My knowledge of Esperanto is very limited, but I have noticed that you can do a lot with word roots and basically invent your own Esperanto words. My question for experienced speakers of Esperanto is this: When trying to get your point across, do you rely on "canon" Esperanto--in which the words are commonly accepted as the norm--or do you frequently invent your own words? How much of understanding Esperanto is breaking down constructed words as they arise, and how much is merely knowing words as they would appear in a dictionary? I'm curious, because I want to know what to expect when I actually try communicating with others in Esperanto. The phenomenon of constructed words doesn't bother me much when I think about written Esperanto, but it seems rather intimidating when contemplating speaking the language! For some reason I imagine a lot of hesitation as I pause to think through what I've heard and/or need to say. What is your experience?

I have an idea: Try to formulate your very question in Esperanto (you can post a draft here and ask for corrections) and post it in the E-o forum.
You will get more answers (and can be sure that the people indeed speak E-o) from more countries.
I would answer this question in E-o, but not in English (costs too much time to formulate).

VocabGuy:My knowledge of Esperanto is very limited, but I have noticed that you can do a lot with word roots and basically invent your own Esperanto words. My question for experienced speakers of Esperanto is this: When trying to get your point across, do you rely on "canon" Esperanto--in which the words are commonly accepted as the norm--or do you frequently invent your own words? How much of understanding Esperanto is breaking down constructed words as they arise, and how much is merely knowing words as they would appear in a dictionary? I'm curious, because I want to know what to expect when I actually try communicating with others in Esperanto. The phenomenon of constructed words doesn't bother me much when I think about written Esperanto, but it seems rather intimidating when contemplating speaking the language! For some reason I imagine a lot of hesitation as I pause to think through what I've heard and/or need to say. What is your experience?

Here 2 1/2 years and still only basic level? Just kidding.

Anyway, the thing to do is get the 900-some Fundamento root words under thy belt and the affixes and thee is pretty much set for reading just about anything (unless thee comes across a neologism-happy writer). If thee isn't the type to sit and read the dictionary (ahem), the best way to do this is read, read, read, read. And it doesn't have to be novels. Short stories, even posts in forums.

On another track, one of these days, I'm going to start working on an Esperanto course that concentrates on just word-building.

Kirilo81:I have an idea: Try to formulate your very question in Esperanto (you can post a draft here and ask for corrections) and post it in the E-o forum.

Well, I'm still a ways away from being able to do that. I'm not averse to using references to help me out and posting drafts in theory, but I just don't think I'm there yet.

orthohawk:Here 2 1/2 years and still only basic level? Just kidding.

LOL...yeah, I've taken some long breaks without studying or logging in at all. Out of the whole time I've been registered, I think I've spent a total of a month of study, and not very intense study at that. I've been contemplating the idea of learning the language, more than I've actually spent time learning. If it were 2 1/2 years of serious study, I think I'd have bigger problems...

orthohawk:Anyway, the thing to do is get the 900-some Fundamento root words under thy belt and the affixes and thee is pretty much set for reading just about anything

Yeah, I guess I should eventually live up to my name and get a good base of vocabulary built up.

orthohawk:On another track, one of these days, I'm going to start working on an Esperanto course that concentrates on just word-building.

I think that would make the course unique among all the ones that I've seen so far. I would love to see it!

VocabGuy:

Kirilo81:I have an idea: Try to formulate your very question in Esperanto (you can post a draft here and ask for corrections) and post it in the E-o forum.

Well, I'm still a ways away from being able to do that. I'm not averse to using references to help me out and posting drafts in theory, but I just don't think I'm there yet.

orthohawk:Here 2 1/2 years and still only basic level? Just kidding.

LOL...yeah, I've taken some long breaks without studying or logging in at all. Out of the whole time I've been registered, I think I've spent a total of a month of study, and not very intense study at that. I've been contemplating the idea of learning the language, more than I've actually spent time learning. If it were 2 1/2 years of serious study, I think I'd have bigger problems...

orthohawk:Anyway, the thing to do is get the 900-some Fundamento root words under thy belt and the affixes and thee is pretty much set for reading just about anything

Yeah, I guess I should eventually live up to my name and get a good base of vocabulary built up.

orthohawk:On another track, one of these days, I'm going to start working on an Esperanto course that concentrates on just word-building.

I think that would make the course unique among all the ones that I've seen so far. I would love to see it!

The courses here are great, but geared, I think, toward people with specific learning styles (which are NOT the "traditional" styles ). Has thee tried the Duolingo course yet? Also there's a course that has to be downloaded, Kurso de Esperanto, that is also good (and more the traditional grammar based type).

Life is a mix of coming up with words on the fly and using memorized vocabulary. The bigger your vocabulary, the fewer words you need to build.

You will find that you need a word for something, you pause and think up something to build, and then next time you need the same word, whatever you built last time will come to you more quickly. Most of us are not constantly building words on the fly, other than the most basic (words with -eg-, -et-, -uj- etc). And most words built on the fly are just one root and one affix, you're hardly coming up with words like "malsanulejo" off the tip of your tongue, unless you put some thought into constructing it previously.

The biggest thing you will gain with experience is parsing "built" words on the fly. You will come to understand all but the most complicated of them intuitively, with time. I vividly remember trying to look up built words in the dictionary as a beginner, trying to distinguish between which part was root and which part was affixes, so I could look up the components. Now it is obvious in 99% of cases, except for the odd word that can parse in more than one way, or that is a root that looks like a combination of root and suffix. (fekulo. Starch, obviously! fekul/o)

erinja:except for the odd word that can parse in more than one way, or that is a root that looks like a combination of root and suffix. (fekulo. Starch, obviously! fekul/o)

Oh, dear.......that one's rather.....awkward

I echo what Erinja said

I improvise when I can't think of a word, or one made of smaller pieces is clearer.

For instance, I used the word "priskribiga" (making something into a description) in another thread, and "denasklingvajxo" (a hold-over from one's native language). I find the word-building to be very freeing in spontaneous expression. And because you're using existing roots and elements, your "new" word will likely be understood with ease.

There's also often the choice between using a word pieced together and a separate root. There's a page devoted to this, but it appears to have gone down at some point: http://www.bonalingvo.org/index.php?title=%C4%88ef...

So you'd see things like "biblioteko -> librejo". Hopefully it comes back online!

orthohawk:The courses here are great, but geared, I think, toward people with specific learning styles (which are NOT the "traditional" styles ). Has thee tried the Duolingo course yet? Also there's a course that has to be downloaded, Kurso de Esperanto, that is also good (and more the traditional grammar based type).

I actually started learning with Kurso de Esperanto! I was very pleased with it. I'm going through the courses here now and Kurso de Esperanto has prepared me for them quite nicely. I've never tried Duolingo, though I'll have to look into that.

erinja:The biggest thing you will gain with experience is parsing "built" words on the fly. You will come to understand all but the most complicated of them intuitively, with time.

That's a relief to hear! The whole "built words" thing seems to be the most foreign part of Esperanto to me. That's why it was a concern.

DuckFiasco:I find the word-building to be very freeing in spontaneous expression. And because you're using existing roots and elements, your "new" word will likely be understood with ease.

I guess it's just something that I will have to get used to. It seems so unusual to me that I haven't thought of it as "freeing" yet. That's a good way to look at it though!

What happens as you use the language more is that you develop an instinctive feel as to which compounds will be readily understood by other Esperantists, and don't feel any need to check whether that compound has been registered in some dictionary. You just know that that compound makes sense.

(Incidentally, the fastest route to this is to use Esperanto actively in conversation with other Esperantists.)

The difference between Esperanto and English in this respect in this respect is simply that the potential for creating words on the fly is much greater in Esperanto, and that quite often the term in English will be created by two (or more) words rather than a single word - book shop (librovendejo); bus stop (bushaltejo); dining car (manĝvagono); dining car attendant (manĝvagonisto).