Introduction
Learn the words: legion, foster, profound, relentless, tenet, prosaic and 4 more words in the context of our topic, In Search of a Common Language, in a new Vocabulary Building episode from English Plus Podcast.
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In Search of a Common Language
For centuries, legions of clever linguists have attempted to create a world language. With this universal language, they hoped to foster goodwill as well as serve the causes of international commerce and learning. None of these languages bas been as successful as Esperanto. Although people assume that it was an experiment that failed, Esperantists, estimated to number between eight million and sixteen million, are found throughout the world.
In 1887 Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof published Lingua Internacia de la Doktoro Esperanto (International Language by Doctor Hopeful). Bialystok, Russia (now part of Poland), where Zamenhof grew up, was a place where numerous languages were spoken. As a result, Russians, Poles, Germans, Estonians, and Latvians profoundly mistrusted and misunderstood each other. Zamenhof’s dream was to fashion a new language through which his neighbors could learn to coexist. His initial goals for the nascent language were for it to be so simple and logical that anyone could learn it, and to be so neutral in political and cultural connotations that it could become everyone’s second language.
Zamenhof succeeded in at least one way. The central tenets of Esperanto are its elegant simplicity and its relentless logic. In contrast to English, with its sometimes bewildering spelling and pronunciation, Esperanto is strictly phonetic. Every word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. Furthermore, grammar and syntax have been reduced to sixteen rules that have no exceptions. For example, every noun ends in -o, every adjective in -a, and every adverb in -e. Experts claim that even a novice can learn the language in one hundred hours or less.
Furthermore, in keeping with his prosaic approach to language, Zamenhof searched dictionaries of the Western world, choosing from each the most common roots on which to graft his new language. From only 2,000 roots, plus a variety of prefixes and suffixes, Esperantists have access to a 10,000-word vocabulary.
Zamenhof’s dream of establishing Esperanto as a universal second language never completely caught on. By the end of World War II, English had become the language of business, diplomacy, and science. On a smaller scale, however, Esperanto is doing the work its creator intended. Countries like Japan and China use it to facilitate discussions between speakers of different dialects. In this way, Esperanto helps to expand communication among people who might otherwise never communicate at all.
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Episode Transcript
00:02
Welcome to a new English plus episode. This episode is all about vocabulary building. And as we usually do, we will learn 10 new words every time in context. And our context or story for today is in search of a common language. And let me tell you about the 10 words we’re going to learn in today’s episode, we’re going to learn the words Legion, Foster, profound, nascent, Tenet, relentless syntax novice, prosaic and facilitate. So are you interested? Join me in this episode, but before we do that, let me tell you that you can practice what you will learn in this episode on my website, there’s a link in the description of the episode that will take you to the custom post I created for this episode, you will find a lot more to learn on my website English plus podcast.com. And better yet, if you are a premium subscriber on Patreon for only 5 dollars a month, you will get exclusive Episodes Series and resources to take your English and learning to the next level. Hurry up and subscribe before the end of this month to get access to English plus online courses that will start very soon. There are five ongoing courses focusing on grammar Business English vocabulary, building pronunciation and learning from stories that you can access for only 5 dollar A month along with all the other benefits you get as a premium subscriber. At the beginning of next month. Access to these courses will be exclusive to the upper tier at 10 dollars a month. But for my current subscribers and all of you who subscribed before the end of the month, it will stay at only 5 dollars A month forever. Don’t miss out on this early bird chance you can find all the links you need in the description of the episode. And now without further ado, let’s talk about in search of a common language.
02:03
For centuries, legions of clever linguists have attempted to create a world language with this universal language they hope to foster goodwill as well as serve the causes of international commerce and learning. None of these languages has been as successful as Esperanto although people assumed that it was an experiment that failed. Esperanto lists estimated to number between 8 million to 16 million are found throughout the world. In 1887. Lazarus Ludvig Zamenhof published lingua internacional de la doctorial Esperanto or international language by Dr. Hopeful byalistoker. Russia, which is now part of Poland where Zamenhof grew up was a place where numerous languages were spoken. As a result, Russians poles, Germans, Estonians and Latvians profoundly mistrusted and misunderstood each other Zemon offs dream was to fashion a new language through which his neighbors could learn to coexist. His initial goals for the nascent language were for it to be so simple and logical that anyone could learn it and to be so neutral in political and cultural connotations that it could become every one second language. Zamenhof succeeded in at least one way, the central tenets of Esperanto are its elegance, simplicity and its relentless logic, in contrast to English with its sometimes bewildering spelling and pronunciation. Esperanto is strictly phonetic, every word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. Furthermore, grammar and syntax have been reduced to 16 rules that have no exceptions. For example, every noun ends in an O every adjectives in an A and every adverb in an E. experts claim that even a novice can learn the language in 100 hours or less. Furthermore, in keeping with the prosaic approach to language Zamenhof search dictionaries of the Western world choosing from each the most common routes on which to graft his new language from only 2000 routes, plus a variety of prefixes and suffixes Esperanto lists have access to a 10,000 word vocabulary Xenonauts dream of establishing Esperanto as a universal second language never completely caught on. By the end of World War Two English had become the Language of Business, diplomacy and science. On a smaller scale. However, Esperanto is doing the work its creator intended countries like Japan and China use it to facilitate discussions between speakers of different dialects. In this way, Esperanto helps to expand communication among people who might otherwise never communicate at all. So that was our story about in search of a common language. I hope you’ve enjoyed the story and learn something new. But that’s not everything. You know, this is vocabulary building, we’re going to learn 10 Words in Context. And let me remind you again, these words are legion foster profound, nascent, tenet relentless syntax novice, prosaic and facilitate. That’s coming next don’t go away, I will just introduce you to my vocabulary book series, and then we’ll go back to talking about these words in context. Don’t go away.
05:38
Are you serious about your vocabulary building, if you really want to take your vocabulary to the next level, and make 2020 to the year when you build a huge active vocabulary bank, I have just the thing you need. I have created two vocabulary building book series. The first book series is crossword puzzle vocabulary building and the second is word search games and activities. With carefully designed activities that will make sure you remember the new words you learn in context, with 10 words in each series. And with more than 1000 new words in each book, your active English vocabulary will get much better this year. The books are available on Amazon, you can find the links in the description. But if you want to see a sample of the books first, there is another link where you can see for yourself and know for sure that these books are the ones you really need to improve your vocabulary before you buy them on Amazon, build your English vocabulary in 2022. And never be lost for words anymore with English plus vocabulary building book series.
06:44
So I hope you like the books and at least check them out on my website, see the samples, see what’s in the books before you even buy them on Amazon. I don’t want you just to go and buy the books without knowing what’s in the books. Maybe it’s for you. Maybe it’s not, but I can tell you that these books are carefully designed to help you build your vocabulary. But now let’s talk about the words and start with the very first word, Legion leg I O N Legion. How did we use that word in context? We said For centuries, legions of clever linguists have attempted to create a world language so what do we mean when we say Legion, or in this case legions obviously, well, a legion of people or things is a great number of them. multitude host and this is exactly what we’re trying to say here. legions of clever linguists a lot multitude of clever linguists, that is a legion, of course, you might have heard of the word Legion when we talk about armies. And that is true, we can use that to talk about armies, like when we say the Roman Empire and its legions. But a legion here is used in a different way and actually in a more useful way. So that was Legion. Let’s move on and talk about the second word Foster, F O S. T E. R. Foster, how did we use that word in context, we said with this universal language, they hope to foster goodwill, as well as serve the causes of international commerce and learning. So when you want to foster something, what does that mean, to foster something such as an activity or an idea like here means to help it to develop. That’s the meaning of fostering like advancing, cultivating, encouraging, that is the meaning of Foster. So here, they hope to foster goodwill. They hope to advance goodwill to encourage goodwill with this universal language they were trying to create. And now let’s move on to the next word profound. PROFO u n d, how do we use that in context? We said as a result, we were talking about the place where Zen off came from, and we said that there were a lot of nationalities there a lot of languages people didn’t understand each other. And as a result Russians, Poles Germans, Estonians and Latvians profoundly mistrusted and misunderstood each other. Now when we use the word profound, we emphasize that something is very great or intense. So here when we say profoundly mistrusted, we’re talking about the intensity of it, how great it was profoundly mistrusted, not only miss trusted and misunderstood each other know, profoundly mistrusted greatly. So that was our word profound. What about our next word nascent and a S, C, E and T nascent? How did we use that in context? We were talking about Esperanto, and we said his initial goals were talking about seminoff. So of course, his initial goals for the nascent language were for it to be so simple and logical that anyone could learn it. So here we’re talking about the nascent language, is it just new? That’s just a fancy word to talk about a new thing? Well, not exactly it is to talk about new things, of course, but not only new things, nascent things or processes are just beginning. That’s true, but the more important thing that they are expected to become stronger and to grow bigger. That is when we say nascent new, we’re just saying that something is new, it might be a big idea. Small idea is something that has a lot of promise or not. But nascent definitely has a lot of promise it is expected to become stronger or to grow bigger by developing, evolving dawning beginning something like that. So that is the word nascent and we use this word to describe the nascent language, which was the case for Esperanto at the time that was nascent. Let’s move on to the next word Tennant. t e n e t. You might have heard the word recently, especially when we talk about Christopher Nolan’s movie Tenet, and it is obviously the same word, but let’s see how we use it. In our context. Today we said the central tenets of Esperanto are its elegance, simplicity, and its relentless logic. So here the tenets of a theory or belief are the main principles on which it is based, that is simply the tennis just like principles or rules or doctrines or creed. Remember, we talked about creed not a long time ago, so you might remember that that it is close to creed. So again, the tenets of a theory or belief are the main principles on which it is based. And here these were the central tenets of Esperanto, elegant simplicity and relentless logic. And here we come to the next word I just want to talk about and that is relentless, relentless logic from the same example, relentless first is spelled r e l e n. T L E S S. Relentless. We said the central tenets of Esperanto are its elegant simplicity, and it’s relentless logic. What does that mean? Now we usually use relentless to talk about something bad, I agree. But it’s not only for bad things, because obviously, Esperanto was not a bad idea. Yes, maybe it’s not as famous as Zamenhof wanted it to be. But it’s not a bad idea. And who knows, it might become popular in the future. It might be revived in some way. But we’re talking about relentless right. Now, as I told you, usually we use it for something bad. Now, when we say something bad. And this thing that is bad is relentless. It never stops or never becomes less intense. That is relentless. But we can use it for good things as well. When we use it to describe good things. We’re talking about determination of its people, of course determined and a lot of determination, relentless logic, never ending unremitting, sustained, persistent, that is relentless. Okay, so that was our word. And that’s not the last word we want to talk about today, we still have a couple of other words, we have the next word, and that is syntax, s YNTAX. Syntax. How did we use that in context, we said, furthermore, grammar and syntax have been reduced to 16 rules that have no exceptions. While you all know grammar, of course, and syntax is not that different. But syntax is a specific thing in language. And that is the ways that words can be put together in order to make sentences. That is what we say syntax, just like the order the pattern, the structure of a language. That’s the syntax of a language, you might argue that grammar is kind of the same if we don’t want to go in detail and talk about linguistics and the differences and we don’t need to, to be honest, syntax is pretty much just like grammar, but just remember syntax is the structure the pattern of a language. Okay, that’s the word syntax. And then we talked about another word novice and O V. I, C. E, we said experts claim that even a novice can learn Esperanto in 100 hours or less. So it’s pretty easy to learn. We could say because 100 hours to learn the whole language, that’s nothing. But what is the word novice? What’s the meaning of the word novice, a novice is someone who has been doing a job or other activity for only a short time and so is not experienced at all. Just you can say that for a beginner, a new comer, an amateur that is novice Okay, so a novice that means a person who doesn’t know a lot of Esperanto, obviously, and who may not be a linguist or whatever, just a novice, any beginner can learn the language in 100 hours or less. Well, at least that’s what experts claim. Okay, our word again, don’t forget is novice, beginner, amateur. Okay, still have two words to go prosaic and facilitate let’s start with prosaic P R O S. A, I see. How did we use that in context? We said Furthermore, in keeping with his prosaic approach to language Zamenhof search dictionaries of the Western world, choosing from each the most common roots on which to graft is new language. So here, what do we mean by saying prosaic approach? Is it sufficient cated and very complicated and stuff. No, no, it’s just the opposite. But it’s not just about being simple. Being simple is something else but here even being dull and uninteresting. Well, you might say that are you criticizing Esperanto? Not at all. He used this prosaic approach something that is prosaic is dull and uninteresting, just saying ordinary, nothing special about it, right. That’s the meaning of prosaic but here he used this approach his prosaic approach on purpose because he wanted to make the language as simple as possible and as easy to learn as possible. Alright, so that was our word prosaic P R.
15:41
O S, AIC Don’t forget that. And our final word for today’s episode is facilitate fac ILITAT facilitate. How did we use that in context, we said countries like Japan and China use it to facilitate discussions between speakers of different dialects because, you know, in China and Japan, there are a lot of dialects and they can be very different from each other. So even people who live in the same country may not understand each other at all. So they use this language they use Esperanto to facilitate discussions. What does that mean? To facilitate an action or process especially one that you would like to happen means to make it easier or more likely to happen like to further it, to promote it to help it that’s the meaning of facilitate and with that, we learn 10 new words. Let me tell you again, these words were Legion foster profound nascent tenant, relentless syntax, novice, prosaic, and facility. I hope you enjoyed the new words we learned and I hope you learned a lot in this episode. And of course, I also hope you like the story about Esperanto. For those of you who’ve never heard of it before, or maybe some of you have heard of it before, but you don’t know exactly what it is. So I hope you learn something new and I hope you learn 10 Good words you can use in your everyday language. And so that was everything I wanted to share with you in this English plus episode. Don’t forget to visit my website English plus podcast.com and check on the great learning opportunities you can find there. There’s the activity center with daily fun activities, quizzes and logic and math games and puzzles. And don’t forget about subscribing on Patreon before the end of the month to have permanent access to my upcoming English plus courses for only 5 dollars A month along with the many other benefits you get when you become a premium subscribers such as the exclusive PDF worksheets, access to all premium episodes and more. All the links you need are in the description of the episode. What are you waiting for? Take your English and learning to the next level and never stop learning with English plus podcast.com. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. This is your host Danny I will see you next time.
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