1. Deliberate metaphors in Esperanto
Building a cosmopolitan culture from scratch
Federico Gobbo
Amsterdam / Torino
⟨F.Gobbo@uva.nl⟩
Metaphor Lab Amsterdam – Research Meeting 14 March 2017
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2. Outline
■ 1. Interlinguistics – the science of planned languages
■ 2. The role by Zamenhof, the founder of Esperanto
■ 3. How the Esperanto culture is currently built
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3. A word of advice: this is still a work in progress
c⃝ Ch. M. Schultz of Snoopy and the Peanuts
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5. The priority of orality in natural languages
[although] no human society [has been] known to exist or to
have existed at any time in the past without capacity of speech
[. . . ] the vast majority of societies have, until recently, been
either totally or very largely illiterate.
Lyons (1981:12-13)
This universal property of natural languages has two exceptions: sign
languages and planned languages.
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6. What is a planned language?
Languages can be planned from scratch if someone decided to do so,
writing the (normative) grammar, setting up the (basic) lexicon and
giving some texts in the language.
You can always identify double articulation (phonetic space +
morphosyntactic level) in a planned language – they are languages
for human beings.
Often the language planner acts alone, rarely in committees or groups
– but always with a clear leader, that is called the language planner.
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7. For planned languages orality is a challenge
graphisation
natural languages
orality
planned languages
Few planned languages are used orally by a community of practice
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8. Community of practice: a sociolinguistic definition
The value of the notion ‘communities of practice’ to
Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology lies in the fact that
it identifies a social grouping not in virtue of shared abstract
characteristics (e.g. class, gender) or simple co-presence (e.g.
neighborhood, workplace), but in virtue of shared practice. In
the course of regular joint activity, a community of practice
develops ways of doing things, views, values, power relations,
ways of talking. And the participants engage with these
practices in virtue of their place in the community of practice,
and of the place of the community of practice in the larger
social order.
Penelope Eckert (2006)
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9. Why planning languages from scratch?
Languages can be planned for different purposes. The language can
be secret (esoteric) if the grammar is known only by initiates;
otherwise it is public (exoteric).
Languages planned with a public in mind can be:
1. auxiliary, if their purpose is to facilitate the communication among
people from different nations;
2. non-auxiliary, when languages are planned for other purposes,
often for art, literature, especially fiction.
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10. aux
non-aux
pubsecr
Esperanto
Latino sine Flexione
Ido
Basic English
Novial
Volap¨uk (19th c.)
Interlinguaetc.
International Auxiliary Languages
Dothraki
Klingon
Tolkien (21st c.)
Volap¨uk (20th c.
Na’vi
etc.Hollywood languages
Tolkien’s (20th)
Bˆal-A I-Balan
Tokipona
Europanto
11. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
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12. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
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13. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
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14. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
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15. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
■ pars destruens:
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16. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
■ pars destruens:
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense first-order logic and other
formal languages);
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17. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
■ pars destruens:
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense first-order logic and other
formal languages);
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense of computer programming
languages).
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18. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
■ pars destruens:
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense first-order logic and other
formal languages);
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense of computer programming
languages).
■ Esperanto is neither a pidgin nor a creole.
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19. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
■ pars destruens:
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense first-order logic and other
formal languages);
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense of computer programming
languages).
■ Esperanto is neither a pidgin nor a creole.
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20. Finally, what is Esperanto (and what is not)?
■ pars construens:
■ Esperanto is a planned language;
■ Esperanto is an International Auxiliary Language;
■ Esperanto is used by a community of practice, orally;
■ pars destruens:
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense first-order logic and other
formal languages);
■ Esperanto is not artificial (in the sense of computer programming
languages).
■ Esperanto is neither a pidgin nor a creole.
That said, why Esperanto is interesting for the Metaphor Lab?
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21. 2. The role by Zamenhof, the
founder of Esperanto
22. Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof: his life in a glance
■ 1859: born in Bialystok (today’s Poland, then Tsarist Russia)
■ 1879-1881: student of medicine in Moscow
■ 1881-1885: student in Warsaw
■ 1887: publication of lingvo internacia (pseudonym: Esperanto)
■ 1901: definition of his ‘human-neutral religion’ (pseudonym: Homo
Sum)
■ 1905: first Esperanto World Congress, Esperanto becomes a
community
■ 1906: publication of Hilelismo (pseudonym: Homarano)
■ 1910: publication of Proverbaro Esperanta
■ 1913: publication of Dogmoj de Homaranismo
■ 1914: answer to the foundation of the Hebrea Esperanto-Ligo
■ 1915: Appeal to the Diplomats: after the Great War
■ 1917: Passing in Warsaw
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33. Esperanto is a work of art like LEGO
c⃝ 2014 The Art of the Brick – De Tentoonstelling
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34. Esperanto is very regular on a morphological level
Colour codes adopted here for the examples:
1. substantives (NP heads) are in blue;
2. adjectives, determiners, numerals (any NP tail) are in cyan;
3. verbs and predications (VP heads) are in red;
4. adverbs and the like (MAdv, V tails) are in orange;
5. affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are in gray;
6. accusative marker (ending in -n) is in green;
7. lexemes are left in black.
35. La viro salutas nin
c⃝2014 Stanislavo Belov. Foto de si mem en Fejsbuko
36. Possible descriptions of the photo
■ La viro salutas la publikon.
■ La viro salutas vin .
■ La viro salutas vin afable.
■ La viro salutas vin per
⟨
desegno
⟩
.
■ La viro salutas vin per
⟨
desegno sur
⟨
la nigra tabulo
⟩⟩
.
■ La viro apogas la manon sur
⟨
la muro
⟩
.
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37. Verbs have 6 possible endings. No exceptions
1. -as for present tense;
2. -is for past tense;
3. -os for future tense;
4. -us for conditional;
5. -u for imperative;
6. -i for infinitive.
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38. Esperanto and its level of freedom in the word order
La viro salutas vin afable
the man greets you kindly
root
det subj dobj
advmod
La viro afable salutas vin
the man kindly greets you
root
det
subj
dobjadvmod
39. Just one morphological rule for nouns and adjectives
Example
Esperanto Italian English
granda elefanto un grande elefante a big elephant
malgranda elefanto un piccolo elefante a small elephant
rapida ˆcevalo un cavallo veloce a fast horse
malrapidaj ˆcevaloj dei cavalli lenti slow horses
Adjectives end in -a, -aj, -ajn according to number a case, in
agreement with nouns – respectively, -o, -on, -oj, -ojn.
There is no explicit normative rule for noun-adjective collocation.
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42. Hillelism: letter to Abraham Kofman, 28 May 1901
Se eˆc ˆciuj akademioj de la mondo akceptus Esperanton, se eˆc milionoj
da personoj ˆgin uzadus, nenio garantias, ke en la da˘uro de unu jaro ˆgi
subite ne estos forˆȷetita kaj forgesita por eterne! Se ˆgi unu fojon
“eliros el la modo”, ˆgi plej rapide pereos por ˆciam. Lingvo Internacia
fortikiˆgos por ˆciam nur en tia okazo, se ekzistos ia grupo da homoj,
kiuj akceptus ˆgin kiel sian lingvon familian, heredan.
Cento da tiaj homoj estas por la ideo de lingvo ne˘utrala multege pli
grava ol milionoj da aliaj homoj. Hereda lingvo de la plej malgranda
kaj plej sensignifa popoleto havas vivon multege pli garantiitan kaj
neestingeblan, ol senpopola lingvo, kiun uzus eˆc milionoj da homoj.
Jes, mi estas profunde konvinkita, ke nek solvo de la hebrea demando,
nek enradikiˆgo de lingvo ne˘utrala estos iam ebla sen hilelismo, t. e.
sen kreo de ne˘utrala popolo.
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44. Cover of the small book Hillelismo, 1906
c⃝ Source: Esperantomuseum, Vienna
45. Hillelismo and Esperantism (1906)
La mirinda sukceso de la Bulonja kongreso konvinkis la iniciatorojn de
la hilelismo, ke absoluta justeco, egaleco kaj frateco inter la popoloj
en la praktiko estas plene ebla. Tial ili decidis uzi la plej proksiman
tutmondan kongreson de la esperantistoj en ˆGenevo en Septembro
1906, por proponi al ˆciuj amikoj de interpopola justeco, unuiˆgi en
apartan grupon, kiu inter la amikoj de internacia lingvo prezentis
apartan sekcion.*
( *Oni ne devas intermiksi la hilelismon kun la esperantismo! Amba˘u
ideoj estas tre parencaj inter si, sed tute ne identaj. Oni povas esti
bonega esperantisto kaj tamen kontra˘uulo de la hilelismo.)
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46. Proverbaro Esperanta, 1910
■ Written after a comparative work by his father, Markus Zamenhof
■ Markus compared Russian, Polish, French and German proverbs
■ The aim is to find a common ground for the culture (Hillelist idea)
■ 1232 entries
■ Sometimes one version, sometimes more (synonimic expressions)
■ index by domains: abundo, afableco, afero...
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47. The importance of the Proverbaro Esperanta
Proverbs and clich´es are complex and very fixed form of
methaphor. They generally involve truth-statements and have
an element of word play about them. In the Fundamento
Zamenhof equipped the language with a large number of
proverbs [. . . ] Although most proverbs are rarely invoked in the
general language, they form part of the basic repertoire of
metaphors which the speaker may allude to (fera mano ‘an iron
hand, amata ˆcevaleto ‘hobby horse’). By writing down a set of
proverbs, Zamenhof effectively created an oral history of the
language, a corpus of expressions to dip into and cite or
reformulate (Gledhill 1988 in Astori 2016).
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48. Entry zero of Proverbaro Esperanta, 1910
■ Peko kaj eraro estas ecoj de l’ homaro
■ Nur tiu ne eraras, kiu neniam ion faras
This sounds like an excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta (if you
do not need to say sorry, don’t do it). Zamenhof was not sure about
every solution, so he proposed alternatives in the most difficult cases.
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49. How to say ‘it’s Greek to me’ in Esperanto?
■ 7a (539 too [sic]). ˆGi estas por mi ˆhina scienco.
■ 7b. ˆGi estas por mi volapukaˆȷo.
■ 7c. Nun finiˆgas mia klereco.
■ 7d. Venis fino al mia latino.1
7b actually won, being felt as “more Esperantist” (i.e., endogenous),
Volap¨uk being part of the Esperanto proper culture as the first rival
International Auxiliary Language.
1
Different from the Dutch: Ik ben aan het eind van mijn latijn, meaning ‘I have
no energy anymore’ (via Gerard Steen)40 de 66
50. Examples from the domain of money
■ 18. Groˆson ˆstelis – ho ˆstelisto milojn ˆstelis – financisto.
■ 1226a. De fremda groˆso ˆsiriˆgas la poˆso.
■ 1226b. Fremda spesmilo estas sen utilo.
■ 965. Spesmilo superflua poˆson ne ˆsiras.
■ 664a. Kiu speson ne tenas, tiu al spesmilo ne venas.
■ 664b. Kiu malmulton ne ˆsatas, multon ne meritas.2
■ 664c. Sen speso unua ne ekzistas la dua.
■ 664d. ˆCiuj milionoj konsistas el milonoj.
■ 664e. Unu guto plenigas la glason.
Some are exogenous (groˆso), some endogenous (speso / spesmilo).
2
Dutch equivalent: wie het kleine niet eert is het grote niet weerd (=waard)
(via Gerard Steen).41 de 66
51. From the Bible or Christianity
■ 11. Mano manon lavas.
■ 17. Petro kornojn tenas, Pa˘ulo lakton prenas.
■ 28a. Ne povas ˆciu homo esti pap’ en Romo.
■ 28b. Kiun la sorto karesos, tiu sukcesos.
■ 793a. Amikon ˆsatu, malamikon ne batu.
■ 793b. Al Dio plaˆcu, sed nur diablon ne kraˆcu.
■ 793c. Se vi povas, profitu, sed aliajn ne incitu.
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52. From Ancient Rome and Greece
■ transiri la Rubikonon
■ Troja ˆcevalo
■ mono ne fetoras (pecunia non olet)
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53. Cover of the small book Homaranismo (1913)
c⃝ Source: Esperantomuseum, Vienna
54. From the Preface
[. . . ] Dum la esenco de Esperanto estas plena ne˘utraleco kaj la
esperantisma ideo prezentas nur ne difintan fratecan senton kaj
esperon, kiujn nature naskas la renkontiˆgado sur ne˘utrala lingva
fundamento kaj kiujn ˆciu esperantisto havas plenan rajton, ne sole
komentarii al si tiel, kiel li volas,
sed eˆc ˆgenerale akcepti a˘u ne akcepti ilin – la homaranismo estas
speciala kaj tute difinita politika-religia programo, kiu prezentas mian
kredon pure privatan kaj la aliajn esperantistojn tute ne koncernas.
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55. Letter of 20 June 1914, to the Jewish Esperantists
Mi mem beda˘urinde devas stari flanke de la afero, ˆcar, la˘u miaj
konvinkoj, mi estas “homarano”, kaj mi ne povas ligi kun la celado
kaj idealoj de speciala gento a˘u religio. [. . . ] Estas vero, ke la
nacionalismo de la gentoj premataj – kiel natura sindefenda reago –
estas multe pli pardoninda, ol la nacionalismo de gentoj premantaj;
sed, se la nacionalismo de la fortuloj estas nenobla, la nacionalismo de
la malfortuloj estas neprudenta; amba˘u naskas kaj subtenas unu la
alian, kaj prezentas eraran rondon de malfeliˆcoj, el kiuj la homaro
neniam eliros, se ˆciu el ni ne oferos sian grupan memamon kaj ne
penos stariˆgi sur grundo tute ne˘utrala.
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56. 1914, the end of the belle ´epoque
c⃝ 1915 Louis Raemaekers satirieke kaart van Europa, Het gekkenhuis (oud liedje, nieuwe wijs)
64. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
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65. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
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66. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
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67. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
■ . . . norms of behaviour;
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68. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
■ . . . norms of behaviour;
■ . . . shared values;
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69. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
■ . . . norms of behaviour;
■ . . . shared values;
■ . . . common knowledge (language included);
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70. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
■ . . . norms of behaviour;
■ . . . shared values;
■ . . . common knowledge (language included);
■ . . . uses by own tradition;
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71. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
■ . . . norms of behaviour;
■ . . . shared values;
■ . . . common knowledge (language included);
■ . . . uses by own tradition;
■ . . . social structure;
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72. Davide Astori’s (2015) main thesis: a pseudo-nation
■ the Esperanto community has:
■ . . . a collective name;
■ . . . a sense of belonging;
■ . . . norms of behaviour;
■ . . . shared values;
■ . . . common knowledge (language included);
■ . . . uses by own tradition;
■ . . . social structure;
■ . . . artistic forms;
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73. Is it really a pseudo-nation? Intercultural problems
■ manˆgi herbon survoje (from Japanese; Fiedler 1999: 77)
■ karoti la aferon (from Italian; Gobbo’s fieldwork 2016)
■ Esti abrikot-arbo (from Vietnamese: Astori 2016: 137)
■ Dormi kiel ˆstono (from English; Astori 2016: 138)
■ Dormi kiel lakto (from Hungarian; Astori 2016: 138)
■ Dormi ege multe (endogenous; Astori 2016: 138)
■ Dormi profund(eg)e (endogenous; Astori 2016: 138)
■ Dormi kiel bebo (relatively universal? Astori 2016: 138)
The fact that each Esperanto speaker belongs to at least another
nation questions Astori’s thesis.
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74. The fear of idiomatic expressions
■ eˆc Homero kelkfoje dormetas (klarigo por nee˘uropanoj: eˆc la plej
grandaj poemistoj foje eraras) (very fluent Italian speaker, quoted
in Astori 2016:136)
■ Kvankam idiotismoj ja faras la lingvon pli buntan, estas bone ke
Esperanto evitas ilin (from a blog of a US Esperanto speaker, in
Astori 2016: 135, note 5)
■ La facileco de Volap¨uk estas la plej amata ˆcevaleto [preferata
temo], sur kiu elveturas al ˆciu okazo (Zamenhof’s expression in the
monolingual dictionary PIV, with the gloss between brackets)
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75. Two translation of the Italian classic Pinocchio
Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children’s
novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by the Italian writer Carlo
Collodi. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a village near
Florence, he was created as a wooden puppet but dreamed of
becoming a real boy. (from: Wikipedia)
■ sar`o il bastone della vostra vecchiaia
■ 1930: mi estos subteno de via maljuneco
■ 2003: [mi] estos apogo dum via maljuneco
No use of the word bastono, which does exist since 1887! (in Astori
2016: 141)
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76. Translation of Daar wonen Vogetkens vele
Du zijs bij dag de zonne Vi estas en la tago
Die zoet mij tegenlacht la ridetanta sun’,
Du zijs de zoete sterre vi estas en la nokto
Die mij verlicht den nacht la bel-lumanta lun!
Original by Pol de Mont, translation Loˆgadas multaj birdetoj by Jan
Van Schoor (in Astori 2016: 139).
No dolˆca stelo for ‘zoete sterre’ is found, another example of the
avoiding strategy.
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77. Idiotisms: the world of reptiles
■ krokodili (to speak one’s native language in an Esperanto congress)
■ kajmani (to speak somebody else’s native language in an
Esperanto congress with natives)
■ aligatori (to speak somebody else’s native language in an
Esperanto congress without natives)
■ gaviali (to speak Esperanto outside Esperantoland as a secret
language)
■ lacerti (to speak another planned language in an Esperanto
congress, e.g. Tokipona)
Source: see Reptiliumi in Vikipedio
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78. Idiotisms: the green colour
■ verda stelo (green star)
■ verda standardo (green flag)
■ verda papo (a person who is overly enthusiastic about the utopian
ideals behind Esperanto, especially when preachy and
holier-than-thou, see Wiktionary)
■ kavaliroj de la verda stelo (a group of verdaj papoj)
■ verda rano (green frog; Esperantist who talks all the time but does
nothing for Esperanto in concrete)
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79. Commonly used idiomatic expressions, from
Zamenhof’s use
■ fina venko / finvenkismo (final victory, the moment in which
Esperanto will be everybody’s L2)
■ rondo familia (family circle, the Esperantists, but with links from
Homaranismo)
■ interna ideo (internal idea, the core of the Homaranismo living in
Esperanto)
■ facila vento (a breeze, which is the ease of Esperanto spreading
through the world)
■ jam temp’ est´a (lit. ‘already time is’, from the Proto-Esperanto by
Zamenhof)
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80. Finally, some commonly used idiomatic expressions,
NOT from Zamenhof’s use
■ ra˘umismo / ra˘umisto (disillusioned Esperantist of the fina venko)
■ edzperanto (somebody who helps an Esperanto woman finding a
husband in Esperantoland)
■ denaskismo (the idea and practice of speaking Esperanto in the
family with children)
■ gufujo (a place in festivals and other Esperanto meeting for young
people where people drink tisanes and teas, with soft lights and
tranquility, see Gobbo 2015)
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81. Towards a schema for metaphors in Esperanto
The Esperanto culture, launched by Zamenhof’s ideals, is enriched by
Esperanto speakers, who tend to bring in firmly (i.e. transforming
into idioms) only what is felt to be ‘international’ (whatever this can
mean; in practice, this means the realm of S.A.E. with apart reference
to the Bible – Jewish and Christian – and Ancient Rome and Greece,
or relatively universal source domains).
Self-reference to the Esperanto tradition is preferred (i.e. endogenous
metaphors are ‘better’ than exogenous metaphors). The production of
deliberate metaphors passes mainly through translated and original
literature. In the early days, translated literature was more important;
nowadays, the reverse is true, and popular authors lead the style of
fluent speakers.
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83. Thank you for your kind attention
Questions? Comments?
If not now, drop an email afterwards:
⟨F.Gobbo@uva.n⟩
Download these slides here:
http:/federicogobbo.name/pub/
CC⃝ BY:⃝ $⃝
C
⃝ Federico Gobbo 2017
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