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How do you say 'compound word' in esperanto?

של xBlackWolfx, 2 במרץ 2012

הודעות: 58

שפה: English

xBlackWolfx (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 08:14:26

I find it funny that the site's dictionary has no entry for 'compound word', or even 'compound', considering how often compound words appear in Esperanto. Really, the only words in Esperanto that are a single morpheme (linguistic term, go look it up if you don't know it) are the personnal pronouns and most of the prepositions. Even the name of the language is a compound word.

So how do you say 'compound word' in Esperanto anyway?

omid17 (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 08:27:23

I think 'kunmetaĵa vorto' or simply 'kunmetaĵo' is the equivalent of "compound word" in EO.

erinja (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 09:27:38

"kunmetita vorto" is a word I sometimes see.

"kunmetaĵo" is also fine, though "kunmetaĵo" can also refer to as simple combination of roots and suffixes.

Our site's dictionary isn't that wonderful. I'll add some terms with "compound"

xBlackWolfx (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 09:45:46

you can add words to that dictionary? how do you do that?

omid17 (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 10:32:03

xBlackWolfx:you can add words to that dictionary? how do you do that?
Not everyone can do it, obviously. She is a moderator.

erinja (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 10:37:08

You can request dictionary editing rights if you want to help with the dictionary. Any lernu user can request these rights, not just moderators.

I recommend it only if you have a good dictionary that you can take definitions from, or if you speak Esperanto well.

If you are looking for a word and it's missing from the dictionary, please do report that, and we can add it. "compound", for example, is an important word to be missing from the dictionary!

sudanglo (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 11:17:01

xBlackWolfx:Really, the only words in Esperanto that are a single morpheme (linguistic term, go look it up if you don't know it) are the personal pronouns and most of the prepositions.
The list, in terms of categories is a bit broader than that.

It also includes adverbs (tre, tro), correlatives (kiu tiu etc), numbers (unu du etc), an article (la), conjunctions (kaj, dum), interjections (Fi, Ve,) and possibly some others.

Erinja, when you are doing the dictionary, stick something in for compound interest and prison/military compound.

xBlackWolfx (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 12:58:52

i didnt count the correlatives since they are...'modular'. okay, none of the parts can act on their own, but each part does carry a meaning to it. for example, all correlatives that begin with ki- mark an interrogative pronoun, and all the ones that end in -e have something to do with place (kie: what place/where, tie: that place/there, cxie: all places/everywhere, ie: some place/somewhere, etc...)

edit: and no i dont need the rights to modify the dictionary, the only dictionary i have in my possession is in a phrase book.

xBlackWolfx (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 18:03:46

How do I report words anyway? Because I just thougt up another one: scare-crow.

sudanglo (הצגת פרופיל) 2 במרץ 2012, 20:37:35

Wells gives birdotimigilo and there is an article in Vikipedio under this heading.

However, there's a distinction to be made here.

There are birdscaring devices, these seem to be properly timigiloj, and there is the classic scarecrow.

I think you could say birdtimigulo or birdtim-figuro, but more economically simply bird-timulo.

There is a principle in Esperanto word construction that you include the elements which seem necessary, but just enough of them to be sufficient to convey the meaning.

Arguably you don't need the -ig in this compound since, it seems unlikely that birdtimulo would be interpreted as somebody who was scared of birds - certainly not in birdtim-figuro since how would a figuro be scared of birds.

For the device however, my lingvo-sento tells me that the -ig is necessary.

Wells also offers ĉifon-figuro but this could be a Guy Fawkes.

Pajlo-homo (straw-man) could also be something whose primary function was not keeping birds off the crops.

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