Dr. Esperanto's International Language (2006)/Footnotes

Footnotes

(**1) In 1889 a similar translation by Henry Phillips, Jr. of the American Philosophical Society, also appeared, but Geoghegan’s is a bit better. [Phillips: An Attempt Towards an International Language by Dr. Esperanto (N.Y.: Henry Holt, 1889); reprinted in v. 2, of Ludovikologia Dokumentaro, compiled by “ludovikito” (Kyoto, Japan: Eldonejo Ludovikito). p. 90-146.] Volume I, Unuaj Libroj (1991, 483 p.) has facsimile reprints of rare editions of these “First Books”, including the Russian, Polish, German, French, English and Swedish versions. Despite some plusses noted below for Phillips, the Geoghegen version is more akin to the other four Unuaj Libroj pamphlets: all five published by Zamenhof himself. An online version [2002, Jesuo de las Heras] of Phillips' has been available at http://thor.prohosting.com/jesuo/grammar.htm in three parts, but its Vocabulary link appears to be dead.—GK

(**2) “Purists Better Learn to Talk the Talk” (Halifax Herald, 1997-09-12).—GK

(*3) One cannot, of course, reckon the number of those who learned the language as equal to the number of instruction-books sold.

(*4) To facilitate the finding of these affixes they are entered in the vocabulary as separate words.

(**5) “international orthography” = “Esperanto spelling”: see footnote (**6) below.—GK

(**6) Note that the name “Esperanto” did not yet apply to what Zamenhof calls the “International Language”; so the “International – English Vocabulary” in this pamphlet is an “Esperanto – English Vocabulary”. Likewise, “international orthography” (**5 above) means “Esperanto spelling”.—GK

(**7) The original pamphlet contained the “International [Esperanto] – English Vocabulary” (herein), but not vice versa; such compilations for many languages were soon to follow. For example, unlike Geoghegen, Henry Phillips, Jr. in his version [see (**1) above] had himself compiled an English – International Vocabulary, besides the other one. —GK

(*8) In correspondence with persons who have learnt the language, as well as in works written for them exclusively, the [apostrophes], separating parts of words, are omitted.

(**9) In his American translation [see (**1) above], Henry Phillips, Jr. added a remarkable footnote here: “The Translator wrote a letter in this language to a young friend who had previously never seen nor heard of it, enclosing the printed vocabulary; he received an answer in the same tongue, with no other aid. This was a crucial test.” (p.13)—GK

(**10) Yes—he omitted giving it a name! (A one-word proper name, that is.) And so his pseudonym soon came to fill that gap.—GK

(**11) In recent years, this fundamental “h” rule has been violated on the Internet by over a dozen different improvisations which ignore both the letter and spirit of Esperanto’s phonetic alphabet. According to the “untouchable” Fundamento de Esperanto, adopted at the first Universala Kongreso in 1905, one must either use the circumflex letters, or an “h”. “No person and no society can have the right to arbitrarily make in our Fundamento even the very smallest change!” [Translated; italics in original; 1963 ed., p. 43-44: actually the first page of the Fundamento itself. (Marmande: Esperantaj Francaj Eldonoj)]—GK

(**12) The internal-sign was dropped in the early days and not included in the Fundamento.—GK

(**13) A mistranslation, because enu' in the vocabulary herein is “to be weary, annoyed”. The Esperanto word for “longing” is sopir', but that was not available until Zamenhof’s Universala Vortaro of 1894, an updated Vocabulary, with each Esperanto word in five languages on the same line: part of the Fundamento, op.cit., (**11). From the prior list, perhaps one could have said dezir'.—GK