Arcaicam Esperantom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arcaicam Esperantom ("Archaic Esperanto") is a constructed language created to act as a fictional 'Old Esperanto,' in the vein of languages such as Old English or the use of Latin citations in modern texts. It was created by Manuel Halvelik as part of a range of stylistic variants including Gavaro (a slang), Popido (a patois) and a scientific vocabulary closer to Greco-Latin roots.

The idea of an "old Esperanto" was proposed by the Hungarian poet Kalman Kalocsay[1] who in 1931 included a translation of the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, the first Hungarian text (12th century), with hypothetic forms as if Esperanto were a Romance language deriving from Vulgar Latin. Other possibility for Esperanto authors looking for archaism is the Proto-Esperanto, the first sketches created by L.L. Zamenhof before deciding on the 1887 standard.

[edit] Changes in Arcaicam Esperantom

  • Articles: There are no articles (definite) in Arcaicam Esperantom (as in Latin), but there is an indefinite article un unlike in Esperanto.
  • Endings:
    • Nouns have six endings in Arcaicam Esperantom: -om/-oym, nominative singular/plural; -on/oyn, accusative singular/plural; -od/oyd, dative singular/plural. Adjectives agree with the endings of the noun, replacing the -o- of the endings with -a-.
    • The genitive form of a noun is formed by changing -om/-oym to -es/-eys: de domo (of a house) becomes domes (house's). Esperanto "conserves" it for words like nenies ("nobody's")
    • In adverb form, -e becomes (introducing a new phoneme), and -aŭ becomes -ez.
  • Orthography: The following letters of modern Esperanto are replaced as follows in Arcaicam Esperantom: c (replaced with tz), ĉ (replaced with ch), f (replaced with ph), ĝ (replaced with gh), ĥ (replaced with qh), j (replaced with y), ĵ (replaced with j), k (replaced with c before a, o, or u, or with qu before e or i), ŝ (replaced with sh), ŭ (replaced with ù), and v (replaced with w).
  • Pronouns: The following pronouns of modern Esperanto are replaced as follows in Arcaicam Esperantom: mi (replaced with mihi), vi (replaced with tu, or wos in plural), li (replaced with lui), ŝi (replaced with eshi), ĝi (replaced with eghi), ni (replaced with nos), ili (replaced with male ilui, and female sihi)
  • Verbs:
    • Commands: The command form can take the plural ending (-y) in Arcaicam Esperantom.
    • Infinitives: If modern Esperanto's verb root (that is, not counting the modern infinitive ending -i) ends in an e or i, the verb infinitive ends in -ar. (criarkrii). Otherwise, the verb infinitive ends in ir. (estiresti).
    • Personal Conjugations: After marking the tense of the verb (-as present, -is past, -os future, -us conditional) as in modern Esperanto, the -s of the verb conjugation is replaced with a person ending: -ms, first person singular/plural; -s, second-person singular; -t, third-person singular; -it second- and third-person plural. Consequently, personal pronouns can be absent if there is no ambiguity.
  • Vocabulary: Forms usually formed with mal- in normal Esperanto instead have their own words.

In order to preserve comprehension, there is almost no effort at simulating semantic drift. One case is mesirom (probably from French Messieurs or Italian messer) instead of sinjoro ("Mr." in modern Esperanto) that becomes "lord" (senjoro in modern Esperanto).

[edit] Sample

The following text is a translation of the Lord's prayer[verification needed]:

Patrom noses, cuyu estas en chielom,
estu sanctigitam Tues nomom.
Venu Tues regnom,
plenumighu Tues volom,
Cuyel en chielo, ityel ankez sur terom.
Panon noses cheyutagan donu nosod hodiez.
Cay pardonu nosod nies shuldoyn,
cuyel ankez nos pardonaims shuldantoyd noses.
Cay ne conducu nosoyn en tenton,
sed liberigu nosoyn malbones.
Amen.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Elektronika Bulteno de EASL includes the short story La Mezepoka Esperanto from Lingvo Stilo Formo, 2nd cheap edition, Kalman Kalocsay, Budapest, Literatura Mondo, 1931.