' "Yiddish", are marginal. The distinction between ''e'' and ''ej'' carries a light functional load, in the core vocabulary perhaps only distinctive before alveolar sonorants, such as ''kejlo'' "peg, spigot", ''kelo'' "cellar"; ''mejlo'' "mile", ''melo'' "badger"; ''Rejno'' "Rhine", ''reno'' "kidney". The recent borrowing ''gejo'' "gay, homosexual" could contrast with the ambisexual prefix ''ge-'' if used in compounds with a following consonant. ''Eŭ'' is also uncommon, and very seldom contrastive: ''eŭro'' "a Euro" vs ''ero'' "a bit, piece". STRESS AND PROSODY Within a word, , usually for poetic reasons, as this does not affect the placement of the stress: ''famili’'' . On the rare occasions that stress needed to be specified, as in explanatory material or with proper names, Zamenhof used an acute accent. The most common such proper name is Zamenhof's own: ''Zámenhof.'' If the stress falls on the last syllable, it is common for an apostrophe to be used, as in poetic elision: ''Oĝalan’.''
Within a clause, rhythm also plays a role. However, referential words (s do not take stress, not even two-syllable ''kiu'' "which" or ''preter'' "beyond". The verb ''esti'' "to be" behaves similarly, as can be seen by the occasional elision of the ''e'' in poetry or rapid speech: ''Mi ne ’stas ĉi tie!'' "I'm not here!" Within poetry, of course, the meter determines stress: ''Hó, mia kór’, ne bátu máltrankvíle'' "Oh my heart, do not beat uneasily." Emphasis and contrast may override normal stress. Pronouns frequently take stress because of this. In a simple question like ''Ĉu vi vídis?'' "Did you see?", the pronoun hardly needs to be said and is unstressed; compare ''Ne, dónu al mí'' "No, give ''me.''" Within a word, a prefix that wasn't heard correctly may be stressed upon repetition: ''Ne, ne tíen! Iru máldekstren, mi diris!'' "No, not over ''there!'' Go ''left,'' I said!" Since stress doesn't distinguish words in Esperanto, shifting it to an unexpected syllable calls attention to that syllable, but doesn't cause confusion as it might in English. As in many languages, '' . Lexical Tone is not phonemic. Nor is clausal Intonation , as question particles and changes in word order serve many of the functions that intonation perfoms in English. INVENTORY The consonantal inventory is as follows, with ''v'' counted as both a fricative and an approximant, parentheses around distinctions with low functional loads, and double parentheses around possible phonemes not represented by the orthography: The vowels and diphthongs are: PHONOTACTICS A Syllable in Esperanto is generally of the form (s/ŝ)(C)(C)V(C)(C). That is, it ''may'' have an Onset , of up to three consonants; ''must'' have a Nucleus of a single vowel or diphthong (except in Onomatopoeic words such as ''zzz!''), and may have a Coda of zero to one (occasionally two) consonants. Any consonant may occur initially, with the exception of ''j'' before ''i'' (though there is now one word that violates this restriction, ''jida'' "Yiddish" which contrasts with ''ida'' "of an offspring"). Any consonant except ''h'' may close a syllable, though coda ''ĝ'' and ''ĵ'' are rare in monomorphemes (for example, ''ĵ'' in the name of the conlang ''Loĵbano'' " Lojban "). Within a morpheme, there may be a maximum of four sequential consonants, as for example in ''instruas'' "teaches", ''de'''kstr'''en'' "to the right". Long clusters generally include a Sibilant such as ''s'' or one of the Liquid ''l'' or ''r''. Geminate consonants generally only occur in polymorphemic words, such as ''mal-longa'' "short", ''ek-kuŝi'' "to flop down", ''mis-skribi'' "to mis-write"; and in proper names such as ''Ŝillero'' "Schiller", ''Finno'' "a Finn", ''Gallo'' "a Gaul" (now more commonly ''Gaŭlo''), ''Buddo'' "Buddha" (now more commonly ''Budho''); and a handful of unstable borrowings such as ''matĉo'' "a sports match".
Syllabic consonants occur only as Interjection s and Onomatopoeia : ''fr!, sss!, ŝŝ!, hm!''. All triconsonantal onsets begin with a sibilant, ''s'' or ''ŝ''. Disregarding proper names such as ''Vladimiro'', the following initial consonant clusters occur:
And more marginally, :Consonant + — ''(tj), ĉj, fj, vj, nj'' The affectionate suffixes ''-ĉj-'' and ''-nj-'', which retain remnants of the Slavic palatalized consonants, may very occasionally be used as words in their own right, as in ''mia ĉjanja popolo'' "my dear nation", in which case they may be word initial and not just syllable initial. Although it does not occur initially, the sequence ''dz'' is pronounced as a cluster if not as an affricate, as in ''edzo'' "a husband" with an open first syllable {Link without Title} , not as . In addition, initial ''pf-'' occurs in German-derived ''pfenigo'' "penny", ''kŝ-'' in Sanskrit ''kŝatrio'' " Kshatriya ", and several additional uncommon initial clusters occur in technical words of Greek origin, such as ''mn-, pn-, ks-, ps-, sf-, ft-, kt-, pt-, bd-'', such as ''sfinktero'' "a sphincter" (which also has the coda ''nk''). Quite a few more clusters turn up in sufficiently obscure words, such as ''tl'' in ''tlaspo'' "Thlaspi" (a Genus of herb), and Aztec deities such as ''Tlaloko'' "Tlaloc". (The phonemes are presumably devoiced in these words.) As this might suggest, greater phonotactic diversity and complexity is tolerated in learnèd than in quotidian words, almost as if "difficult" phonotactics were an iconic indication of "difficult" vocabulary. Diconsonantal codas, for example, generally only occur in technical terms, proper names, and in geographical and ethnic terms: ''konjunkcio'' "a conjunction", ''arkta'' "Arctic", ''istmo'' "isthmus". However, there is a strong tendency for more basic terms to avoid such clusters, although ''cent'' "hundred", ''post'' "after", ''sankta'' "holy", and the prefix ''eks-'' "ex-" (which can be used as an interjection: ''Eks la reĝo!'' "Down with the king!") are exceptions. Even when coda clusters occur in the source languages, they are often eliminated in Esperanto. For instance, many European languages have words relating to "body" with a root of ''korps-''. This root gave rise to two words in Esperanto, neither of which keep the full cluster: ''korpuso'' "a military corps" (retaining the original Latin ''u''), and ''korpo'' "a biological body" (losing the ''s'').
Within compounds, an Epenthetic vowel is added to break up what would otherwise be unacceptable clusters of consonants. This vowel is most commonly the nominal affix ''-o,'' regardless of number or case, as in ''kant-o-birdo'' "a songbird" (the root ''kant-'' "to sing" is inherently a verb), but other part-of-speech endings may be used when ''-o-'' is judged to be grammatically inappropriate, as in ''mult-e-kosta'' "expensive". There is a great deal of variation as to when an epenthetic vowel is used, since what is "acceptable" varies from speaker to speaker, and it also appears to depend on the frequency of the compound word, or perhaps the medium of expression (spoken vs. written). For example, the rather dry (and usually written) compound of ''vorto'' "word" and ''provizo'' "stock" for "vocabulary" turned up as ''vortprovizo,'' with an unbroken ''rtpr'' cluster, in 97% of Google hits. (Interestingly, in the accusative case the cluster only occurs 78% of the time.) A similar compound of ''parto'' "part" and ''preni'' "to take", for "to participate", could produce the same ''rtpr'' cluster. However, this compound is much more frequent (25 times as many hits on Google) and is part of people's basic speaking vocabulary. Here the epenthetic form ''part'''o'''preni'' is nearly universal; ''partpreni'' and its conjugations only occur 0.1% of the time. ALLOPHONIC VARIATION With only five oral and no nasal or long vowels, Esperanto allows a fair amount of allophonic variation, though the distinction between and , and arguably and , is phonemic. Disregarding assimilation for the moment, the more noticeable allophony among the consonants is with and . The may be pronounced as either an Alveolar Flap or an Alveolar Trill , in Free Variation but with the flap more common. The may be a labiodental fricative or a labiodental approximant , again in free variation, but with considered normative. Alveolar consonants ''t, d, n, l'' are acceptably either Apical (as in English) or Laminal (as in French, generally but incorrectly called "dental"). Postalveolars ''ĉ, ĝ, ŝ, ĵ'' may be ''palato-alveolar'' (semi- Palatalized ) as in English and French, or ''retroflex'' (non-palatalized) as in Polish, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese. ''H'' and ''ĥ'' may be voiced , especially between vowels. However, aspiration or incomplete voicing of consonants as in English or Mandarin is considered substandard, as are the English diphthongized "long" vowels . Vowel length and quality Vowels may be lengthened in open syllables or when stressed, and vowel quality often correlates with length, though the details vary with the language background of the speaker. (Zamenhof recommended pronouncing the vowels ''e'' and ''o'' as Mid Vowel s at all times, but he himself pronounced them as Open-mid Vowel s.) Adjacent stressed syllables are not allowed in compound words, and when stress disappears in such situations, it may leave behind a residue of vowel length. Vowel length is sometimes presented as an argument for the phonemic status of the affricates, because vowels tend to be short before most Consonant Cluster s (excepting Plosives plus ''l'' or ''r,'' as in many European languages), but long before ''ĉ, ĝ, c,'' and ''dz.'' Kalocsay & Waringhien recommend pronouncing unstressed vowels short, even in open syllables, with stressed ''e, o'' as short open-mid in closed syllables and long Close-mid in open syllables. When syllables of compound words lose their stress, they recommend that the vowel should be long and open-mid: ''liber-tempo'' , ''or-ĉeno'' . Epenthesis Epenthetic glottal stops in vowel sequences such as ''boao'' "boa" are non-phonemic, but allowed for the comfort of the speaker. They are especially common with sequences of identical vowels, such as ''heroo'' "hero" and ''praavo'' "great-grandfather". It is also very common to pronounce an epenthetic between an /i/ and a following vowel (''mia'' , ''mielo'' ), but this is avoided in careful enunciation. Poetic elision Vowel elision is allowed with the grammatical suffix ''-o'' of singular nominative nouns, and the ''a'' of the article ''la'', though this rarely occurs outside of poetry: ''de l’ kor’'' "from the heart". Normally semivowels are restricted to offglides in diphthongs. However, poetic meter may force the reduction of unstressed /i/ and /u/ to semivowels before a stressed vowel: ''kormilionoj'' ; ''buduaro'' . Assimilation Zamenhof recognized two types of regressive Assimilation in Esperanto:
However, he stated that "severely regular" speech would not have assimilation, and this has led to debate over whether it "should" occur. An example of the first type is assimilation of ''n'' before a velar, as in ''banko'' "bank" or ''sango'' "blood". ''N'' may also palatalize before palatal /j/, as in ''panjo'' "mommy" and ''sinjoro'' "sir". However, although the desirability of these may be debated, the question almost never arises as to whether the ''m'' in ''emfazi'' should remain bilabial or should assimilate to labiodental ''f'' (), as this assimilation is nearly universal in human language. Indeed, where the orthography allows, we see that assimilation does occur. For example, original ''bonbono'' "bonbon" has over time become ''bombono'' even in dictionaries. The debate on voicing assimilation is likewise dependent on speakers' language backgrounds. The question of assimilation is almost never an issue with words that maintain Latinate orthography, such as ''absolute'' "absolutely" or ''obtuza'' "obtuse", despite the fact that potentially contrastive voiceless equivalents such as ''apsido'' "apsis" and ''optiko'' "optics" occur. Instead, the debate centers around the non-Latinate orthographic sequence ''kz'', frequently found in Latinate words like ''ekzemple'' "for example" and ''ekzisti'' "to exist". It is often claimed that ''kz'' is properly pronounced as written, with mixed voicing, , despite the fact that Zamenhof recognized that the ''k'' may assimilate to the ''z'' for , as in Slavic, English, Spanish, French, and many other languages. The two opinions are called ''ekzismo'' and ''egzismo'' in Esperanto. (Orthographic ''gz'' does not occur in Esperanto, except in the nonce word ''egzismo'' itself.) In practice, most Esperanto speakers assimilate both ''kz'' to and ''nk'' to when speaking fluently. Voicing assimilation of affricates and fricatives before nasals, as in ''taĉmento'' "a detachment" and the suffix ''-ismo'' "ism", is both more noticeable and easier for most speakers to avoid, so for ''-ismo'' is less tolerated than for ''absolute''. Compound words such as ''okdek'' "eighty", ''longtempe'' "for a long time", and ''glavsonoro'' "the ringing of a sword" are likewise more likely to retain mixed voicing, though assimilation is not uncommon in rapid speech: . Similarly, mixed Sibilant sequences, as in the polymorphemic ''disĵeti'' "to scatter", tend to assimilate, sometimes completely in rapid speech ( {Link without Title} ), though, if noticed, this would be considered wrong. Like the generally ignored regressive devoicing in words such as ''absurda'', progressive devoicing tends to go unnoticed within Plosive - Sonorant clusters, as in ''plua'' ("additional"; contrasts with ''blua'' "blue") and ''knabo'' ("boy"; the ''kn-'' contrasts with ''gn-'', as in ''gnomo'' "gnome"). Partial to full devoicing of the sonorant is probably the norm for most speakers. Loss of phonemic ''ĥ'' The sound ''ĥ'' was always somewhat marginal in Esperanto, and there has been a strong move to merge it into [k . Dictionaries generally cross-reference ''ĥ'' and ''k,'' but the sequence ''rĥ'' (as in ''arĥitekturo'' "architecture") was replaced by ''rk'' (''arkitekturo'') so completely by the early 20th Century that few dictionaries even list ''rĥ'' as an option. Other words, such as ''ĥemio'' "chemistry" and ''monaĥo'' "monk", still vary but are more commonly found with ''k'' (''kemio, monako''). In a few cases, such as with words of Russian origin, ''ĥ'' may instead be replaced by ''h.'' This merger has had only a few complications. ''Ĥoro'' "chorus" has been given the alternate form ''koruso,'' because both ''koro'' "heart" and ''horo'' "hour" were taken. The two words still almost universally seen with ''ĥ'' are ''eĥo'' "echo" and ''ĉeĥo'' "a Czech". ''Ek-'' ( Perfective Aspect ) and ''ĉeko'' "check" already exist, and Esperanto roots cannot end in ''h,'' although ''ekoo'' for ''eĥo'' is occasionally seen. Proper names and borrowings A common source of allophonic variation is borrowed words, especially proper names, when non-Esperantized remnants of the source-language orthography remain, or when novel sequences are created in order to avoid duplicating existing roots. For example, it is doubtful that many people fully pronounce the ''g'' in ''Vaŝingtono'' "Washington DC" as either or , or pronounce the ''h'' in ''Budho'' "Buddha". Such situations are unstable, and in many cases dictionaries recognize that certain spellings (and therefore pronunciations) are inadvisable. For example, the physical unit "Watt" was first borrowed as ''ŭato'', to distinguish it from ''vato'' "cotton-wool", and this is the only form found in dictionaries in 1930. However, initial ''ŭ'' violates Esperanto phonotactics, and by 1970 there was an alternate spelling, ''vatto''. This was also unsatisfactory, however, due to the geminate ''t'', and by 2000 the effort had been given up, with ''vato'' now the advised spelling for both "Watt" and "cotton-wool". Some recent dictionaries, such as the '' Reta Vortaro '', no longer even list initial ''ŭ'' in their index. Likewise, several dictionaries now list a newer spelling ''Vaŝintono'' for Washington. |
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