Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-12
BY G. w. Hare

TE la komenco Dio kreis la teron ka
c'ielon. Kaj la tero estis senforma
kaj dezerta, kaj mallumo estis
super la profundaj'a, kaj la amino de
Dio sin portis super la akvo. Kaj Dio
diris: estu lumo; kaj farigis lumo
Kaj Dio vidis la lunon, ke g'i estis
bona, kaj nomis Dio la lumon tago, kaj
la mallumon Ii nomis nokto.
This is an extract from the Bible.
No intelligent person can fail to read
it at first trial The inventor of the
new language, DR.. Zamenhof, is n
learned Pole, and one of the greatest
score of languages. He has made a
special study of all the attempts to
formulate universal languages and
thinks he knows why they failed. He
has given his whole life to this mis-
sion, and he is now an old man. More
over, his propaganda has been mar
velously successful Already more
than thirty periodicals. are published
in the international tongue. and three
hundred thousand students are study
ing it. Among them are distinguished
scholars of every country on the globe.
Last year they held a convention in
Geneva, over six hundred delegates at
tending. Reporters, by few days
study, were able to take the speeches
without an interpreter.
There are only 900 words in the lang
uage, and most of them are already
a,,- ali
weeks would be ample time to learn
them. Since each word is a root, this
makes 1t actually the richest language
in the world; for there is not another
tongue in existence having 900 roots.
English, the richest modern language,
is we'll under that number. Latin had
about 600 roots. Max Muller says that
all the words in the European lang
uages may be traced to about 250 Aryan
roots. All our long words have a form
analogous to that of life boat" spy
need a new word we make it by com
bining the elements of the language.
If we choose the Saxon roots, which we
all know, we can all see the etymology
of the word, as "pitchfork." If we
build 1t from Latin roots, with which
we are not so we'll acquainted some of
us may have to be told the meaning, as
in homicide" from "homo," man; and
"cid," kill
The name of our country, UNITED
States" Games from the following
roots: "un," one lite" to make; ed
sign of past participle; state" gov
ernment; and IS" sign of the plural
These roots in Esperanto are: "Unu, -
zig" "it," "a" 81" "stat," "o," 81"
Unuigitaj statoj. One will be surprised
at the rapidity with which he attains
skill in the manipulation of the roots.
One can build a word much quicker
than he could find 1t in the dictionary
The only thing a person of average
education needs to learn, In order to
read the language, is the pronunciation
The accent is invariably upon the syl-
liable next to the last. The letters are
perfectly phonetic-one sound to each
letter The alphabet contains twenty
eight letters and three diphthongs. as
follows:
a. ah; b, bo; c. tso; d, do; e. ay; r
70; g. go; h, ho 1. ee; J, yo; k. ko; /
10; m, mo; n, no; o, o; p, po; r. ro; s
so; I, to; u, 90; v, Wo;z, 20; C., cho; g
10: h. (Ger.) cho; J.. zho; s., sho
Diphthongs-aj, eye; OF, oy; aw. ow
The list above is correct with the ex
ception of the five letters that are fol
lowed by the q apostrophe. In Espe
ranto books these letters are printed
with a circumhex accent mark above
them. This requires special type
therefore l took the liberty Of making
the change to accommodate the printer