Re: [Offtopic] Re: New Proposed Xconq Web Site Online

[Eric McDonald <mcdonald@phy.cmich.edu>]

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, Jim Kingdon wrote:

> > Kaj vi povas relerni nur per klopodi.
> > "And you are able to _____ ____ by/through ____."   (?)
> 
> Hint #1: "relerni" is a compound, "re/lern/i".
> Hint #2: I could have said "sole" in place of "nur".
> Not sure I can give a hint on "klopodi"; I don't actually know its
> etymology.

"And you are able to relearn only by using/exercising/doing." (??)
(I am trying to figure out if that makes sense in the context of 
the sentence before it.)

I figured the "re" was probably the prefix with the usual meaning. 
I held back because of a counterexample from Latin: "republic" 
which comes from "res" and "publica"  (thing of the 
public/people).

> > "do ne konfuzighu" -> "that one must not confuse" -> "that one must be 
> > careful not to make" (??)
> 
> Hint #1: "konfuzighu" is a compound, "konfuz/igh/u".
> Hint #2: Esperanto has 6 accented characters, 5 of which are ASCIIfied
> by adding "h" at the end.  One of them appears here.
> Hint #3: -igh- doesn't have a close English equivalent; you might need
> some more examples to get it.

Does "gh" make "zh" sound like with French "j" or "g" (in places)?

My guess is that "igh" is a participle stem, probably for "ed" or 
"ing". I think I saw which it was in an earlier text. I will have 
to look more closely again tonight.

> > I am going to have to figure out "pri"; I have seen it several times now.
> Vi bezonas lerni pri la vorto "pri".

"You ____ to learn of/from the word 'pri'." 

(I will have to look at the other samples of "pri" usage again 
tonight.)

> > (1) I have detected no repeated consonants or vowels thus far.
> The only counterexample I can think of is the one and only one
> Esperanto word I know of with an irregular spelling, "finna".  It's a
> good reason to use the word "suoma" instead.  

Is that the people or the language? With "japana", I could not 
tell if it was the country or the language. Also what about the 
Lapps who are reindeer herders among the "finna"; do they get to 
keep their double-p?

> > (2) I have detected no potential diphthongs thus far.
> My Esperanto book lists 6 diphthongs.  And no, this isn't a trick: a,
> e, i, o, and u are all monophthongs.  Some of the diphthongs are quite
> common, and have been seen many times in the Esperanto text on the
> list so far.

I'll look again. I wasn't paying close attention to that aspect.

> > I suppose the language is intended to be lexically simple as well as 
> > grammatically simple....
> 
> Ho jes.  La celo de esperanto estas ke ghi estu simpla.  La alia celo
> estas esti neuxtrala.

"Oh yes. The point/reason/purpose of Esperanto is that it must be 
simple. The other point/reason/purpose is to be neutral."

Eric