Esperanto Vocabulary

Since then many words have been borrowed from other languages, primarily but not solely from western European languages. Not all such words catch on and come into general use. In recent decades, most of the new borrowings or coinages have been technical or scientific terms; terms in everyday use are more likely to be derived from existing words (for example ''komputilo'' computer , from ''komputi'' compute ), or extending them to cover new meanings (for example ''muso'' mouse , now also signifies a computer input device, as in English). There are frequent debates among Esperanto speakers about whether a particular new borrowing is justified or whether the need can be met by derivation or extending the meaning of existing words.

ORIGINS

Esperanto occupies a middle ground between "naturalistic" Constructed Language s such as Interlingua , which borrow words ''en masse'' from their source languages with little internal derivation, and ''a priori'' conlangs such as Solresol , in which the words have no historical connection to other languages. In Esperanto, Root Word s are borrowed and retain much of the form of their source language, whether the phonetic form ''(eks-'' from ''ex-)'' or orthographic form ''(teamo'' from ''team).'' However, each root can then form dozens of derivations which may bear little resemblance to equivalent words in the source languages, such as ''registaro'' (government), which is derived from the Latinate root ''reg'' (to rule).

Source languages

Most Esperanto root words are taken from languages of the Italic and Germanic families of Indo-European . A large number are what might be called common European international vocabulary, or generic Romance : Roots common to several languages, such as ''vir-'' (man, found in words such as ''virile)'' and ''okul-'' (eye, found in ''oculist),'' etc.

The main languages contributing to Zamenhof's original vocabulary were Italian ,
French , English ,
and German , the modern languages most widely learned in schools around the world at the time Esperanto was devised. The result was that about two thirds of this original vocabulary is Romance, and about one third Germanic. Only a few roots were taken directly from the classical languages:

:ial suffix ''-e.''

: suffix ''-j,'' the Accusative Case suffix ''-n'' Muse " in Greek is the a- Declension word ''musa, musaj, musa'''n''''' and in Esperanto is ''muzo, muzoj, muzo'''n''';'' cf. also the Greek o-declension word ''logos, logoj, logo'''n''''' (word), and parallel adjectival declensions such as ''aksia, aksiaj, aksia'''n''''' (worthy) . Greek was perhaps also the model of stressed ''i'' in Esperanto words like ''familío'' (family), which follows the common Greek pattern of ''aksía'' (worthy) and ''ojkíaj'' (houses).]

Surprisingly few roots appear to have come from other modern European languages, even those Zamenhof was most familiar with. What follows is a fairly comprehensive list:

:), ''bulko'' (a bread roll), ''celo'' (an aim, goal), ''ĉu'' (whether), ''eĉ'' (even), ''kaĉo'' (porridge), ''kartavi'' (to pronounce ''R'' In The Throat ), ''klopodi'' (to take steps), ''kolbaso'' (a sausage), ''krado'' (a grating), ''krom'' (except), ''luti'' (to solder), '' moŝto'' ([your highness), ''nepre'' (without fail), ''nu'' (well!), ''ol'' (than), ''pilko'' (a ball), ''po'' (per), ''pra-'' (proto-), ''prava'' (right opinion ), ''svati'' (to matchmake), ''ŝelko'' (suspenders), ''vosto'' (a tail), and perhaps the collective suffix ''-ar-'';

: Lithuanian : ''tuj'' (immediately);

: in ''-u'' (but see below);

: (as in "''the'' more ''the'' merrier") ''ju ... des''.

Other languages were only represented in so far as they were cognate with, or as their words had become widespread in, Esperanto's source languages. However, since that time many languages have contributed words for specialized or regional concepts, such as ''haŝio'' ( Chopsticks ) from Japanese and ''boaco'' ( Reindeer ) from Saami .

A few roots appear to be unique to Esperanto:

ĝi

The etymology of a couple others would be opaque if Zamenhof hadn't explained them. For example, he says that ''edzo'' (husband) derives from the transcription ''kronprincedzino'' of the German ''Kronprinzessin'' (crown princess), internally analyzed as ''kron-'' (crown) ''princ-'' (prince) ''edzino'' (wife); ''edzo'' (husband) is then a ''rabbetsin'' "rabbi's wife", and that Zamenhof made up the German etymology after the fact to avoid anti-Semitic prejudice against Esperanto. Regardless, few words have histories this convoluted.

The Correlatives , although clearly derived from European languages (for example, ''ki-'' is cognate with French-Italian {Link without Title} 'who' and other Romance ''k-'' words; ''ti-'' with English ''th-'' words and related forms in Romance and Slavic; ''-es'' with the Germanic genitive, including English ''-’s'', etc.), have been Analogically Leveled to the point that they are often given as examples of Esperanto innovations. This is especially true for the indefinite forms like ''io'' (something), which were devised by Iconically removing the consonant of the ''ki-'' and ''ti-'' forms. Likewise, the restriction of the Italian and Greek masculine noun and adjective ending ''-o'' to nouns, and the feminine noun and adjective ending ''-a'' to adjectives and the article ''la,'' is an Esperanto innovation using existing forms.

Some smaller words have been modified to the extent that they're difficult to recognize. For example, Italian ''a, ad'' (to) became ''al'' (to) under the influence of the contraction ''al'' (to the), to better fit the phonotactics of the language, and in a parallel change, Slavic ''od'' (by, than) may have became ''ol'' (than). Esperanto also has an ''a-i-o'' Ablaut for present/past/future tense which has partial parallels in Latin present ''amat,'' perfect ''amav'''i'''t,'' and the corresponding infinitives ''amare, amav'''i'''sse.'' The infinitive suffix ''-i'' may perhaps derive from Latin Deponent Verb s, such as ''loqui'' (to speak). With elements like these that are only one or two letters long, it is difficult to know whether resemblances are due to the forms being related, or just coincidence. For example, it is speculated that the jussive ''-u'' is from the Hebrew imperative ''-û,'' but it could also be from the Greek imperative of deponent verbs such as ''dekhou'' (receive!); or perhaps it was inspired by [u being found in both Hebrew and Greek. Otto Jespersen said of the ablaut that,

:This play of vowels is not an original idea of Zamenhof's: ''-as, -is, -os'' are found for the three tenses of the infinitive in Faiguet's system of 1765; ''-a, -i, -o'' without a consonant are used like Z's ''-as, -is, -os'' by Rudelle (1858); Courtonne in 1885 had ''-am, -im, -om'' in the same values, and the similarity with Esperanto is here even more perfect than in the other projects, as ''-um'' corresponds to Z's ''-us.'' — An International Language (1928)

Technical vocabulary

Modern international vocabulary, much of it Latin or Greek in origin, is of course used as well, but frequently for a family of related words only the root will be borrowed directly, and the rest will be derived from it using Esperanto Means Of Word Formation . For example, the computer term 'bit' was borrowed directly as ''bito'', but 'byte' was then derived by compounding ''bito'' with the numeral ''ok'' (eight), for the uniquely Esperanto word ''bitoko'' ('an octet of bits'). Although not a familiar form to speakers of European languages, the transparency of its formation is helpful to those who do not have this advantage.

With the exception of perhaps a hundred common or generic plant and animal names, Esperanto adopts the international Binomial Nomenclature of living organisms, using suitable orthography, and changing the nominal and adjectival grammatical endings to ''-o'' and ''-a''. For example, the binomial for the Guineafowl is ''Numida meleagris''. In Esperanto, therefore, a ''numido'' would be any bird of the genus ''Numida'', and a ''meleagra numido'' the helmeted guineafowl specifically. Likewise, a ''numidedo'' is any bird in the guineafowl family Numididæ .

Competing root forms

There is some question over which Inflection to use when assimilating Latin and Greek words. European national standards differ in this regard, resulting in debate over whether, for example, the Asteroid Pallas should be ''Palaso'' in Esperanto, parallel to French and English names ''Pallas,'' or whether it should be ''Palado,'' as in Italian ''Pallade,'' Russian ''Паллада'' (''Palláda''), and the English adjective ''Palladian.'' In some cases there are three possibilities, as can be seen in the English noun ''helix,'' its plural ''helices'' (''c'' = and its adjective ''helical'' (''c'' = [k ). Although the resulting potential for conflict is frequently criticized, it does present an opportunity to disambiguate what would otherwise be Homonym s based on culturally specific and often fossilized Metaphor s. For example, all three of the forms of Latin ''helix'' are found as Esperanto roots, one with the original meaning, and the other two representing old metaphors: ''helico'' (a spiral), ''heliko'' (a snail), ''helikso'' (the incurved rim of the ear).

vir-o'' in order to avoid confusion with ''vir-o'' (a man), and the Latin root ''corp-us'' is the source of both ''korp-o'' (a living body) and ''korpus-o'' (a military corps). Similarly, when the sound ''ĥ'' is replaced with ''k,'' as it commonly is (see Esperanto Phonology ), the word ''ĥoro'' (a chorus) is replaced with the redundant form ''koruso'' to avoid creating a homonym with ''koro'' (a heart).

WORD FORMATION

One of the ways Zamenhof made Esperanto easier to learn than ethnic languages was by creating a regular and highly productive Derivational Morphology . Through the judicious use of lexical Affix es ( Prefix es and Suffixes ), the core vocabulary needed for communication was greatly reduced. It has been estimated that on average one Root in Esperanto is the communicative equivalent of ten words in English.

However, a contrary tendency is apparent in cultured and Greco-Latin technical vocabulary, which most Europeans see as "international" and therefore take into Esperanto ''en masse'', despite the fact they are not truly universal. Many Asians consider this to be an onerous and unnecessary burden on the memory, when it is so easy to derive equivalent words internally (for example by Calquing them, which is what Chinese often does). This sparks frequent debates as to whether a particular root is justified, and sometimes results in duplicates of native and borrowed vocabulary. An example is "calligraphy", which occurs both as a calqued ''belskribo'' ('writing of beauty') and as the direct borrowing ''kaligrafio''. Something similar has also happened in English (''brotherly'' vs ''fraternal''), German (''Ornithologie'' vs ''Vogelkunde'' for ''ornithology''), Japanese (''beesubooru'' vs ''yakyuu'' for ''baseball''), French (''le weekend'' vs. ''la fin de semaine''), ''etc''. However, while the debates in ethnic languages are motivated by Nationalism or issues of cultural identity, in Esperanto the debates are largely motivated by differing views on how to make the language practical and accessible.

Affixes

One of the most immediately useful derivational affixes for the beginner is the prefix ''mal-'', which derives Antonym s: ''peza'' (heavy), ''malpeza'' (light); ''supren'' (upwards), ''malsupren'' (downwards); ''ami'' (to love), ''malami'' (to hate); ''lumo'' (light), ''mallumo'' (darkness). However, except in jokes, this prefix is not used when an antonym exists in the basic vocabulary: ''suda'' (south), not "malnorda" from 'north'; ''manki'' (to lack), not "malesti" from 'to be'.

When a root receives more than one affix, the order does matter, as affixes modify the entire Stem they're attached to. That is, the outer ones modify the inner ones. Most affixes, like roots, have an inherent part of speech, and this is indicated by the final part-of-speech vowel in the suffix list below. A few affixes do not affect the part of speech of the root; for the suffixes listed below, this is indicated by a hyphen in place of the final vowel.

). It is quite common for prepositions to be used as prefixes: ''alveni'' (to arrive), from ''al'' (to) and ''veni'' (come); ''senespera'' (hopeless), from ''sen'' (without) and ''espero'' (hope); ''pripensi'' (to consider), from ''pri'' (about) and ''pensi'' (to think); ''etc.''

The creation of new words through the use of grammatical (''i.e.'' inflectional) suffixes, such as ''nura'' (mere) from ''nur'' (only), ''tiama'' (contemporary) from ''tiam'' (then), or ''vido'' (sight) from ''vidi'' (to see), was mentioned in the article on Esperanto Grammar . What follows is a list of the main lexical affixes.

There are, in addition, affixes not listed here: technical affixes, such as the biological family suffix ''-edo'' seen in ''numidedo'' above; a few taken from Ido , such as ''-oza'' (full of) in ''montoza'' (mountainous), ''muskoloza'' (muscular), ''poroza'' (porous); and literary or poetic proposals at varying degrees of acceptance, such as the Laudative (praising) suffix ''-el-'' in ''skribelo'' (fine penmanship) ''skribaĉo'' (scrawl) , or ''kia domelo!'' (what a house!) ''domaĉo'' (hovel) .

List of lexical suffixes

List of prefixes

Compounds

Compound words in Esperanto are similar to English, in that the final root is basic to the meaning. The roots may be joined together directly, or with an Epenthetic (linking) vowel to aid pronunciation. This epenthetic vowel is most commonly the nominal suffix ''-o-'', used regardless of number or case, but other grammatical suffixes may be used when the inherent part of speech of the first root of the compound needs to be changed.

kantobirdo

velŝipo

centjaro

multekosta

Prepositions are frequently found in compounds, and behave much like prefixes,

pripensi ion

Since affixes may be used as root words, and roots may combine like affixes, the boundary between the two is blurred. Indeed, many so-called affixes are indistinguishable from other roots. However, "true" affixes are grammatically fixed as being either prefixes or suffixes, whereas the order of roots in compounds is determined by semantics.

Reduplication

Reduplication is only marginally used in Esperanto. It has an intensivizing effect similar to that of the suffix ''-eg-''. The common examples are ''plenplena'' (chock-full), from ''plena'' (full), ''finfine'' (finally, at last), from ''fina'' (final), and ''fojfoje'' (once in a while), from ''foje'' (once, sometimes). So far, reduplication has only been used with monosyllabic roots that don't require an epenthetic vowel when compounded.

Some examples

amantino

aminda

amema

malameti

esperiga

esperema

Esperantujo

esperantaĉo

Affixes may be used in novel ways, creating new words that don't exist in any national language. Sometimes the results are poetic: In one Esperanto novel, a man opens an old book with a broken spine, and the yellowed pages ''disliberiĝas'' the root ''libera'' (free) and the affixes ''dis-'' and ''-iĝ-'' . There is no equivalent way to express this in English, but it creates a very strong visual image of the pages escaping the book and scattering over the floor. More importantly, the word is comprehensible the first time one hears it.

Derivation by affix greatly expands a speaker's vocabulary, sometimes beyond what they know in their native language. For instance, the English word ''ommatidium'' (a single lens of a compound eye) is rather obscure, but a child would be able to coin an Esperanto equivalent, ''okulero'', from ''okulo'' 'an eye' (or perhaps, more precisely, ''okularero'', by first coining ''okularo'' for 'a compound eye'). In this way the Esperanto root ''vid-'' (see) regularly corresponds to some two dozen English words: ''see (saw, seen), sight, blind, vision, visual, visible, nonvisual, invisible, unsightly, glance, view, vista, panorama, observant'' etc., though there are also separate Esperanto roots for some of these concepts.

In the ''Fundamento'', Zamenhof illustrated word formation by deriving the equivalents of ''recuperate, disease, hospital, germ, patient, doctor, medicine, pharmacy,'' etc. from ''sana'' (healthy). Not all of the resulting words translate well into English, in many cases because they distinguish fine shades of meaning that English lacks: ''Sano, sana, sane, sani, sanu, saniga, saneco, sanilo, sanigi, saniĝi, sanejo, sanisto, sanulo, malsano, malsana, malsane, malsani, malsanulo, malsaniga, malsaniĝi, malsaneta, malsanema, malsanulejo, malsanulisto, malsanero, malsaneraro, sanigebla, sanigisto, sanigilo, resanigi, resaniĝanto, sanigilejo, sanigejo, malsanemulo, sanilaro, malsanaro, malsanulido, nesana, malsanado, sanulaĵo, malsaneco, malsanemeco, saniginda, sanilujo, sanigilujo, remalsano, remalsaniĝo, malsanulino, sanigista, sanigilista, sanilista, malsanulista''. Perhaps half of these words are in common use, but the others (and more) are available if needed.

CORRELATIVES

The Correlative s or "table words" are a paradigm of Proform s, used to ask and answer the questions ''what, where, when, why, who, whose, how, how much,'' and ''what kind''. There are nine endings for these nine questions, plus five initial elements that correspond to asking, answering, denying, ''etc''; by learning these 14 elements the speaker acquires a tableau of 45 adverbs and pronouns.

The correlatives beginning with ''ti-'' correspond to the English Demonstrative s in ''th-'' (''this, thus, then, there'' etc.), while ''ĉi-'' corresponds to ''every-'' and ''i-'' to ''some-''. The correlatives beginning with ''ki-'' have a double function, as Interrogative and Relative pronouns and adverbs, just as the ''wh-'' words do in English.

The Adjectival Determiners ending in ''-u'' have the usual dual function of adjectives: standing alone as proforms, as in ''ĉiu'' (everyone); and modifying a noun, as in ''ĉiu tago'' (every day).

The adjectival correlatives, ending in ''-ia'' and ''-iu'', agree in number and case with the nouns they modify, like any other adjectives. They, as well as the Independent Determiners ending in ''-io'', also take the accusative case when standing in for the object of a clause. The accusative of motion is used with the place correlatives in ''-ie'', forming ''-ien'' (hither, whither, thither, ''etc''.).

Table of correlatives

Correlative particles

Several adverbial particles are used primarily with the correlatives: ''ajn'' indicates generality, ''ĉi'' proximity, and ''for'' distance.

kio ajn

io ajn

tio

tiu

tiuj

tiu ĉi

tiu for

tien ĉi

ĉiu hundo

ĉiuj hundoj

An extension of the original paradigm

Sometimes the correlative system is extended to the root ''ali-'' (other), at least when the resulting word is unambiguous,

aliel

''Alie'', however, would be ambiguous as to whether the original meaning "otherwise" or the correlative "elsewhere" were intended, so ''aliloke'' (from ''loko'' "place") is used for "elsewhere".

As a practical matter, only ''aliel'' and ''alies'' are seen with any frequency, and all of these forms are strongly condemned by many speakers.

Interrogative ''vs.'' relative pronouns

Examples of the interrogative versus relative uses of the ''ki-'' words:

: ''Kiu ŝtelis mian ringon?'' (Who stole my ring?)
: ''La polico ne kaptis la ŝtelistojn, kiuj ŝtelis mian ringon.'' (The police haven't caught the thieves who {Link without Title} stole my ring.)

: ''Kiel vi faris tion?'' (How did you do that {Link without Title} ?)
: ''Mi ne scias, kiel fari tion.'' (I don't know how to do that.)

Also,

: ''Kia viro li estas?'' (What kind of man is he?)
: ''Kia viro!'' (What a man!)

Note that standard Esperanto punctuation puts a comma before the relative word (a correlative in ''ki-'' or the conjunction ''ke'', "that").

Derivatives

Various parts of speech may be derived from the correlatives, just as from any other roots: ''ĉiama'' (eternal), ''ĉiea'' (ubiquitous), ''tiama'' (contemporary), ''kialo'' (a reason), ''iomete'' (a little bit), ''kioma etaĝo?'' (which floor?) last requests a quantified answer of how many floors up, like ''la dek-sesa'' (the 16^th), rather than simply pointing out which floor, which would be asked with ''kiu etaĝo?''.

Although the initial and final elements of the correlatives are not roots or affixes, in that they cannot normally be independently combined with other words (for instance, there is no genitive case in ''-es'' for nouns), the initial element of the ''neni-'' correlatives is an exception, as seen in ''neniulo'' (a nobody), from ''neni-'' plus ''-ulo''.

GENDER

Some Esperanto roots are semantically Masculine or Feminine . In general, feminine words are derived from their masculine equivalent.

Masculine roots

A small (and decreasing) number of noun roots, mostly titles and kinship terms, are inherently masculine unless the feminine suffix ''-ino'' is added. For example, there are ''patro'' (father) and ''patrino'' (mother), while there is no proper word for ''parent'' (as explained below).

The original setup

In the early twentieth century, members of a profession were assumed to be masculine unless specified otherwise with ''-ino'', reflecting the expectations of most industrial societies. That is, ''sekretario'' was a male secretary, and ''instruisto'' was a male teacher. This was the case for all words ending in ''-isto'', as well as ''-ulo'' (''riĉulo'' "a rich ''man''"), ''-ano'' and ethnicities (''kristano'' "a male Christian", ''anglo'' "an English''man''"), ''-estro'' (''urbestro'' "a male mayor"), and the Participles ''-into, -anto, -onto, -ito, -ato, -oto'' (''komencanto'' "a male beginner"). Many domestic animals were also masculine (''bovo'' "bull", ''kapro'' "billygoat"). These generally became gender-neutral over the course of the century, as many similar words did in English, because of social transformation.

The current situation

There is still variation in many of the above words, depending on the social expectations and language background of the speaker. Many of the words are not clearly either masculine or Epicene today. For example, the plural ''bovoj'' is generally understood to mean "cattle", not "bulls", and similarly the plurals ''angloj'' (Englishpeople) and ''komencantoj'' (students); but a masculine meaning reappears in ''bovo kaj bovino'' "a bull & cow", ''anglo kaj anglino'' (an Englishman & Englishwoman), ''komencanto kaj komencantino'' (a male & female beginner).

We are left with several dozen fairly clearly masculine roots:
:Words for boys and men: ''bubo'' (brat), ''eŭnuko'' (eunuch), ''fraŭlo'' (bachelor - the feminine ''fraŭlino'' is used for ''miss''), ''knabo'' (boy), ''masklo'' (a male), ''viro'' (man), etc.;
:Kin terms: ''avo'' (grandfather), ''edzo'' (husband), ''fianĉo'' (fiance), ''filo'' (son), ''frato'' (brother), ''kuzo'' (cousin), ''nepo'' (grandson), ''nevo'' (nephew), ''onklo'' (uncle), ''patro'' (father), ''vidvo'' (widower);
:Nobility: ''barono'' (baron), ''caro'' (czar), ''emiro'' (emir), ''grafo'' (count), ''mikado'' (mikado), ''princo'' (prince), ''reĝo'' (king), ''sinjoro'' (lord, sir), ''ŝaho'' (shah), etc.;
:Religious orders: ''abato'' (abbot), ''monaĥo'' (monk), ''papo'' (Pope), ''rabeno'' (rabbi), ''imamo'' (imam), etc.
:Basic words for domestic animals: ''koko'' (rooster);
:Dedicated masculine words for domestic animals that already have a separate epicene root: ''boko'' (buck), ''kapono'' (castrated rooster), ''okso'' (castrated bull), ''stalono'' (stallion), ''taŭro'' (bull), etc.;
:The word for friend: ''amiko''.

A few of these, such as ''masklo'' and the words dedicated for male animals, are essentially masculine and are never used with the feminine suffix. The others remain masculine mainly because, officially at least, Esperanto has no good way of indicating masculine gender. One work-around, using ''vir-'' (man) as a prefix, is used with animals, but it's ambiguous: ''virbovo'' can mean either ''a bull'' or ''a minotaur'', and therefore both ''taŭro'' and ''minotaŭro'' have been borrowed into the language to disambiguate.

Not all of these words are stably masculine. Native English speakers, among others, tend to treat ''kuzo'' (a cousin) and ''amiko'' (a friend) as gender-neutral, and ''nepo'' (a grandson/grandchild), ''bubo'' (a brat), and ''koko'' (a rooster/chicken) are often ambiguous as well. Once such a word is used ambiguously by a significant number of speakers or writers, it can no longer be assumed to be masculine. Language guides suggest using all ambiguous words neutrally, and many people find this the least confusing approach—and so the ranks of masculine words gradually dwindle.

Feminine roots

Besides the suffix ''-ino'', there are several dozen feminine roots:
:Words for women: ''femalo'' (a female), ''hetajro'' (concubine), ''matrono'' (married woman), ''megero'' (shrew/bitch);
:Professions: ''almeo'' (dancing girl), ''gejŝo'' (geisha), ''meretrico'' (prostitute), ''primadono'' (prima donna), ''subreto'' (soubrette);
:Titles: ''damo'' (lady, queen), ''madono'' (Madonna);
:Mythological figures: ''amazono'' (Amazon), ''furio'' (Fury), ''muzo'' (Muse), ''nimfo'' (nymph), etc.
Unlike their masculine counterparts, feminine words have not generally been reinterpreted as epicene.

Common approaches to regularizing Esperanto gender

Some people, including many English speakers, feel that deriving feminine from masculine words is Sexist , and attempt to avoid gendered language; others, such as many German speakers, have the opposite view, feeling that subsuming women under a masculine term is sexist, and so consistently specify gender. Either way, gender is often a fuzzy issue in Esperanto.

Gender asymmetry is both one of the biggest issues people have with the Esperanto language (the others being adjectival concord, the accusative, the letters with diacritics, and the eternal debate over borrowing ''vs'' deriving technical vocabulary), and the one that seems easiest to "fix". Numerous solutions have been proposed over the years. However, two of these recur repeatedly, as they derive from existing resources of the language. These are the masculine suffix ''-iĉo'' and the epicene prefix ''ge-''.

The masculine suffix ''-iĉo''

-iĉo'' by analogy with ''-ĉjo'' alongside feminine ''-ino'', with the bare root now becoming , as the names of professions such as ''dentisto'' did half a century ago:

parent)

patrino

patriĉo'' (father)

panjo

paĉjo

femo'' (the etymological root of such Esperanto words as ''femalo, feminismo'') for "a woman", with ''adolto'' or ''plenkreskulo'' (a grown-up) for "an adult". This may be due to the number of established masculine derivatives of the root ''vir-'', such as the adjective ''vira'' (male), or perhaps to a desire to have basic dedicated roots for "man" and "woman".

Ido

Volapük

The epicene prefix ''ge-''

gepatro'' (parent)

patro

patrino

Gendered pronouns

Esperanto Personal Pronouns

ANTONYMS

IDIOMS AND SLANG

Idioms

Contractions

espo

kaŭ

’stas

Below

Word play

maltrinki

malmanĝi

woman as a sexual object

Cultural "in" words

Constructed Language

Volapük

krokodili

kajmani

aligatori

lacerti

Jargon

Artificial variants

jam temp’ está

Reconstructions

''De novo'' creations

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