Esperanto: Lesson 1
Alphabet & Pronunciation
Every letter is pronounced in every word, and everything is written exactly as it is pronounced.Esperanto does not use Q, W, Y, X.
We do, however, have 6 other letters:
Ĉ, Ĝ, Ĥ, Ĵ, Ŝ and Ŭ
Also, some of the usual letters are pronounced differently. Note:
A, B, C ( ts ), Ĉ ( ch ), D, E, F, G (as -g- in gag ), Ĝ (as -g- in genie), H, Ĥ (as the -ch- in loch), I (as -ee- in bee), J (short -I-, as -y- in yes), Ĵ (as -s- in measure), K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, Ŝ (sh), T, U (oo), Ŭ (short -u-, as -w- in woman), V, Z.
The vowels of the alphabet are pronounced as follows:
a- as in "are"
e- as in "there"
I- as in "three"
o- as in "or"
u- as in "two"
Remember: "are there three or two?" = AEIOU
Words of more than one syllable are accented upon the syllable before the last,
TABLO ("table") = TA-blo
AGRABLA ("pleasant") = a-GRA-bla
SUSPEKTI ("to suspect") = sus-PEK-ti
ŜIPO ("ship") = ŜI-po
TREEGE ("heaps") = tre-E-ge.
Exercise:
Try reading the following words out loud - remember, that every letter is pronounced, and the accent is on the second last vowel!Afero, trairi, najbaro, aero, hodiaŭ, pacienco, centono, ĉielo, eĉ, obei, obeu, gvidi, ĝojo, ĉiujn, justa, ĝuste, juĝi. ĵaŭdo, lingvo, knabo, larĝa, pagi, kvieteco, ekzemplo, ellerni, fojo, krajono, forrajdi, kuirejo, ĉevalejo, sankteco, scio, nescio, edzo, meze, duobla, ŝarĝi, poŝo, svingi, sklavo, pala, ŝafaĵo, atmosfero, monaĥo, geometrio, laŭdi, vasta, eksplodi, senĉesa, sensencaĵo, malluma, arbaranoj, manĝo, freŝa, aŭskulti, daŭri.
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