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How often do people just make up words on the fly?

by ki4jgt, June 29, 2019

Messages: 5

Language: English

ki4jgt (User's profile) June 29, 2019, 5:40:41 PM

I'm finally diving into the language after a decade of putting it off. I learned that -ej describes a place where something is. So I looked up Ĉambrejo for hall and nothing came up in 3 dictionaries. It's it normal to just make up words or is it more complicated than that?

sergejm (User's profile) June 29, 2019, 9:16:50 PM

"Ĉambro" by itself is a place, so "ĉambrejo" is a nonsence (place where are rooms)*
You can say "kuirĉambro", "dormoĉambro" etc. instead of "kuirejo", "dormejo" etc. to indicate that it is not any place, but a room.

* "ĉambrejo" povas signifi "hotel" – place, where you can get a room, sed pli kompreneble use "hotelo".

Metsis (User's profile) June 30, 2019, 8:57:00 AM

Your example word was not good as Sergejm pointed out, but I think, I understand your point. When writing people have access to word lists and dictionaries to check words, so I take, that you're asking about conversational situations with unprepared speeches.

My limited experience is, that among speakers of the same native language (say in your local E-o club) people have remarkable capacity to correct the speech, if the make-up words are constructed according to the model of the native language. This happens almost automatically, so that many don't even notice it.

Obviously this automatic correction works less perfect, when the native languages differ. The more they differ, the easier they are picked up by the listeners.

sudanglo (User's profile) July 2, 2019, 1:15:17 PM

Almost certainly in the early days of Esperanto there was a lot of making up of words on the fly.

As the language progressed and the root stock grew, there would have been more opportunity to use a specific non-compound word, and some compounds that were initially experimental became mainstream (ie the commonly used expression for a certain thing or action).

However, the structure of Esperanto, certainly leaves plenty of scope for inventing a word, if you can't find the 'right' one straight away or wish to add a certain nuance.

The problem which 'ĉambrejo' is not that a ĉambro is already a place, but that it is not obvious what a 'place for rooms' would be - what thing in the real world would the term designate..

Metsis (User's profile) July 2, 2019, 1:41:52 PM

Ĉambrejo, a place for rooms, could be a warehouse, where built room modules are stocked before installed into ships etc. ridego.gif

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