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danielcg (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 17:10:16
And the answer is... that I have not even the slightest clue about how he made that choice.
Regards,
Daniel
alexbeard:danielcg:About 70 % from Latin, about 10 % from Greek and the rest from the most internacionalized roots in the Hindo-European languages.That's not what I mean, I mean how did he make the choice between using the word for tall or the word for short for the root?
Regards,
Daniel
alexbeard:How did he choose which words to use as the root?
alexbeard (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 17:12:33
For example, pura is clean, which is good
alta-tall, which is largest.
Rogir (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 17:15:48
alexbeard (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 17:17:30
Rogir:I think he rather took the one that would be most widely recognized.That could be.
Makes more sense than my idea
orthohawk (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 18:51:06
alexbeard:Ah, the great mystery of Esperantujo!! There seems to be no rhyme or reason for his choice of which would be the root.danielcg:About 70 % from Latin, about 10 % from Greek and the rest from the most internacionalized roots in the Hindo-European languages.That's not what I mean, I mean how did he make the choice between using the word for tall or the word for short for the root?
Regards,
Daniel
alexbeard:How did he choose which words to use as the root?
Edited to add: Although what Rogir said makes a lot of sense!
mnlg (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 21:48:07
alexbeard (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 21:57:52
mnlg:Regarding the original question, 'eta' can be used to convey the meaning of 'short'. Its original meaning is closer to 'little', but I guess that in a good number of occasions the two things can coincide.is there a word for big or would you just say "maleta"?
(ha. spanish word for suitcase)
Oŝo-Jabe (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 22:05:26
alexbeard:Well there's 'granda', and you might use 'ega'...mnlg:Regarding the original question, 'eta' can be used to convey the meaning of 'short'. Its original meaning is closer to 'little', but I guess that in a good number of occasions the two things can coincide.is there a word for big or would you just say "maleta"?
(ha. spanish word for suitcase)
alexbeard (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 22:09:11
Oŝo-Jabe:That's true.alexbeard:Well there's 'granda', and you might use 'ega'...mnlg:Regarding the original question, 'eta' can be used to convey the meaning of 'short'. Its original meaning is closer to 'little', but I guess that in a good number of occasions the two things can coincide.is there a word for big or would you just say "maleta"?
(ha. spanish word for suitcase)
RiotNrrd (Показать профиль) 4 января 2009 г., 23:08:39
alexbeard:...or would you just say "maleta"?"Maleta" is a perfectly fine and usable word, but because there are a couple of other equally good words (as mentioned, "granda" and "ega") it is rarely seen.
The only reason I can see to use it is if you wanted to emphasize that you don't just mean "big", you really do mean "the opposite of small" (which, in some subtle contexts, can make sense).
Li ne estas etulo! Ne - li estas tre maleta!
The final phrase could have been
Li estas tre granda!
as it means the same thing. But using "maleta" in this context gives more of a "contrary" feel. "He's not a little person! No - quite the opposite!"
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On a related note, it occurs to me that "maleta" also means "sort of opposite". Above, we used "mal" to modify "eta". Here, we use "eta" to modify "mal".
Ĉu hundoj estas la malo de katoj?
(Are dogs the opposite of cats?)
Mmmm... Ili estas maletaj.
(Mmmm... they are sort of opposites (in many ways)).
Unfortunately, "mal" is definitely a prefix, and "et" is definitely a suffix, so a word like "etmala" (to distinguish between the two possible meaning combinations of these two affixes) is off the table - it is grammatically incorrect.