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Names of languages

by Dhjetor, December 23, 2018

Messages: 6

Language: English

Dhjetor (User's profile) December 23, 2018, 10:31:11 AM

Does Esperanto have words for languages? Arabic is the name of a certain language. Yet arabo = Arab {person} only, and araba = Arabian {adjective} only, as far as I know. Languages seem to be translated always as lingvo […]. Am I right? It seems rather strange that a constructed language, which itself has a name, names no other languages … confused …

Balbutanto (User's profile) December 23, 2018, 9:34:24 PM

That's right, arabic = la araba lingvo, just as Eo was first known as la Internacia lingvo. The name Esperanto was added later on.

Most often, Esperantists shorten the names of languages to just an adjective: Mi scipovas la araban, Mi ne komprenas la rusan. Mi studas la anglan...

Dhjetor (User's profile) December 26, 2018, 3:02:09 AM

Balbutanto:That's right, arabic = la araba lingvo, just as Eo was first known as la Internacia lingvo. The name Esperanto was added later on.

Most often, Esperantists shorten the names of languages to just an adjective: Mi scipovas la araban, Mi ne komprenas la rusan. Mi studas la anglan...
Dankon!

Metsis (User's profile) December 26, 2018, 4:38:48 PM

There are only a handful of "proper" language names (Esperanto, sanskrito, hebreo come to my mind). All others are formed by the "ethnic" group, that speaks it. Note quotes around ethnic, since ethnicity and language do no go hand in hand for instance in Africa. That's something Z. probably had no clue about. Thus we have la araba, la angla, la rusa, la vjetnama etc.

A related question is the country names, with which Z. had ,if I may say, a brain-fart moment. They are a mess. There is somewhat clarifying work by Anna Löwenstein: Konciza klarigo pri la landonomoj en Esperanto, that's worth reading.

thyrolf (User's profile) December 27, 2018, 6:58:24 AM

vortaro.net (reta PIV) diras:

*hebre/o (maj. en L.B.)
1 ♜ Ano de antikva semida gento, kiu fiksiĝis en Palestino k rigardis Abrahamon kiel sian prapatron (Izraelidoj): li vidis, ke du hebreoj malpacasX; mi estas hebreo, mi respektas la EternulonX; Epistolo al la hebreojN. ➞ Israelo.

Metsis (User's profile) December 27, 2018, 11:27:29 AM

thyrolf:vortaro.net (reta PIV) diras:

*hebre/o (maj. en L.B.)
1 ♜ Ano de antikva semida gento, kiu fiksiĝis en Palestino k rigardis Abrahamon kiel sian prapatron (Izraelidoj): li vidis, ke du hebreoj malpacasX; mi estas hebreo, mi respektas la EternulonX; Epistolo al la hebreojN. ➞ Israelo.
Bone, ne eĉ hebreo signifas lingvon sed homon. Mi ekpensis latinon.

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