Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation

PRELIMINARY NOTES.

In order to make the best progress in acquiring the words and sentences in the following pages, the student is recommended to learn a few at a time by repeating them aloud with the aid of the phonetic pronunciation in the third column.

Although the system of phonetics may seem a little cumbersome, practice will soon enable the student to pronounce the words easily and naturally. The following notes will be useful:--

1. *Accent.*--In Esperanto, every letter, whether vowel or consonant, is sounded. The accented syllable of a word is always the last but one. Thus, nobla (noh'blah), irado (ee-rah'do), telefono (teh-leh-foh'no), internacia (in-tehr-naht-see'ah), folio (fohlee'oh).

It should be borne in mind that j and ŭ are consonants, and do not, like the vowels, of themselves constitute a syllable. Thus, tiu (tee'oo, two syllables) and tiuj (tee'ooy, also two syllables), rajdi (rah'y-dee, not rah-ĭ'dee), antaŭ (ahn'tahw, not ahn-tah'ŏŏ).

2. The vowels, a, e, i, o, u, should in Esperanto be pronounced quite purely, and entirely without any drawling after-sound. Many English speakers diphthongize a, i, o, and pronounce late as "l_a-i_t," pale as "p_a-i_l," paper as "p_a-y_-per," road as "row-d," etc. This habit of drawling the vowels, when transferred to Esperanto, thus: Mi ne povas bone paroli, mee'y nay'ee poh'ŏŏ-vah(r)ss boh'ŏŏ-nehy pah(r)-roh'ŏŏ-leey, immediately reveals the nationality of the speaker.

There is also an inclination to interpose an _r_-sound between la ("the") and a word beginning with a vowel, thus: la(r)ebleco instead of la ebleco, la(r)internacia lingvo instead of la internacia lingvo, etc. This should be avoided.

3. *Combinations of Consonants.*--There are a few consonantal combinations which offer a slight difficulty to English beginners, viz., gv, kn, kv, sc. The combinations gv, kn, and kv, as in gvidi (gvee'dee), knabo (knah'bo), kvieto (kvee-eh'toh), may be practised by first placing a vowel before the g or k, and gradually suppressing it. Thus, first say la knabo (lahk-nah'bo), and gradually drop the "lah," until finally knabo can be said without difficulty.

The combination sc, as in sceno (stseh'no), may be learnt thus: Say "last sane" several times, very distinctly pronouncing the st and the s, then gradually "'st sane", and finally sceno (stseh'no) without any preceding vowel-sound. When this combination follows a vowel, as in mi scias, it should cause no difficulty, for the s is easily pronounced with the first syllable, thus: meess-tsee'ahss.