ASPECT | ENGLISH | ESPERANTO |
---|---|---|
Alphabet | non-phonetic (46 phonemes, 20 vowels) |
phonetic with 28 letters |
Prononciation | chaotic, elusive, impossible to standardise |
each letter is pronounced and always represents the same sound |
Stress | indefinable, determined by usage ; no standard can be established | always on the penultimate syllable |
Irregular verbs | 283 | none |
Conjugation : - root | variable | invariable |
Identification of the grammatical function | confused, many grammatical relations are unexpressed | clear and immediate |
Syntax | rigid, fixed word order | very subtle |
Word derivation (1) | limited possibilities : 5% | vast possibilities : 17% |
Index of agglutination * (1) | 0,3 | 1 |
Idioms | innumerable | virtually non-existent |
Homonyms | very numerous | virtually non-existent |
Polysémy (2) | very commun (1)* | rare |
Vocabulary necessary to understand an ordinary text (3) | for 80-90% : 2000 words for 99% : 7000 words ** |
500 words + 50 grammatical elements 2000 words |
Time needed to reach a standard equivalent to A-level (4) | 1500 hours for a French speaker | 150 hours for a French speaker |
(1) "Lingvistikaj aspektoj de Esperanto", Dr John C. Wells ; professor of English language phonetics at University College London.
(2) Edward Thorndike, a famous American teacher and educationalist.
(3) "Fortoj de l’vivo", Vilho Setälä, a Finnish linguist.
(4) Dr Helmar Frank, director of the Institute of Cybernetics in Paderborn, Germany.
* 21 120 different meanings for the 850 words of the basic vocabulary.
** Frequency of dictionary consultation : one unknown word in a hundred.