Ch 22 · Lesson 16Esperanto · Chapter 22 · Lesson 16 · Grammar primer
The Fundamento: Esperanto's untouchable base
The 1905 Esperanto: sixteen rules, the o and a root list, made binding at Boulogne and untouchable, errors and all. It freezes the base, not the language.
The short version
Nobody may change the
.
Why?Hide
The Esperanto (1905) holds the sixteen rules, an exercise book and a root list, and nobody may change it, errors included. That freezes the base, not the language: Zamenhof's own preface expects new words to mature in use and be added to the official dictionary later.
answers "who decides?" with a document. The of 1905 can never be changed; the adds words and gives advice it cannot enforce; and usage makes almost everything else.
| Who or what | What it does | Its power |
|---|---|---|
| the 1905 rules and root list | fixed for ever |
| adds words, gives advice | prestige only |
| what speakers actually say | makes most words |
| PMEG, PIV, | grammar and dictionaries | describe usage |
.- Thedoes not change., .- Therecommends, but does not compel..- Usage decides.
The Fundamento de Esperanto
Zamenhof signed the preface in Warsaw in July 1905. The book has four parts:
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
Antaŭparolo | Zamenhof's preface: how the arrangement works |
| the sixteen rules |
o | graded exercises, in sentences |
| about 2,600 roots |
The rules and the roots are glossed in French, English, German, Russian and Polish, side by side, so no one national language owns the reading.
The o does more work than its name suggests. Sixteen rules cannot describe a whole language, so its sentences fix a great deal of everyday usage by example. A real one, from §12:
Georgo Vaŝington .- George Washington was born on the twenty-second of February, 1732.
9 August 1905. The first Universala Kongreso, at Boulogne--Mer, adopted the Declaration of Boulogne (Deklaracio ). Its fourth point names the as the language's only basis binding on all Esperantists, one - in which nobody has the right to make a change.
Netuŝebleco: untouchable, errors and all
The principle is called netuŝebleco, untouchability, and the word builds itself:
.- Theis untouchable.
Zamenhof's preface states it twice, the second time adding "errors and all":
arbitre !No person and no society should have the right arbitrarily to make even the smallest change in our
!
- Zamenhof, the Antaŭparolo, 1905
.The foundation must remain strictly untouchable, even together with its errors.
- Zamenhof, the Antaŭparolo, 1905
It freezes the foundation, not the language. The same preface says how new words arrive:
, , , « ».Only later, when most of the new words are fully mature, will some authoritative institution bring them into the official dictionary, as an "Addition to the
".
- Zamenhof, the Antaŭparolo, 1905
Going further: Why untouchable: the Ido split and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
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