{"id":1229,"date":"2010-08-06T13:10:05","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T20:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balafon.net\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2010-08-06T13:19:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T20:19:54","slug":"speaking-of-cultural-appropriation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/?p=1229","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of Cultural Appropriation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finally got a hold of The Dazzle of Day<\/i> by Molly Gloss<\/a>, a novel about Quakers on a generation starship. It came highly reviewed<\/a>, and while the writing is evocative, and the characterization deft, I’m finding it hard to keep going, because the Esperanto is all wrong.<\/p>\n

Mi finfine trovis The Dazzle of Day<\/i> (La Blindumo de Taglumo), verkita de Molly Gloss<\/a>, romano pri kvakeroj voja\u00c4\u009dantaj en generacia stel\u00c5\u009dipo. \u00c4\u0153i estis la\u00c5\u00adde recenzita<\/a>, sed malgra\u00c5\u00ad ke la skriba\u00c4\u00b5o bone elvokadas kaj la karakteri\u00c4\u009do spertas, malfacilas al mi da\u00c5\u00adre legi, \u00c4\u2030ar la Esperantado tute mal\u00c4\u009dustas.<\/p>\n

Despite the note at the beginning about Esperanto pronunciation, it is obvious that the author didn’t bother to actually study any Esperanto beyond the orthography and randomly looking up words in a dictionary. There is not a single Esperanto sentence of any length in the book, which indicates a desire to avoid grammar.<\/p>\n

Malgra\u00c5\u00ad la komenca noto pri Esperanta prononcado, evidentas ke la verkisto ne penetas studii Esperanton krom la ortografio a\u00c5\u00ad hazarde ser\u00c4\u2030i vortojn en vortaro. \u00c4\u02c6ar ne estas sola Esperanta frazo en la libro, la a\u00c5\u00adtoro evidente volis eviti gramatikon.<\/p>\n

The author is apparently unaware that in Esperanto single words participate in the grammar to a greater degree than in English, or even Spanish: the endings of words are always grammatically significant. She uses nouns ending in “-o”, “-as”, “-a”, “-a\u00c5\u00ad”, and “-e”, only the first of which actually marks nouns. The others mark almost without exception<\/i>1<\/a><\/sup> — the whole point of Esperanto is to be as regular and without exception as possible — respectively a present-tense indicative verb, an adjective, a temporal, spatial or logical particle or conjunction, and an adverb. Even borrowed words take the Esperanto grammatical morphemes.<\/p>\n

La verkisto ver\u00c5\u009dajne ne konas ke en Esperanto solaj vortoj gramatike partoprenas plejmulte ol en la angla a\u00c5\u00ad e\u00c4\u2030 la hispana: vort-fina\u00c4\u00b5oj \u00c4\u2030iam gramatike signifas. \u00c5\u0153i uzas substantivajn, kiuj finas kun “-o”, “-as”, “-a”, “-a\u00c5\u00ad”, kaj “-e”, de kiuj nur la unua efektive indikas substantivajn. La aliaj indikas preska\u00c5\u00ad sen escepti<\/i>2<\/a><\/sup> — la interna ideo de Esperanto estas kiel eble plej reguli\u00c4\u009di kaj eviti esceptojn — respektive prezenca verbo, adjectivo, partiklo, kaj adverbo. E\u00c4\u2030 pruntitaj vortoj partoprenas la Esperantan gramatik-sistemon.<\/p>\n

The author misuses Esperanto’s word-formation rules, with sometimes baffling and sometimes humourous effect. She uses the word “altejo” to describe a raised section of land, and “lo\u00c4\u009dio” (borrowed from the Italian “loggia”) for a partly open room. However, in Esperanto, the morpheme “ejo” denotes a particular place used for a particular purpose, and “io” denotes a wide area, usually a country. So the word “altejo” actually means “place for highness”, and “lo\u00c4\u009dio” means “country of living”. If she had switched the two morphemes they would actually make sense: “altio” means “high country”, and “lo\u00c4\u009dejo” means “living place”.<\/p>\n

La a\u00c5\u00adtoro misuzas la Esperantajn reglojn de vort-farado, resulte al a\u00c5\u00ad nekomprenebla a\u00c5\u00ad humura efekto. \u00c5\u0153i uzas la vorton “altejo” priskribi altigitan landparton, kaj “lo\u00c4\u009dio” (pruntita de la itala “loggia”) por iom malferma \u00c4\u2030ambro. Tamen Esperante la vorteto “ejo” signifas apartan lokon speciale uzatan, kaj “io” signifas lar\u00c4\u009dan areon, kutime lando. Do la vorton “altejo” aktuale signifas “loko por alteco”, kaj “lo\u00c4\u009dio” signifas “lando de lo\u00c4\u009dado”. Se \u00c5\u009di estis \u00c5\u009dan\u00c4\u009danta la duajn vortetojn, ili vere sencus: “altio” signifas “alta lando”, kaj “lo\u00c4\u009dejo” signifas “loko por lo\u00c4\u009di”.<\/p>\n

She uses the word “mortafesto” to describe a funeral or wake. This is a strange use of Esperanto grammar (you don’t usually put the adjectival morpheme “-a” in the middle of a word), and would mean “dead feast”, that is, it is the feast itself that is dead. “Mortofesto” is a perfectly reasonable Esperanto construction, and means “death feast”, which is what the author most likely means.<\/p>\n

\u00c5\u0153i uzas la vorton “mortafesto” priskribi funebron a\u00c5\u00ad funebrofeston. Tiu estas strangan uzadon de Esperanta gramatiko (oni ne kutime metas la adjektiva vorteto “-a” meze en la vorto), kaj signifus evidente “morta festo”, alivorte, estas la festo mem kiu mortas. “Mortofesto” estas tuta prava Esperanta vorto, kaj signifas “festo pri morteco”, kiu estas ver\u00c5\u009dajne tio, kion la a\u00c5\u00adtoro volas diri.<\/p>\n

In the introductory note, the author notes that the Esperanto particle “\u00c4\u2030u” marks yes\/no questions, and says she will use the English particle “eh?” to achieve the same effect. But in English the word “eh?” most definitely does NOT mark yes\/no questions. It asks, do you agree<\/i> with a statement. So whenever she has a sentence in English postfixed with “eh?”, I try to translate it into Esperanto with a beginning “\u00c4\u2030u”, and suffer a jolt of cognitive dissonance. The proper equivalent to the English “eh?” in Esperanto is a postfixed “\u00c4\u2030u ne?”.<\/p>\n

En la enkonduka noto, la verkisto diras, ke la Esperanta partiklo “\u00c4\u2030u” markas demandojn de “jes” a\u00c5\u00ad “ne”, kaj \u00c5\u009di promesas, ke \u00c5\u009di uzos la angla partiklo “eh?” por atingi la saman efekton. Sed en la angla la vorton “eh?” definitivege NE markas tiajn demandojn. \u00c4\u0153i demandas, “\u00c4\u2030u vi konsentas, ke \u00c4\u2030i tiu deklaro pravas?” Do kiam ajn \u00c5\u009di skribas anglan frazon kiu finas kun “eh?”, mi provas \u00c4\u009din traduki Esperante kun komenca “\u00c4\u2030u”, kaj sekve mi suferas pafon de “kogna malharmonio”. La prava ekvivalento ol la angla “eh?” estas Esperante finfina “\u00c4\u2030u ne?”.<\/p>\n

It makes me sad that an apparently serious and mindful person would so appropriate the heart of another culture — admittedly a small and quirky<\/a> culture — without bothering to actually learn anything beyond the barest superficity.<\/p>\n

Mi mal\u00c4\u009doji\u00c4\u009das, ke ver\u00c5\u009dajne serioza kaj atenta ulo tiel \u00c5\u009dtelus la koron de alia kulturo — agnoske eta kaj stran\u00c4\u009da<\/a> kulturo — sen penete lerni ion ajn krom malplena surfaca\u00c4\u00b5o.<\/p>\n

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  1. Proper names and the closed class of particles and prepositions are the only exceptions. Adjectives can also be used as substantives ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Propraj nomoj kaj la ne\u00c5\u009dan\u00c4\u009dantaj klasoj de partikloj kaj prepozicioj estas la nuraj esceptioj. Adjektivoj povas anka\u00c5\u00ad uzi\u00c4\u009di kiel substantivaj. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I finally got a hold of The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss, a novel about Quakers on a generation starship. It came highly reviewed, and while the writing is evocative, and the characterization deft, I’m finding it hard to keep going, because the Esperanto is all wrong. Mi finfine trovis The Dazzle of Day … Continue reading “Speaking of Cultural Appropriation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","tag-esperanto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}