Day #313 Esperanto

When I was having a cup of tea at Aristeacrats a few weeks ago, I spotted a book on Esperanto, the universal language.  I’d heard about Esperanto, but hadn’t ever looked into it. I have to admit, I’m fascinated by the idea. And I’m pretty sure that if I had a friend who showed any interest in it, I’d probably devote some time to learning it.

It’s so doggone logical. Each vowel has ONE sound, for instance. Each consonant has ONE sound.

That reminded me of a little word game my children played on me when they were in high school. Here it is:

What’s this word?        GHOTI

I’m willing to bet you’re saying something like

goat-ee

go-tee

guh-hoe-tee, or even

joe-tee.

Uh-uh. It’s     FISH.

“How’s that?” you ask.

Well, you take the sound of

“gh” as in laugh,

“o” as in women, and

“ti” as in nation

Put all three of those sounds together, and you get F-I-SH.

Esperanto is much easier to figure out than that. For one thing, every noun ends in –o. For plural, you add a –j.

one book=unu libro

two books=du libroj

three books=tri libroj

four cats=kvar katoj

kvin sinjoroj—gentlemen

ses virinoj—women

sep ĵurnaloj--newspapers

ok avantaĝoj--advantages

naŭ ideoj--ideas

dek bovinoj—cows

So, what does this have to do with beekeeping?

Years ago I read about a woman traveling in Germany. Walking down a residential street one day, she stopped to admire a beautiful garden. The woman working in the garden looked up, smiled. They quickly discovered that they had no knowledge of each other’s language until one of them pointed to a flower and called it by its botanical name. From there they happily wandered through her profuse garden, sharing the names in Latin, a very old common tongue.

I wonder what beekeepers do at international meetings? I doubt anybody there speaks Latin. Surely Esperanto would help.

Wonder if I can find a class somewhere?

BEEattitude for Day # 313:

       Blessed are those who learn another language, for they shall have their horizons widened.