---
# System prepended metadata

title: Making Esperanto better for artistic purposes

---

# 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...



