. SPERANTO BULLET xSrcscRiRTioN, Ten Cents a Year Five to One Address, 25 Cents Ten, Yearly, One Address, Sao ion, Y early. One Ax I Exira Postage in Chicago and Canada, 12 cents per year for 1 to 20 copies. Foreign postage, 12 cents per year for 1 fix. Monthly American Esperantist Co., 235 Fortieth Street, Chicago November, igo8 Volume 1 Number WHAT IS ESPERANTO? THE following reply is quoted from a translation of the Declaration of the First World Congress of Esperantists, at Bologne, France, August, 1905. Esperanto is an attempt to disseminate in the whole world a language neutrally human, which, not intruding itself in the internal life of the people, and aiming not at all to crowd out the existing national languages, would give to the people of different nations the ability mutually to understand each other, which can serve as a peace-making language in the public institutions of those where different nations fight among themselves about the language; and in which can be published works which have an equal interest for all peoples. Any other idea or hope which this or that Esperantist connects with Esperanto, is his purely private affair. THAT Esperanto is much more than the mere amusement of an immense oand of enthusiasts and faddists is shown by the action of the United States Government in sending a special representa- tive to the recent Esperanto World Congress at Dresden, Ger- many. Major Paul P. Straub, of the Medical Service, held the rath- er peculiar position, and as he did not know Esperanto before going to Dresden it may be taken for granted that he went as an impar- tial and unprejudiced observer. Major Straub returned an ardent advocate of the international lan- guage. During his stay in Dres- den, only a week, he learned much of the language and its marvelous adaptability to international uses. He sat at table with representatives of ten different native tongues, whose national identities could not he de- tected by any "brogue" in their pronunciation of Es- peranto. He saw the wonderful conventions,'in which men of strong convictions poured forth their thoughts fluently, forcefully and freely in Esperanto. He saw, and listened, and came home convinced. The relation of Esperanto to the Medical Corps may be briefly stated as follows: Since in so-called "civil- ized" warfare the surgeons of opposing forces treat the wounded of both sides with impartiality, a means of communication between Red Cross workers, surgeons and wounded is of great importance. Many lives are sacrificed from lack of it, so that Esperanto may be made the means of alleviating to that extent the hor- rors of international war. It is worthy of note here that the Hydrographic De- partment of the United States prints information in Esperanto for use in the bottles which are cast at sea to mark the flow of ocean currents. Strong influences will soon be brought to bear for the introduction of the language in international postal matters—such as money orders, international stamp coupons, etc. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN THE University of Wisconsin is the latest great educational institution to put Esperanto into its regular curriculum. This school, while not known to popular fame as widely as some others, is nevertheless one of the most influential in the country. Its library of American historical documents is saiu to be unsurpassed, and has furnished material for many brave tales of : early days. ESPEBANTO AND THE HOME PBESS Mr. Crane, associate editor of the Mining World, Chi- cago, has an article on Esperanto in the issue of Sep- tember 5th. Mr. Crane is convinced. The Mexican Mining Journal, City of Mexico, in a letter to Amerika Esperantisto, says: "There is lan- guage problem enough here and the subject of a uni- versal language is of interest to many men of many tongues. We will be glad to give the subject some notice as its interest warrants for our readers." Henry D. King is having some good propaganda arti- cles printed in New York City, principally in the Mail and Express. The Military Surgeon, Carlisle, Pa., has an article In the September issue by Dr. Yemans. Esperanto Gazeto is the name of a new Esperanto monthly published at Guadalajara, Mexico, Apartado 115. Tiie subscription price is 75 cents Mexican. Henry W. Fisher of Pittsburgh, has an excellent reply to the would-be reformers and improvers of Esperanto in the New York Times. The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch is being well handled by some Esperantist who knows his business, and is giving much space to good articles. James McKlrdy of Pittsburgh, is publishing a series of articles in the Dispatch, of that city. False reports of a split in the Esperanto Congress are being circulated, and should be corrected wherever found. The Boston Morning Globe echoes them in an editorial paragraph September 2nd. A Boston actress acquired five hundred Esperanto letters and much notoriety by advertising theater tickets as prizes for the best letters in the International language. The Musical American, New York, says that Felix Ktoeller, whoever he may be, is writing an opera in Esperanto. Amerika Esperantisto would like to publish a translation of a popular Italian opera. The simultaneous appearance of propaganda articles in several New England papers indicates that the New England division is using systematic effort with the press. The Gloversville (N. Y.) Herald of Aug. 19 reports the formation of a Socialist Esperanto class, which Is being attended by persons of all political creeds. The New Y"ork Tribune of September 5 reports a reso- lution for the use of Esperanto, passed at the sixteenth international peace conference. The Newark (N. J.) Times prints, in reply to a corre- spondent, information dated a year ago. Philatelic Esperanto, of Buffalo, Is out with Number Five. The Worcester (Mass.) Telegram says there are forty nationalities in that city, and boosts Esperanto. The Worcester (Mass.) Bepublic, one of the few French papers in the United States, is friendly to Esperanto. The Elgin (111.) Press reports the opening of an Esperanto school. The Augusta (Maine) Journal reports an Esperanto meeting of Christian Endeavorers in the Free Baptist church of that place. The Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post prints on September 6th an editorial comparison of Esperanto and Greek, apropos of the mention of Greek as a possible International lan- guage. The Post seems convinced that Esperanto fills the bill. The Springfield (Mass.) Union calls loudly and face- tiously for the printing of all Harper publications In Esperanto. The New York Press of August 9th has a two-column biography of Dr. Zamenhof. The Associated Press correspondent of Washington put on a 500-word story of the appointment of Major Straub to Dresden, and this was taken by hundreds of papers all over the country. The Hartford (Conn.) Courant has a half-column story of a Wlllimantic policeman who speaks Esperanto and thereby sends a "lost" Bohemian woman on her way in peace. After two weeks spent in interviewing editors of leading magazines In New York, Boston and Philadel- phia, Arthur Baker, editor of Amerika Esperantisto, re- ports that much favorable publicity is in prospect from those sources. As a matter of fact, there is an unfilled demand for good magazine articles discussing Esperanto. The Elyria (Ohio) Telegram insists that Its home town establish an Esperanto club, If for nothing else than to keep even with neighbor Amherst. It accom- panies the injunction with a good editorial argument. The Pittsburgh Sun is regularly publishing articles in Esperanto, with English translation for comparison and study by its readers. PERANTO BULLETIN NOVEMBER 1908 ESPERANTO ON INCREASE New Artificial International Language is a Successful Institution FOR thousands of years philosophers have rec- ognized the need of bringing the various races of mankind into closer touch and sympathy by means of a common lan- guage. Many have been the attempts to supply such a language. About a quarter of a century ago the highly artificial language known as Vola- puk was launched by Schleyer, but it was so difficult to learn that it db. L. t. ZAMErtHOP, was received by the world INVENTOB OP only as a sort of joke. espebanto. Dr. Lazaro Ludiviko Zam- enhof, a Polish physician living at Bielostok, Russia, as far back as 1878 conceived the general idea of a new common tongue which, instead of being artificial and arbitrary like Volapuk, should be grafted on a system of root words existing in the leading languages, and thus easy for all races to acquire. It was not till 1887 however that Zamenhof published his first pamphlet giving his idea to the world. He signed the now, de plume "Dr. Esperanto" to this pamphlet, "esperanto" meaning "hopeful" in the new lingo. It has been truly said that no one who gives a few moments of serious consideration to Esper- anto can help being converted to it, and Zamenhof's pamphlet met with such instant recognition that Esperanto soon began to spread of its own accord. The Esperantists do not aim to displace any existing language, but only to furnish a com- mon basis of communication between peoples of all tongues, so that a person by merely learning this one language can be at home in any literature or among any native popula- tion employing it. It is not easy to picture the advantages that would accrue from the general introduction of such a common and mutual medium of intercourse. The babel of tongues which has kept the various national- ities so clannish has been an immense obstruc- tion to the progress of civilization, for races that have no means of communcation are certain to be jealous and antagonistic, while a common language means common ideals and sympathies. Esperanto is, beyond all comparison, the easiest of languages to acquire, because, be- ing artificially made, it avoids all the hard parts of natural languages, such as irregular verbs, etc., and allows no confusing "excep- tions" to its plain and logical rules. One central ideal is at the bottom of the whole scheme: Esperanto makes use of everything that is common to our civilized languages, and drops all that is special to any one of them. For instance the English "w" and "th," which are such stumbling-blocks _ to foreigners, are eliminated, as well as the diffi- cult French "u" and Spanish "j." The alphabet employs 28 letters. Every letter has its own sound. Every word is pronounced as it is written, and there are no silent letters. It was Dr. Zamenhof's idea to make good use of what people already know, so he did not invent a single new word for his language; he merely selected as root or base words such words as already existed in the largest number of leading languages, reforming the spelling of course according to the fixed rules of Esperanto. For example "explode" is a word which is found in most of the European languages, and so that word is adopted into Esperanto, but with the revised spelling "eksplodi." Many words of Latin derivation are taken advantage of, since the Latin roots are familiar in most of the modern languages. For instance "domo" in Esperanto means "house"; "filo," "son"; "pensi," to "think"; "histori," "history." _ Dr. Zamenhof employs prefixes and suffixes liberally, so that by their use various col- lateral words are formed from the root words. Thus, "amiko" means "friend," and "mal- amiko" "enemy" (or "not-friend") ; "forta" means "strong," and "mal-forta," "weak" (or "not-strong") ; "veni" means "come," and "re-veni," "return." Likewise the ro„t "ar" means a collection or group, and thus "vorto" means "word," and "vort-ar-o" means a col- lection of words—that is, a vocabulary. Simi- larly, "arbo" means "tree," and "arb-ar-o" means a collection of trees—that is, a forest. Then the suffix "in" denotes the feminine, and thus "frato" means "brother," and "frat-in-o" means "sister;" "knabo" means "boy" and "knab-in#-o" means "girl"; "viro" means man," and "vir-in-o" means "woman." So when you are told that "patro" means "father," you know without being told that "patr-in-o" means "mother." To count, you say: "Unu, du, tri, kvar, kvin, ses, sep, ok, nau, dek"; "dek-du" is "twelve"; "du-dek" is "twenty"; "ok-dek," "eighty," etc. The sign of the noun is the ending "o"; thus, "tablo" is "table"; "letero," "letter"; "papero," "paper." The suffix "uj" denotes that which contains, and thus "mono" mean- ing "money," "mon-uj-o" means "purse." The suffix "aj" denotes the thing made from or having the quality of something else, and thus "bela" meaning "beautiful," "bel-aj-o" means "a beautiful thing"; and as the suffix "ec" denotes the abstract quality, "bel-ec-o" means "beauty." The verbs are absolutely regular. The tenses have different endings, but there are no changes for person or numbre. Thus "am-i" means to "love," and the ending "as" denotes present; "is," past; "os," future. The ad- verbs end in "e," and thus "patre" means "fatherly." The definite article is "la". Ad- jectives end in "a" in the singular and "j" (pronounced like "y") in the plural; thus "bona hundo" means "good dog," and "bonaj hundoj," "good dogs." It is not hard to understand that the sence "La vento estas tre malvarma" signifies "the wind is very cold" (or "not-warm"). There are no arbitrary rules in Esperanto about the order the words shall take in a sentence (as in German, for instance), and this simplifies composition. There are a number of prepositions, conjunc- tions, etc., of course, but most of these have some suggestion in sound of their equivalents in English. Here are a few specimens of Es- peranto, which anyone would almost under- stand at the first hearing: "La patro estas en la cambro"—"The father is in the room." "Antau la domo staras arbo"—"Before the house stands a tree." "La alteco de tiu monto ne estas tre granda" —"The height of that hill is not very great." ESPERANTO BULLETIN NOVEMBER 1908 "V "Bonan matenon"—"Good morning." (Ac- cusative takes "n" ending.) "xui iras en la gardenon"—"I am going into the garden." "En malbona vetero oni povas facile mal- varmumi"—"In bad weather one catches cold easily." It is plain to see from what has been said that it is by no means a life work to acquire a practical knowledge of Esperanto. One writer says tbat after a single hour's study he was able to take up an Esperanto book and read it, and that the same day he wrote a letter in the new language. Of course he al- ready was familiar with several languages and this helped him. But even a Chinese or Japanese, knowing nothing whatever of any European language, ancient or modern, can learn Esperanto in a month, while to acquire English, Russian, or French takes them years of study. Thousands in all parts of the world are now learning this universal language. Over forty periodicals are published in it, and JjLmŭ» many books have already been translated into 1 *"' it. Our consul at Breslau, Germany, recently wrote the secretary of state urging our mer- chants to learn it and use it as a medium for extending our trade abroad. Advertisements in Esperanto are not uncommon, especially in Europe. The Esperanto congress which was held at Cambridge, England, last summer was attended by delegates of over a seore of dif- ferent nationalities, who were able to con- ^^^ verse with one another perfectly, and these ^^^ annual congresses are giving a great impetus to the spread of the language. This year the meeting was held in Germany and in 1909 will be at Chautauqua, New York. In Europe, there is great enthusiasm over the matter. In Paris, there is a single Es- peranto club of 3,000 members, and nearly fifty different classes in the language are being carried on. Commercial schools all over Europe are adding Esperanto to their courses of study, and recently a whole church Bervice, including the hymns, was conducted in it. It is claimed that already 80,000 to 100,000 people have mastered the language. *"■"■• Dr. Zamenhof holds that by employing some thirty prefixes and suffixes, 900 root words are sufficient to serve the purposes of all inter- course. The Esperanto vocabulary at present * embraces from 2,000 to 3,000 words, but of course it is possible to greatly increase this number by going into the shades of meaning. THE foregoing article was published in the "Path- finder," an educational weekly of Washington, D. C, in March, 1908. We suggest that our readers secure its reprinting, with such adaptations and changes as may be desired, in local papers. Kindly give the "Path- finder" credit for the article is used as it stands. NO LACK OF BOOKS NOBODY who is familiar with the number and variety of text-books for the study of Esperanto can doubt that the langunge is quite widely disseminated. There are no less than seventeen for English and American stu- dents (the best of which, according to the British Esper- antist, London, is The American Esperanto Book); there are probably as many for the French, eight or ten for Wf THE September Bulletin has been with- drawn from circulation—all copies sold and will not be reprinted. Let your new subscriptions date from October—TEN cents for a YEAR ! the German, five or six each for apanish, Italian, Rus- sian, etc. There has appeared an Esperanto text-book for learning French, and one for learning Japanese, it being claimed that one can learn Esperanto and two other languages in the same time it would require to learn one other language without knowing Esperanto. This is, of course, because Esperanto contains the essen- tial international elements of all the European tongues, besides by its logical methods giving the student a clear comprehension of the principles of grammar. ESPERANTO TECHNICAL DICTIONARY ESPERANTISTS are preparing what will probably be the largest dictionary of technical and scientific terms in the world. In the Scientific Office at Geneva the various branches of knowledge have been divided into 100 sections or sub-divisions, and experts from all over the world, each in his special line, are assisting in com- piling and editing the dictionary. It will have defini- tions in Esperanto, with translations and synonyms in most of the European languages. The work will require years in completion—or rather in the preparation of the first edition, as such a work must be constantly, revised —and when it appears in print it is expected that Esperanto will he a means of exact scientific and tech- nical information greatly superior to any other lan- guage. A wealthy Swiss, M. Rene de Saussure, is help- ing the enterprise financially. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN? QUITE naturally the answer to this question depends upon the regularity of the time devoted to its study and to the student's previous linguistic study, as it would in the study of any language, hut one can judge in a general way by the results of examinations for the two grades of diplomas granted hy the national associations. The Preliminary Examination (Atesto pri Lenado) is a thorough test on the grammar of the language as shown in the exercises and explanations of the Ameri- can Esperanto Book, together with some easy reading of Esperanto prose. To obtain an equal acquaintance with a national language would require at least a year's work at school or college, yet this preliminary diploma in Esperanto has been obtained by some stu- dents in four to five weeks of study. The advanced examination (Atesto pri Kapableco) requires a thorough acquaintance with the syntax of the language and fluency of expression only obtainable in a foreign national tongue after years of study. The comparative ease in the acquirement of Esperanto is demonstrated when it is realized that a well in- structed student will be able to successfully pass this test after a few months of study. - - ■ IMMENSE ESPERANTO LIBRARY THE largest Esperanto library in the world is that of George Davidov, of Saratov, Russia. Sro. Davidov, has issued a 63-page catalogue showing the extent of his library, which contains about 1500 separate titles. And still one can hear an occasional college professor who ought to know better saying that "Esperanto has no literature!" SEVERAL newspapers and magazines have mentioned a clock made by W. H. Pratley, of New York City. It is called an Esperanto clock because only an Esperanto can read the inscription on the dial, without which one cannot "tell the time." BE a light-bearer and a leader in your home town and state. Organize an Es- peranto club ! For instructions about it, see October Bulletin. Twenty copies for ten cents. Subscribe—10c a year ! ESPERANTO BULLETIN NOVEMBER IQo8 AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO Monthly magazine, printed in English and Esperanto, with stories, news and arti- cles on various subjects. Illustrated. Official journal of the Esperanto Associa- tion of North America. Per copy, 10 cents; six months, 50 cents; per year $1.00. AMERICAN ESPERANTO BOOK Most complete text-book of Esperanto ever published. Well printed, large type, good paper. It haB 76 pages on grammar and punctuation, with examples; 114 pages lessons and exercises; 130 pages Esperanto-English and English- Esperanto vocabularies. See price list. American Esperanto Book, best cloth edition, post- Tiehl . ,..... ............. z.~'. With Amerika Esperantisto one year......... 1.50 With Amerika Esperantisto six months........ 1.25 Book alone in clubs of five or more.............75 Year-combination in clubs of five or more...... 1.20 Six-months combination in clubs of five or more. 1.00 American Esperanto Book, Paper Cover, free with Amerika Esperantisto one year at............ 1.00 Combination in clubs of five or more..........75 Given also with six months' subscription at. .50 Elements of Esperanto, a 16-page pamphlet 5 cents; ten copies, 10c; 100 postpaid...........$ .50 Esperanto-English Dictionary, by Motteau.......60 English-Esperanto Dictionary ...................60 Rhodes English-Esperanto Dictionary, large and complete, cloth-bound ........................ 2.00 Unua Legolibro (First Reader)..................55 Fundamenta Krestomatio, 460 pages of graded Esperanto reading and literature; paper; post- paid ......................................... 1.10 Half leather binding, postpaid............... 1.50 Address all orders to: American Esperantist Com- pany, 235 Fortieth Street, Chicago. SYNOPSIS OF ESPERANTO AMERICAN ESPERANTO BOOK FREE Cut out the subscription form below, paste or pin it to a blank sheet and get five of your friends to sign their names and give you ten cents for this little paper one year. Send us the list and the fifty cents and you'll get a copy of the American Esperanto Book, paper cover. Don't forget to ask for the book, and remember that if you write the other addresses instead of having the sub scribefs sign their names we don't send the book. Be extremely careful that address is plainly written. Cut or copy this form: ESPERANTO BULLETIN SUBSCRIPTION American Esperantist Company, 235 40th St., Chicago: I have paid your agent ten cents. Please send the Es- peranto Bulletin to my address for one year, beginning with the first number. THE Paper Book, with a six months' subscription to Amerika Esperantisto, will be given for Bulle- tin subscriptions amounting to..................$1.00 THE Book and Magazine a full year, for Bulletin tin subscriptions amounting to..................$1.50 THE Book in Cloth, and magazine six months, for Bulletin subscriptions to amount of..............$2.00 THE Book in Cloth, and magazine one year, for Bulletin subscriptions amounting to..............$2.50 The New York Herald's Paris correspondent says that Major Straub will recommend to the government the adoption of Esperanto by the army Red Cross Society and adds with the becoming flippancy so easy to a news- paper with special cable rate: "Whether with the ob- ject of finishing off the wounded or terrifying the enemy Is not known." THE ALPHABET con- sists of twenty-eight letters: abcĉdefgĝhĥijĵkl mnoprsŝtuŭvz. The sounds are as follows: a is like a in father. c is like ts in huts. ĉ is like ch in church. e is like a in fate, but not so long. g is like g in get. ĝ is likegr in gem. h is like ch in Xoch. i is like ee in see. j is like y in yet, boy. ĵ is like z in seizure. o is like o in roll. s is like s in so. Ŝ is like sh in show. u is like 00 in soon. ŭ is like zu in hoza. z is like z in zone, seize. r is slightly rolled or trilled. The remaining letters are pronounced exactly as in English: bdfhklmnp t v. PRONUNCIATION Every word is pronounced exactly as spelled, and no letter is ever silent. The Accent, stress or em- phasis is placed on the syl- lable next to the last: B A-lo; ne-HE-la; di-li-GEN-ta. Every vowel (a, e, i, o, u) adds a syllable : zo-c-lo-gi-o; tre-eg-e. GRAMMATICAL SIGNS 0 the sign of the noun . . amo=low : . A sign of the adjective . scran—affectionate Lauveio......urae~-aji eclronaceiy 1 verb infinitive .... skribi=/o write AS verb present indicative skribas=zi'?-/fes IS verb past.....sXaribis=wrote OS verb future .... skribos=zxv7/ write U verb imperative . . . skribu=zorzVe US verb conditional . . skribus=m4>7z?: write ANT participle, present act. sbrXbzrnxn—writing INT participle past active sbr\braxn=having written ONT participle future active skribonta=aio;zf to zvrite AT participle present passive skribata=&«'«y written IT participle past passive skribita=«fc« written OT participle future passive sbtibotn—about tobe zuritte.ff" J, final, indicates plural in nouns and adjectives "* N, objective case PREFIXES Esperanto is equipped with a system of prefixes and suffixes, giving a wide range of expression to a very small vocabulary. Tak- ing a root for the central thought, these are used to express the variations of the central idea. In Exercise 42, American Esperanto Book, there are shown 53 words thus formed from one root. The only limit to such combinations is clearness. BO relationship by marriage ; bopntro^fat her-in-law ĈEF chief or principal; ĉefkuiristo=Aeaal cook DE means from; depreni=zo take from DIS dismemberment or separation ; disŝiri=fo tear afart EK to begin suddenly; ekkrii=t'o cry out .:£gj EKS same as English ex; ebsarezi&scato=:ex-yresident EL out; ellabori=7 o work out; elpensi=to think out FOR away ; fbriri=7o go away J<3 GE both sexes; ger>nxro\=parents MAL the direct opposite; bonn==good; malbona=5aoT NE not, neutral; nebela=«of beautiful, plain /; RE to repeat or re"ei-se ; t—'h— to go back; rcdiri^=, ff.cai SEN without, -less; senharn—bald SUFFIXES AD continued action; kanto=a song ; kanta.do=singing Aĵ the concrete ; bela=beautiful; belaĵo=a beautiful thing AR collection or group; vortaro=a dictionary ĈJ diminutive for masculine names ; Vilĉjo= Willie AN inhabitant, partisan; kristano=a Christian EBL possibility; vidi=fo see; videbla==t'zsz'6/e EC abstract quality; be\n=beautiful; be\eco=beauty EG increased degree or size ; grnnzXogne=immense EJ place of action; lerni=ro learn; lerne\o=school EM tendency, inclination ; lnboiGma=industrious ER a unit of a collection; mono=OTo«ov monero=a coin ESTR a leader or head; nrbo—city; urbestro=t»ay"" ET diminution of size or degree; vireto=a tiny man ID offspring; kato=a cat, katido=