New to Esperanto, help me out on a few things
de PrimeMinisterK, 3 avril 2020
Messages : 31
Langue: English
PrimeMinisterK (Voir le profil) 3 avril 2020 23:35:16
flanke:Dankon!
Ha,you can say "Mi esperas,ke mi progresos tre rapide" or "Mi esperas,ke mi progresos rapidege"! Just learn by lernu!(lernu! is really good,haha)
Why do you put a comma before ke?
PrimeMinisterK (Voir le profil) 3 avril 2020 23:43:23
Balbutanto:That's useful info. It would be nice if some contemporary authors who are sympathetic to the Esperanto cause would supply the rights to their books. It seems they could arrange to have the publisher sell them for a pittance. As you say, the readership is small so it's not going to hurt them.
Saluton kaj bonvenon!
About books, the readership is relatively small, and so is the number of publishers. Most ot them (Impeto in Russia, FEL in the Netherlands, Mondial in the US, Edistudio in Italy) are Mom-and-Pop shops who heroically contribute to Eo culture, but cannot afford to buy the copyright of recent novels or essays. That's why it's easier to have classics published: their authors are long dead; they won't protest There is a constant arrival of new works, some of them quite good. Nemere, form Hungary and Steele, from Australia, were already mentionned. I would personnally add Montagut, from Catalonia, but he's not for beginners. No Shakespeare, Molière or Cervantes yet, but a lot of good poetry, crime novels and diaries.
I wonder how it came to be that The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Murder on the Orient Express and The Alchemist came to be published in Esperanto, since they are still under copyright.
Regarding crime novels, are there any that you'd recommend?
You mentioned no Shakespeare. That surprises me. I'd think all of his most important works would've been translated at this point. Didn't Zamenhof do a translation of Hamlet? It seems I remember reading that when I was first researching the language.
Balbutanto:Translations are done most often by esperantists who work from their mother tongue; it can give a new perspective about many authors (try reading Dostoievsky in Eo), or will allow you to discover unknown gems from small countries. As soon as you can read fluently -- and it's a matter of months, contrarily to most natural languages -- have a look at UEA's katalogo, as recommended, or try the Gutenberg Project.I'm surprised there haven't been more unofficial translation projects of popular works, like the Harry Potter translation that I know was done.
Balbutanto:Esperanto culture, varied and rich, is very much what you bring to it -- which is exhilarating, when you think about it. There must be a group of samlingvanoj in your neck of the woods. Join up and have fun.Sounds good! I hope to make many friends within the community.
PrimeMinisterK (Voir le profil) 3 avril 2020 23:56:39
vanilo:I think that duolingo is a good app to practice Esperanto, although those tips and notes are not every enough to learn more about Esperanto’s grammar.Yeah, I have been using Duolingo to complement the Kurso, but as you say it doesn't really teach you grammar directly and I also question some of its choices.
For instance, it will ask you "What is the word for cat?" But instead of kato, the answer it's looking for is katon. I don't understand that at all. Why would it use the accusative when drilling vocabulary words?
flanke (Voir le profil) 4 avril 2020 04:51:14
PrimeMinisterK:That's just a habit,people don't have to put a comma.
Why do you put a comma before ke?
flanke (Voir le profil) 4 avril 2020 05:03:10
vanilo:I think that duolingo is a good app to practice Esperanto, although those tips and notes are not very enough to learn more about Esperanto’s grammar.You can learn by lernu! and practice by Duolingo,haha After all lernu!'s grammer( https://lernu.net/gramatiko ) is translated from the official grammer(PMEG: https://bertilow.com/pmeg/ )
Balbutanto (Voir le profil) 4 avril 2020 14:27:40
PrimeMinisterK:I meant rather that we don't have authors of that caliber yet. That may take some time, and Eo is barely 125 years old. Yes Shakespeare, Molière and Cervantes were translated in Esperanto.
Regarding crime novels, are there any that you'd recommend?
You mentioned no Shakespeare. That surprises me. I'd think all of his most important works would've been translated at this point. Didn't Zamenhof do a translation of Hamlet? It seems I remember reading that when I was first researching the language.
I'm not a great fan of crime novels, but I enjoyed Regulus by Lorjak, and La Monto by Nemere.
Metsis (Voir le profil) 4 avril 2020 14:50:43
flanke:The use of comma is not clearly defined in Esperanto. PMEG gives only vague rules:PrimeMinisterK:That's just a habit,people don't have to put a comma.
Why do you put a comma before ke?
- en lokoj, kie povas esti nature iom paŭzi, ekz. antaŭ subfrazo (such as before ke as Flanke did)
- komoj estas ankaŭ uzataj inter kunligitaj ĉeffrazoj
PrimeMinisterK (Voir le profil) 5 avril 2020 00:43:57
Balbutanto:Thanks for the info.
I meant rather that we don't have authors of that caliber yet. That may take some time, and Eo is barely 125 years old. Yes Shakespeare, Molière and Cervantes were translated in Esperanto.
I'm not a great fan of crime novels, but I enjoyed Regulus by Lorjak, and La Monto by Nemere.
It seems that Shakespeare in Esperanto would be somewhat strange as, to me, so much of the essence of Shakespeare's works is the language itself.
I wonder if there are any great talents brewing in the Esperanto community, who have serious ambitions to become great Esperanto authors.
Balbutanto (Voir le profil) 6 avril 2020 17:16:21
PrimeMinisterK:It wouldn't be any stranger than reading the Bard in French or in Wolof. Everything depends on the translator's talent. I didn't read S. in Eo, but Zamenhof translated Goethe, and to this non German speaker, it looked quite right.
It seems that Shakespeare in Esperanto would be somewhat strange as, to me, so much of the essence of Shakespeare's works is the language itself.
I wonder if there are any great talents brewing in the Esperanto community, who have serious ambitions to become great Esperanto authors.
PrimeMinisterK (Voir le profil) 6 avril 2020 23:09:47
Balbutanto:I think that with Shakespeare in particular, it's not just the quality of the writing that is a distinguishing factor, but also to modern readers it's the specific flavor of the English language that he wrote in. Namely, Elizabethan English. I'm not sure how much of that would crossover in translation.
It wouldn't be any stranger than reading the Bard in French or in Wolof. Everything depends on the translator's talent. I didn't read S. in Eo, but Zamenhof translated Goethe, and to this non German speaker, it looked quite right.
It's kind of like reading the King James Bible. Even within the English language itself, reading the Bible in contemporary English is not like reading the Bible in the English of 1611.