Subject: Re: genders of language names

From: "Evgueni Sklyanin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 09:08:59 -0000

--- In [email-masked], BestATN@a... wrote:
> To: Evgenij Sklyanin
> From: Steven Lytle
> I don't usually contradict native speakers of other languages, but I
feel 
> it's warranted in this case. Perhaps Russians actually use
masculine terms 
> for Esperanto, but every Russian dictionary I have has it listed as 
> indeclinable neuter, and not masculine. Most of these dictionaries
are from 
> the USSR or Russia, so I trust them on this point.

Oops... mi ckeji .i le mi flira cu xunre binxo

Actually, I have managed to find in the Web the phrase
{reformirovannyi esperanto} (reformed Esperanto) where "Esperanto" is
used as a masculine noun. Being no esperantist, I do not know what the
conventional usage is. Since "Esperanto" is a defective noun having no
declension the only point where its gender could be relevant is the
agreement of adjectives. Personally, if pressed to say something like
"beautiful Esperanto" I would avoid thinking of its gender and instead
of choosing between {prekrasnyi Esperanto} and {prekrasnoe Esperanto}
which both sound suspicious to me, I would say {prekrasnyi yazyk
Esperanto} (beautiful language Esperanto) adding a categorizing noun.

Anyway, my point was that whereas "Lojban" is easily assimilated into
Russian and happily takes case endings (lojbana, lojbanu,
lojbanom,...), with "Esperanto" I feel awkward and need to _think_ how
to use it instead of deciding intuitively.

co'o mi'e .evgenis.