Word of the Day

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Esperanto estas la ŝtono filosofal?

In the same Czech magazine. It's supposed to mean Is Esperanto the Philosopher's Stone? I'm no Esperanto expert, but the little I know told me this couldn't be right. After all, Esperanto adjectives end in -a, and I saw none in filosofal. And I also remember reading that yes/no questions start with ĉu (not too different from Polish czy). It turns out the Esperanto name by which the philosopher's stone is known is ŝtono de la saĝuloj, "stone of the sages". According to the same page, Zamenhof himself used filozofian ŝtonon in his Proverbaro Esperanta (Esperanto book of proverbs).

No comments: