Letters: Kara, Estimata and one vi

Esperanto has one vi, for a friend, a stranger and a crowd. Politeness moved to three other places: how you open a letter, how you close it, and how you ask.

There is little of a posh second vocabulary to climb into either: Esperanto has komenci where English has start and commence. Register lives mostly in the construction, not the words.

One vi for everyone

French makes you choose tu or vous, German du or Sie. Esperanto has vi, for one person or many, close or distant:

• Vi estas mia plej bona amiko. - You are my best friend.
• Ĉu vi bonvolus respondi, sinjorino? - Would you kindly reply, madam?

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1. 1mi
2. 2vi
3. 3vi
4. 4vi

Mi (I), the woman speaking; vi (you) to her friend; vi to the older stranger; vi to the family. One word for all three.

The Fundamento's dictionary also has ci, a familiar singular thou, with cin as the object and cia for thy. Almost nobody uses it: Zamenhof himself wrote vi to everyone, and usage followed him. You will meet ci in some translated novels and in verse. Recognise it, and write vi.

The salutation ladder

The opening places you on a ladder from warm to ceremonial:

Kara (dear) and Estimata (esteemed) are adjectives, so they agree with a plural:

• Karaj amikoj, - Dear friends,
• Estimataj gesinjoroj, - Dear ladies and gentlemen (to a mixed group),

Altestimata (highly esteemed) is for real ceremony; to an ordinary reader it can sound ironic. Between Esperantists you will also meet Kara samideano (dear fellow Esperantist, literally same-idea person), friendly and a little old-fashioned.

The closings

Three of the closings are adverbs: a root plus -e, as in adverbs.

Match the ends. The opening and the closing sit on the same rung:

A letter that opens with Altestimata sinjoro and ends with Ĝis! reads as a joke.