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.
* * * * *