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Linguistics in daily life. Draw attention to the worldwide language problem and the promotion of Esperanto as the global interlanguage for the global village. Encourage learning Esperanto as a second lanaguage for everyone, to be a tool for international understanding among millions of its speakers in hundreds of countries. Free instruction offered online or off.

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MORPHEMES REVEALED

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Contributed by: Richard Shrout on 6/12/2007

IN OTHER WORDS
by the Micco Morpheme Addict

MORPHEMES REVEALED

Once at an amateur boxing match I sat next to a young Korean who was studying English as a Second Language at the community college. He was the type that does well with languages --- outgoing personality, sense of humor, and a willingness to ask questions. He noted that the boxing program was sponsored by the Police Athletic League (PAL) and I explained their aim was to provide an activity for disadvantaged kids. "So they won't become crimers," my Korean friend concluded.

It took me a few beats to understand what he meant. "Criminals, not crimers," I corrected his English.

But if English (and any other national language) was logical, then "crimers" would mean a criminal. But English isn't logical. Neither is any other national language.

If a writer is one who writes, a runner is one who runs, a baker is one who bakes, etc., why wouldn't one who commits crime be a crimer? Just because, that's why. Actually, it is because "criminal" is a cognate (a lookalike word) from Old French "criminel" and Latin "criminalis." However, "-er" is a morpheme that often means someone involved in something. If that someone is a professional, then the morpheme is "-ist," as in druggist, pharmacist, or it could be "-ologist" as in criminologist, biologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, etc.

A morpheme is a small, recogizable combination of letters that means something in a word. It is the smallest meaningful unit of a language or dialect. In terms of sound, it would be called a phoneme. In the first sentence of this paragraph, "-able," "-ation," "-ing" are examples of morphemes.

In English, the morpheme "-s" may indicate the plural, as cats, dogs, etc. But sometimes the morpheme "-ren" indicates the plural, as in children. Confusing? You bet.

Morphemes can be at the front, middle, or end of a word. Un+break+able is an example. If the morpheme is at the front of a word, it is called a prefix; if at the end it is called a suffix. Together they are referred to as affixes. If you take away the prefix and suffix of a word that has them, what is left is also a morpheme called the "root" of the word.

This explanation is a simplified version of morphemes. Believe me, linguists make it far more complicated. But this is all anyone really needs to know.

Why are Esperantists addicted, as it were, to morphemes? Because, unlike national languages, Esperanto is consistent and logical in the use of morphemes. There are 36 affixes (prefixes and suffixes) that enlarge on the meaning of the root. They are remarkably easy to memorize.

As to the Esperanto word-root morphemes, the news is equally encouraging. Based on analysis of usage frequency in spoken Esperanto, 467 root-morphemes are enough to yield 95% comprehension in Esperanto, and that 564 words are enough to obtain 80% comprehension based on frequency of use.

By startling contrast, in most Indo-European languages, about 2,000 words are necessary for this level of comprehension.

These statistics are a remarkable encouragement to study and use Esperanto, the international language.

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