ESPERANTO

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 24

ESPERANTO

Esperanto has the usual parts of speech., and three of them can be identified at sight or hearing by their last letter or sound. Every noun ends in "0," every adjective in "A," and all derived adverbs in "E." The other two vowels are used as verbal endings, every infinite ending in "I," and every imperative or subjunctive in "U." ■ Take as example the root zorg (care). Zorgo is care; zorge is careful; zorge is carefully; zorgi is to take care, and zorgu is the whole imperative tense in all persons and numbers. Consequently the nominative noun- or pronoun is better expressed, e.g., zorgu yi—you take care; zorgu Johano —let John take care. So also- when the same form is used as a subjunctive, mi volas ke vi zorgu. 1 wish that. you' take • care. This is so with every tense in Esperanto; one single form serves for every person or number in the tense. But something must be said about nouns, adjeotives and pronouns, before going further with the verb. The whole declension of nouns and adjectives is comprised in the following eight Esperanto words: —

Singular. Nom., bonaj patroj—good fathers. : Obj., bonaj patrojn —good fathers. i PluraL Adj. ' Noun. Nom.., bonaj patroy—good fathers. Obj., -fconajr patrovm—good fathers. In other Avords, every noun or adjective forms its plural simply by adding "J" "to the singular, and its objective cases, singular and plural, by simply adding "X" to the nominative. The agreement-in number aud case" subsists between noun and adjective, not only when the adjective is attributive, as above, but also whenever it is predicated of the noun. e,.g., La patroj estas bonaj: The fathers are good; unless there is a supplemental predication, as in mi. trovis la patrojn estibona: I found ?he fathers" to be "good.