# Finding Esperanto books and keys **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 9, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625 "2000-09-09T21:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Feelyat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Feelyat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feelyat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/21 "2000-09-12T06:06:11Z")
I forgot to say that I had a recent run-in with those evil trolls in the pit, and gained new respect for monty, having flamed him myself. Being bashed by others is certainly no fun, and neither is doing the bashing yourself. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/22 "2000-09-12T06:31:19Z")
[http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EnglishEsperanto/](http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EnglishEsperanto/) [http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EsperantoEnglish/](http://dictionaries.travlang.com/EsperantoEnglish/) [http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/traduk/EO-EN/Translate/](http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/traduk/EO-EN/Translate/) [http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Esperanto.html](http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Esperanto.html) [http://hytext.com/eosrch.htm](http://hytext.com/eosrch.htm) [http://hytext.com/basic-voc.txt](http://hytext.com/basic-voc.txt) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/23 "2000-09-12T07:08:18Z")
> [@](#): > > You seem to be the master of all that is Esperanto! Fek’, ne!\* I am just a beginner, and not the fastest at learning languages. [Another member](http://www.irrational.net/argilo/) in the club started learning at the same time as I (late June last year) and he was _fluent_ by the end of the year! :eek: - I leave the translation of this as an exercise for the student… 😃 * * * Rigardu, kaj vi ekvidos. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/24 "2000-09-12T14:35:21Z")
I always wanted to know what that particular verb was. Dankon, **SunSpace**. I’m still surprised **matt\_mcl** hasn’t shown up in here. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/25 "2000-09-12T21:05:05Z")
The “Key” is a small booklet, in a national language, which an Esperantist can include with a letter written in Esperanto. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t matter if the person you’re sending the letter to has even _heard_ of Esperanto before receiving the letter! The “key” makes it possible for the recipient to translate the letter into his/her own language. Dr. Zamenhof, according to _Esperanto: The World Interlanguage,_ gave a splendid example; he pointed out that, in order to translate a language like English or Spanish or German, for example, the person translating must already have some familiarity with the language. He added that, with an Esperanto “key” in English, an English-speaking recipient could translate the letter (in which the elements of each Esperanto word are divided by hyphens), and do it accurately, even if he/she had never before heard of the language Esperanto. He used a small example: The person writing the letter–in the example Zamenhof used a German speaker–would write the sentence “I do not know where I left my stick; did you see it?” as follows: **“Mi ne sci-as, kie mi las-is mi-a-n baston-on; chu vi ghi-n ne vid-is?”** ; the English-speaking recipient would take the “key” in English and translate the elements and the words as follows: **mi** …I **ne** …not **sci-** …know **-as** …present tense of verb…know **kie** …where **mi** …I **las-** …leave **-is** …past tens of verb…left **mi-** …I **-a-** …adjective ending **-n** …direct object ending…my **baston-** …stick **-o-** …noun ending **-n** …direct object ending…stick **chu** …whether; asks a question **vi** …you **ghi-** …it **-n** …direct object ending **ne** …not **vid-** …see **-is** …past tense of verb…saw This translates word-for-word into English as “I not know where I left my stick; whether you it not saw?” and that is perfectly understandable. “But,” some might say, “If the German speaker had written the letter in his own language and I had taken a German dictionary, I could have easily figured out his meaning.” The sentence translates into German thus: _“Ich weiss nicht, wo ich meinen Stock gelassen habe; haben Sie ihn night gesehen?”_ Taking a German dictionary, you find: _Ich_=I _weiss_=white _nicht_=not _wo_=where _ich_=I _meinen_=to think _Stock_=stick _gelassen_=composed, calm _haben_=to have _Sie_=she, her, it, they, them, you _ihn_ (not in the dictionary) _nicht_not _gesehen_ (not in the dictionary) The sentence would thus come out as, “I white not, where I to think stick composed property; to have she (blank) not (blank).” It would be rather difficult, Dr. Zamenhof adds, to gather the meaning of this. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/26 "2000-09-12T21:42:41Z")
I apologize to Cecil and the Teeming Millions for failing to switch the **bold** off at the proper point in that long posting. _Mia maltrafo._ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2000, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/27 "2000-09-13T02:20:58Z")
Interesting! I haven’t heard of such a thing. I’ll have to ask around at the Toronto E-club and on the net. These ‘keys’ sound like prime candidates for distribution across the net: just attach one to your outgoing message! Hopefully they wouldn’t be too large… Even more ways to confuse my co-workers! 🙂 Gxis! ---
**Author:** ![Unualibro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a698b9/32.png) [@Unualibro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unualibro)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/28 "2019-06-18T19:41:55Z")
Esperanto is the best thing since sliced bread, but that troll is teaching you an important lesson: Keep your goals to yourself. Here’s the link to a TED talk on that: [Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself | TED Talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself?language=en) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/29 "2019-06-18T20:27:52Z")
When I visited the Bahai Temple, they had guides in various languages, including Esperanto. Still have it around here someplace… Suppose you could get one in Esperanto and one in a language you know, and compare! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/30 "2019-06-19T01:31:50Z")
How would one say _This thread is the oldest zombie thread I have seen!_ in Esperanto? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/31 "2019-06-19T01:34:00Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > How would one say _This thread is the oldest zombie thread I have seen!_ in Esperanto? How would one say _“I’ve seen a bunch from 1999”_ in Esperanto? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/32 "2019-06-19T02:18:32Z")
> [@rockstar](#): > > i wanna see the wIlliam Shatner movie thats in esperanto. That would be cool, man I’ve seen it. The movie sucks. I mean, it’s worth seeing once as a curiosity but movie itself - storyline, plot, pacing, etc. - is pretty crap. You can [see it here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHUfHj2lTaM) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/33 "2019-06-19T02:23:11Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > How would one say _This thread is the oldest zombie thread I have seen!_ in Esperanto? Ĉi tiu fadeno estas la plej malnova zombia fadeno, kiun mi vidis! > [@running\_coach](#): > > How would one say _“I’ve seen a bunch from 1999”_ in Esperanto? Mi vidis multajn jarojn de 1999 Nedankinde ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/34 "2019-06-19T06:26:04Z")
_Hej saluton! Jes, mi daŭre restas tie ĉi…_. (Hi! Yes, I’m still here…) Man, this thread is almost 20 years old! I still speak Esperanto… A month or so ago, even, I was meeting a bunch of Esperanto-speakers in Kingston, Ontario, for lunch and a cruise in the Thousand Islands. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/35 "2019-06-19T21:41:57Z")
> [@Feelyat](#): > > :oD Thanks, Sunspace! You seem to be the master of all that is Esperanto! Whoa! I’m still quite curious about it. If youre still around after all this time, just FYI your user name makes me smile:) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/36 "2019-06-19T23:31:35Z")
If you go to one of those Esperanto Congresses, they have tables with piles and piles of books for sale. They are also an opportunity to see some live Esperanto theatre, etc., as well as one of the rare environments where everybody speaks Esperanto. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625/37 "2019-06-20T15:01:42Z")
> [@Unualibro](#): > > Esperanto is the best thing since sliced bread, but that troll is teaching you an important lesson: Keep your goals to yourself. Here’s the link to a TED talk on that: [Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself | TED Talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself?language=en) Moderating: accusations of trolling and insults are not allowed outside of The Pit. No warning issued. Welcome to the SDMB. If you stick around and want to post more you may want to familiarize yourself with the rules posted in the About This Message Board forum. Since this thread is old enough to drive, join the military, and vote, and the OP is long gone I’m closing this. Please open a new thread if you wish to discuss the subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-esperanto-books-and-keys/32625.md?page=1)