MARLBOROUGH'S SELF-TAUGHT SERIES

Esperanto Self-Taught
WITH
PHONETIC PRONUNCIATION.
BY
WILLIAM W. MANN.
(Member of the British Esperanto Association.)

THIRD EDITION

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

London:
E. MARLBOROUGH & CO., LTD., 51 Old Bailey, E.C. 4

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

PREFACE.

The object of this volume is two-fold. It supplies very full and comprehensive vocabularies of the words required by the tourist or traveller, visitor or resident abroad, health or pleasure seeker, and professional or business man, together with a large number of conversational sentences of a typical and practical character. The words and phrases are classified according to subject, and the phonetic pronunciation of every word is added in accordance with Marlborough's simple and popular system of phonetics.

With the aid of this book anyone may undertake a trip to a foreign land, even if he know nothing of the language of the country he is going to, and, if he will put himself beforehand in communication with Esperantists in the various places he intends to visit, he will find them ready to help him in many ways, and his stay abroad will thus be made much more entertaining and instructive than if he had spent his time in the conventional manner of the ordinary tourist. A further great advantage of this international language is, that it opens up to the traveller, not merely one particular country, but the whole of Europe.

The book also aims at affording a practical guide to Esperanto for the student, who will find, in the section on Grammar, all that he needs to give him full insight into and grasp of the language, enabling him with very little effort to read, write and speak correctly.

By joining an Esperanto Group the learner may have frequent opportunity of conversational practice, and he will soon find that it is by no means a difficult matter to become as fluent in the auxiliary language as in his mother-tongue.1

Esperanto is not merely a language for tourists, but already possesses a rich literature of considerable extent, the beginnings of that "Weltlitteratur" foreseen by Goethe; it has a press of its own representing every country of importance in the world, and is constantly being made use of for professional purposes by doctors, scientists, teachers, lawyers, soldiers, sailors, merchants, etc., in every quarter of the globe. It is undoubtedly destined, ere many years have passed, to become a very important factor in the progress of the world.

WILLIAM W. MANN.

London, 1908.

PRINTED AND MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Letchworth: The Garden City Press Ltd.

Fifth Impression

CONTENTS.

• Alphabet, with English Phonetic Pronunciation 5
• Preliminary Notes.—Accents, Vowels, Diphthongs, etc. 7
• Vocabularies.—Pages 9 to 76.
  • Amusement, Recreation and 41
  • Animals, Vegetables, &c.:
    • Animals, Birds and Fishes 12
    • Fruit, Trees, Flowers and Vegetables 15
    • Reptiles and Insects 14
  • Colours 17
  • Commercial Terms 56
  • Correspondence 61
  • Countries and Nations 40
  • Cycling 44
  • Cooking and Table Utensils 29
  • House and Furniture, The 34
  • Legal Terms 54
  • Mankind:
    • Relations 22
    • Dress and the Toilet 30
    • Food and Drink 27
    • Health 26
    • Human Body, The 23
    • Physical and Mental Powers, Qualities, etc. 24
  • Motoring 47
  • Numbers: Cardinal, Ordinal, Collective and Fractional 62 to 64
  • Parts of Speech.—Pages 64 to 76
    • Adjectives 64
    • Adverbs, Conjunctions, and Prepositions 72
    • Verbs 68
  • Photography 48
  • Post, Telegraph and Telephone 60
  • Professions and Trades 52
  • Recreation and Amusement 41
  • Religion 50
  • Telegraph and Telephone (Post, —) 60
  • Time and Seasons 17
  • Town, Country, and Agriculture 20
  • Travelling:
    • By Road and Rail 36
    • By Ship 39
  • Washing List 33
  • World and its Elements, The 9
    • Land and Water 10
    • Minerals and Metals 11
• Grammar.—Pages 77 to 88.
  • The Adjective 77
  • " Adverb 83
  • " Article 77
  • " Conjunction 83
  • " Noun 77
  • " Preposition 83
  • " Pronoun 78
  • " Verb 81
• The Formation of Words, etc.—Pages 84 to 88.
  • Prefixes and Suffixes 84 to 87
  • Compound Words 87
  • Correlatives 88
• Conversations.—Pages 89 to 126.
  • Amusements 112
  • Commercial and Trading 125
  • Correspondence 122
  • Custom House, At the 98
  • Cycling 114
  • Enquiries 93
  • Expressions, (Useful and Necessary) 89
    • Expressions of Emotion 93
  • Health 105
  • Legal and Judicial 123
  • Meals 102 to 105
    • Breakfast 102
    • Dinner 103
    • Tea 104
  • Money Changing 126
  • Motoring 115
  • Photography 117
  • Post and Telegraph 121
  • Religion 118
  • Shopping 108
    • Dressmaker 110
    • Laundress 111
    • Shoemaker 110
  • Telegraph (Post and) 121
  • Time of Day, The 118
  • Times, Seasons, and Weather 119
  • Town, In 106
  • Travelling:—
    • Arrival 99
    • Bus and Tram 100
    • Changing Money 126
    • Hotel and Rooms 100
    • Public Notices 94
    • Railway, By 95
    • Steamer, By 97
  • Useful and Necessary Expressions 89
• Money.—Equivalent Values 127
• Weights and Measures; Postage 128

THE ESPERANTO ALPHABET
(WITH PHONETIC PRONUNCIATION).

The Esperanto Alphabet has 28 letters—23 consonants, 5 vowels:—

PRELIMINARY NOTES.

2. The vowels, a, e, i, o, u, should in Esperanto be pronounced quite purely, and entirely without any drawling after-sound. Many English speakers diphthongize a, i, o, and pronounce late as "la-it," pale as "pa-il," paper as "pa-y-per," road as "row-d," etc. This habit of drawling the vowels, when transferred to Esperanto, thus: Mi ne povas bone paroli, mee'y nay'ee poh'ŏŏ-vah(r)ss boh'ŏŏ-nehy pah(r)-roh'ŏŏ-leey, immediately reveals the nationality of the speaker.

There is also an inclination to interpose an r-sound between la ("the") and a word beginning with a vowel, thus: la(r)ebleco instead of la ebleco, la(r)internacia lingvo instead of la internacia lingvo, etc. This should be avoided.

3. Combinations of Consonants.—There are a few consonantal combinations which offer a slight difficulty to English beginners, viz., gv, kn, kv, sc. The combinations gv, kn, and kv, as in gvidi (gvee'dee), knabo (knah'bo), kvieto (kvee-eh'toh), may be practised by first placing a vowel before the g or k, and gradually suppressing it. Thus, first say la knabo (lahk-nah'bo), and gradually drop the "lah," until finally knabo can be said without difficulty.

The combination sc, as in sceno (stseh'no), may be learnt thus: Say "last sane" several times, very distinctly pronouncing the st and the s, then gradually "'st sane", and finally sceno (stseh'no) without any preceding vowel-sound. When this combination follows a vowel, as in mi scias, it should cause no difficulty, for the s is easily pronounced with the first syllable, thus: meess-tsee'ahss.

LETTER FROM DR. ZAMENHOF.
(Founder of Esperanto.)

Varsovio, 14.9.08.

Karaj Sinjoroj,—Kun plezuro kaj danko mi ricevis vian leteron de 10.9, kaj ankaŭ la presprovaĵon de "Esperanto Self-Taught."

Ĉar Sro Mann estas tre kompetenta kaj sperta esperantisto, tial mi estas tute certa, ke la libro verkita de li estos tre bona kaj tre utila.

Via,

(Signed) ZAMENHOF.

[TRANSLATION.]

Warsaw, 14.9.08.

Dear Sirs,—I received your letter of Sept. 10, and the proofs of "Esperanto Self-Taught," with pleasure and thanks.

As Mr. Mann is a very competent and experienced Esperantist, I am quite certain that the book written by him will be very good and very useful.

Yours,

(Signed) ZAMENHOF.

VOCABULARIES.

1. The World & its Elements.
(La Mondo kaj ĝiaj Elementoj.)

(See Notes on the Article, p. 77.)

2. Land and Water.
(La Tero kaj la Akvo.)

3. Minerals & Metals.
(Mineraloj kaj Metaloj.)

4. Animals, Birds & Fishes.
(Bestoj, Birdoj, kaj Fiŝoj.)

(See Shopping, p. 108.)

5. Reptiles & Insects.
(Rampuloj kaj Insektoj.)

6. Fruits, Trees2, Flowers & Vegetables
(Fruktoj, Arboj, Floroj, kaj Legomoj.)

(For Shopping, see p. 106.)

7. Colours.
(Koloroj.)