Ch 11 · Lesson 3Esperanto · Chapter 11 · Lesson 3 · Grammar primer
Gastiganto, samideano and krokodili
's hosts, the word Esperantists call each other, and the verb for slipping into your own language: three community words, taken apart.
The short version
- to crocodile: to speak your national language
Why?Hide
The word Esperantists call each other decomposes exactly as the course taught you: -o, same-idea-member. The whole movement vocabulary works like this - o is a congress-member, a hosting-one - so learning the community's words is a word-building revision session in disguise.
.
Why?Hide
is a guest and is to be one. Add -ig- (to cause) and is to host, to make someone your guest. Add -ant- (the one doing it) and is the host. A host is exactly that: a speaker who travelling speakers for free.
gastiganto: Pasporta Servo
is a list of Esperanto speakers who will put up a travelling Esperanto speaker for free. The idea dates from 1966, the first printed list (about forty hosts) came out in 1974, and it is now a website run by TEJO, the youth organisation, with hosts in dozens of countries. Hosts set their own house rules, but the one thing they all expect is that you speak the language.
| Word | Pieces | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| root | a guest |
| -i | to be a guest, to stay |
| -- | to host |
| -- | a host |
| -- | a guesthouse |
.- She put me up for three nights.
English needs an unrelated word, host, which also means a crowd and a communion wafer. Esperanto takes guest, adds cause and the one doing it, and names exactly the person hosting.
samideano: what they call each other
Four pieces, every one of them already yours:
| Piece | Job | Meaning here |
|---|---|---|
sam- | root | same |
- | root | idea |
-- | suffix | member |
-o | ending | a noun |
!- Dear fellow Esperantists!
It is the traditional word speakers use for one another, and it still opens letters and speeches. English has nothing that fits: comrade is political, fellow enthusiast is limp. Some younger speakers find it old-fashioned and simply say .
krokodili: the community's joke
Put twenty Esperantists in a room and some will share a national language. The community has a verb for what happens next: , to crocodile, to speak your own language at an Esperanto event.
krokodilu!-t crocodile! (speak Esperanto)
Several stories about where the word came from are told with confidence, and none is settled. The grammar is the point: any root plus -i makes a verb, so the community could coin one the day it needed it.
How to go to one
Start small and work up:
- klubo
- renkontiĝo
- Universala Kongreso
- A local club. A
is often half a dozen people in a cafe; as a member you are ao. - A weekend meeting. A
o(from, to meet, plus--) takes beginners happily. - The congress.
early, pay thekotizo, and go.
You need less language than you think: the whole room learned the same regular grammar you did.
Going further: La Kongreso: every summer since 1905 and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
Practise this lesson
7-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
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