The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1912-05-10

rooster-ess, and so on regularly for
all female forms; or Twilight, un-
good, un-love, un-deep, for the con
traries; or teach-ery, prayer-ery,
cooking cry (like bakery for the pla-
ces where certain acts were habitual-
ly performed (school. church, kit
chem; we should then only have to
remember the special words Less,
I'M, -ery) for forming feminine, or
contrary, or local terms and could
do away entirely with the necessity
of memorizing words like mother,
sister, vile, hate, school, and SO
forth. If we knew the words faith
err, brother, good love, teach. all
we should have to do would be to
tack on the appropriate endings less,
cry, etc. By this ingenious ex-
pedient, and several others of like
nature found in Esperanto, thou
sands of words can be formed off
hand by the learner and he is saved
the labor of committing to men,
DRY a special form for each idea
which he wishes to express.
When it came to the grammar,
Zamenhof soon discovered that
here the principle of maximum
Internationally was at fault, for,
so far as the grammatical changes
in the forms of words are concern
ed, each modern language is pretty
much of law unto itself. No two
of them agree in all points, and in
addition each bristles with appal-
ling lists of exceptions, irregular
words and the like, that strike ter
ror to the heart of the unfortunate
learner. Zamenhof therefore de-
cided on a grammatical setting for
his language which, while preserv-
ing the spirit of the European
tongues, is yet absolutely free from
irregularities and exceptions of ev-
cry kind. In the Esperanto alpha
bet each letter has one sound only,
and it keeps that one sound in all
positions and under all circum-
stances in all the words in which it
| is found. Such thing as silent
letter is unknown; every word is
pronounced exactly as it is written
and written exactly as It is pro-
nounced. The same undertaking
regularity pervades every depart
ment OF TIE grammr. When you
have learned how to form the plural
of any one word you know how to
form eI cry plural in the language,
and when you have learned that the
ending els" denotes time past, you
have merely to tack that els" onto
any word you desire in order to
make the past tense of that word.
So it goes throughout; nineteen
short rules comprise the entire gram
NAUTICAL apparatus of this wonderful
language.
As matter of local interest it
| may be added that the first transla
ton of any Of DR.. Zamenhof's works
into English was made by Mr.. Rich
ard H. Geoghegan, formerly of
Eastsound, and published in Europe
in the year 1883. Mr.. Geoghegan
became interested in the wonderful
possibilities Of Esperanto while a
scholar at the University of Ok
ford, England, a year prior to that
time.
The first Esperanto book publish
ed in America was grammar by
the late Mr.. Henry Phillips, secre-
tary of the American Philosophical
Society of Philadelphia, which ap-
peal ed in 1889. Rev. Edward
Steckel, of Doylestown, Pa, is pro-
badly the oldest American Esperant-
ist, for he was studying the Ian
guage as far back as 1889, and in
our own state we believe Judge
Marion Edwards, of Seattle, can
claim the honor of being the pio-
neer Esperantist. for we know that
he was an adept in the language so
far back as 1891.
Mutt and Jeff