The suggestion in No. 8 has already borne good fruit, and a weekly
meeting has been arranged every Monday at 6 p.m. at _The Club Café,
5, Bishopsgate Street Within, E.C._ During tea conversation in
Esperanto is compulsory, but after the meal is over discussions on
various topics take place in English. All members of the London
Esperanto Club and their friends are cordially invited to put in an
appearance when possible, and any foreign friends will of course be
especially welcome.
Another meeting has also been arranged for the first Thursday in
every month. This is exclusively for annual subscribers to The
Esperantist. The Editor will be at the before-mentioned Café
from 6-7 p.m., after which hour the Remington Typewriter firm
hard by has kindly placed a room at his disposal. Will readers please
come every first Thursday, with their proposals for the improvement
of this Gazette?
* * *
As has been announced elsewhere, a short three-day visit to Havre, at
the invitation of the Group there, is being arranged by the London
Esperanto Club for all members who can join. Will these kindly send
their names to C. W. T. Reeve, Esq., 63, Effingham Road, Lee, Kent?
There should be as little delay as possible, so that arrangements may
be made with the L. & S.W. Railway Co. as to special facilities, etc.
It is expected that, encouraged by the most cordial reception
accorded by our Boulogne friends at Whitsuntide, a large number of
members will make use of this opportunity for improving their
conversational powers with foreign friends.
* * *
The use of Sia and Lia puzzled one of our Correspondents. "Is it
essential or only optional to use Sia when it refers to the subject
of the sentence?" he asks. Sia _must_ be used in such a case instead
of Lia, unless, as happens once in a lifetime, ambiguity might arise
from such a course, in which case lia, ŝia, etc., must be used
instead.
* * *
The fact that double letters only exist in Esperanto when two
roots, the one ending and the other beginning with the same letter,
are compounded (such as hommano) is frequently overlooked, and
orthographical mistakes result. This rule is not mentioned in the
Text-Books at present in use, and hence, no doubt, the frequency of
such mistakes.
* * *
_R.'s Epitome_ has proved a help to several students, and the author
has kindly sent another rhyme, which, we hope, may have a similar
result.
EG, when ending any word, shows a _high degree_.
Final ET, to birdo (bird), means a _little_ B.
EDZ is _married_, GE means _both_. BO prefixed, _in law_.
ESTR _master_; _member_ AN; IST a _professor_.
EK _just starts_; and AD _goes on_; RE _repeats_; again
ILO _tool_, and EJO _where_; INGO _holder_; then
ERO, _one of_; ARO _lot_; _females_ all have IN;
UJ _contains_; ID _the young_; ULO _greatest seen_.
IĜ _becoming_; _causing_ IG; DIS just _separates_;
ECO, _abstract_; AĴO, _work_; MAL always _negates_.
EBLA _possibility_; INDA _worthiness_.
EMA shows _propensity_; adjectives I guess.
(H.W.R., Ipswich).
* * *
The order in which the suffixes should be added is logically
arranged. Take, for example, the word _Infan-in-eto_. _Infanetino_ is
not correct, because the _-et_ is added to give the diminutive.
_Infanino_, a little girl, _Infanineto_, a tiny little girl.
Similarly, in other cases, when two affixes are used in one word it
is easy to decide which has precedence.
* * *
Who was the first Englishman to learn Esperanto? We invite
correspondence on this interesting point. At the moment it seems that
the distinction belongs to H. L'Estrange Ewen, Esq., whose number is
3010, and who, a short time since, wrote us a letter using the old
style of writing, _i.e._, accents inverted, as in Bohemian, _e.g._,
č, not ĉ.
* * *
Pronunciation still presents occasional difficulties to our country
readers. The last query to hand deals with the sound of aĵ. This
must be pronounced ahzh.
* * *
To those Correspondents who have asked: Which is the best way to
learn to speak Esperanto, we recommend them to talk at first to the
door, or any other inanimate object at hand.
Thus _Reading aloud_ (or, better still, Declaiming) is one of the
best exercises, and is a very great help to the rapid mastery of the
spoken language. When you have waded through the _Fundamenta
Krestomatio_ in this manner, and have spent a few days with
_Samideanoj_ who do not understand English, you should speak
Esperanto like a native!