Page:Dr. Esperanto's International Language. Introduction and complete grammar. Por angloj. Warsaw, 1889.pdf/12

— 12 — ideas into independent words, so that the whole language consists, not of words in different states of grammatical inflexion, but of unchangeable words. If the reader will turn to one of the pages of this book written in my language, he will perceive, that each word always retains its original unalterable form,—namely, that under which it appears in the vocabulary. The various grammatical inflexions, the reciprocal relations of the members of a sentence, are expressed by the junction of immutable syllables. But the structure of such a synthetic language being altogether strange to the chief European nations, and consequently difficult for them to become accustomed to, I have adapted this principle of dismemberment to the spirit of the European languages, in such a manner that anyone learning my tongue from grammar alone, without having previously read this introduction,—which is quite unnecessary for the learner,—will never perceive that the structure of the language differs in any respect from that of his mother-tongue. So, for example, the derivation of frat'in'o, which is in reality a compound of frat „child of the same parents as one’s self“, in „female“, o „an entity“, „that which exists“, i. e., „that which exists as a female child of the same parents as one’s self“ = „a sister“,—is explained by the grammar thus: the root for „brother“ is frat, the termination of substantives in the nominative case is o, hence frat'o is the equivalent of „brother“; the feminine gender is formed by the suffix in, hence frat'in'o = „sister“. (The little strokes, between certiancertain [sic] letters, are added in