# Making Esperanto better for artistic purposes Esperanto as it exists is fine as a functional auxillary language. However, when used in art, either in the language or featuring it, you quickly run into the problem where the language is a bit cumbersome and ugly. The set of changes you need to make for a markëd improvement is rather small, though. ## Grammar Changes ### Removal of -as The present tense is the most plain verb form and appears in almost all sentences. It's the best candidate for just flat-out removal, as verbs are not further inflected like nouns are. La hundo *manĝas* la viandon. (The dog eats the meat.) -> La hundo *manĝ* la viandon. ### Removal of the definite article Anglophones don't want you to know this but languages actually work fine without any article, and they bloat the syllable count 90% of the time and are easily worked around the other 10%. La hundo *manĝ* la viandon. -> Hundo *manĝ* viandon. People also tend to disagree on when articles are needed in Esperanto anyways. *Amo venkas.* - Love wins (as said by an Anglophone, Rusophone, etc.) *La Amo venkas.* - Love wins (as said by a romance language speaker) The most dependent construct on *la* in Esperanto is in e.g. *Ĉu vi povas paroli la anglan?* (Can you speak English?) This is easily substituted with *Ĉu vi povas paroli angle?* ### esti is implied if no verb and two nouns/topics Ĉu vi est stulta? (Are you stupid?) -> Ĉu vi stulta? ## Orthographic changes ### Replacement of aŭ with ꜷ Ŭ, confusingly, is not its own sound unlike every other letter with a breve. Its function is to show that the dipthong it is part of is one syllable. So, it only appears as part of aŭ. This would be better communicated with a ligature. Adiaŭ. (Goodbye.) -> Adiꜷ. Aŭgusto (August) -> Ꜷgusto (August) ### Replacement of ĥ with k This is already the most popular change from official Esperanto for a reason. I don't feel the need to elaborate. The few collisons are worth it. Ĉeĥio (Czechia) -> Ĉekio Ĥoro (Chorus) -> Koro ## Vocabulary additions and changes ### Terms of address Esperanto has basically one form of polite address, in Sinjoro. Besides sounding overly Spanish to an Anglo-American audience, it also doesn't differentiate well between different relations. If there's one place to insert some vocab bloat, it's here. **Domino** (2p/3p, Lord, from latin *dominus*) The most deferential. God in the Bible, kings under divine right, etc. **Damo (f) and Hero (m)** (3p, from German *Dame* and *Herr*, Lady / Gentleman) Miaj damoj kaj heroj - Ladies and Gentlemen (Meine Damen und Herren) If you're wondering, Heroo (with 3 syllables) means hero in Esperanto and is a seperate word. Hero is untaken. **-sano** (2p/3p postfix, from Japanese -*さん*, double meaning with existing *sano* "health") It's a rare occasion that Esperantists begging for more non-European vocabulary have something widely understood and functional. It's certainly much shorter to say *Iokajiosano* than *Sinjor Iokajio*. Sano on its own (i.e. not a postfix) means health. This then works with a double meaning for existing Esperantists as something like "The healthy Mr/Mrs X." ### Interjections, Particles, etc **Miu / Miuj** Replaces tiu ĉi / tiuj ĉi. I hate so much not having a dedicated word for that. Mi + -u indates "towards/near me" i.e. *this* rather than *that*. Those words may be more common after the deletion of articles, also. **La** (sentence final particle, from Singaporean and Malayasian English *la* / *lah*, ultimately from Chinese and Malay) Used in exactly the same way as there. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lah#Particle We freed up la when we deleted the definite article so may as well make use of it. **Un** (setence final particle, Singlish / Manglish *one*) While we are replacing articles with singlish, let's also add the presumed indefinite article Zamenhof decided to drop in the first place with more Singlish. Usage: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/one#Particle **Davꜷ** (interjection, from Russian *дава́й*) Let's go, come on, etc. **Ĉin** (particle, from Chinese *請*) Replaces *bonvolu*, makes sentence a polite request when paired with an imperative verb. *Bonvolu sidi.* - Please be seated -> *Ĉin sidu.* Bonvolu is (1) 3 syllables and (2) a bit of a strange construct as it's an imperative verb itself **Kank-** (From Dutch *kanker*) Swears are all quite lame in Esperanto, and this one has a nice weight to it IMO. Replaces fi-, which has no weight to it. *Kanke!* - Fuck! *Fia idioto.* - Fucking idiot -> *Kanka idioto.* **Kej** (from *o kej*, itself from English *okay*) While we're on the subject of removing some more syllables...