Salveto vs. Esperanto

  • Esperanto's vocabulary takes its roots from different languages in a seemingly random fashion. Salveto uses a fairly strict protocol, never going outside the realm of Latin-based languages, except in the case of technological words which were coined in English.

  • Esperanto stresses clarity and precision in meaning (thus placing the burden on the speaker to remember to add all the appropriate -n and -j endings). Salveto stresses simplicity, making it easier for the student speaker to form correct sentences early on. It relies more upon the human ability of the listener/reader to "fill in the gaps" where necessary.

  • Salveto has a simpler verb & participle system. Though it is more limited in its scope of expression than Esperanto, it is closer to the model used by existing languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, and even English.

  • Salveto relies more on word ordering than Esperanto. Sentences are Subject-Verb-Object. Possessives are Property-Of-Owner. Adjective phrases are Adjective-Noun.

  • Due to the Subject-Verb-Object word ordering, Salveto has no accusative case.

  • No diacritical marks, except to indicate stressed syllables for proper names or foreign words.

  • Fewer unique sounds: Esperanto has seven letter sounds (C Ĉ Ĝ Ĥ Ĵ Ŝ Z) that Salveto does not.

  • Including diacriticals, Esperanto has 28 letters in its alphabet. Salveto uses only 18 letters for native Salveto words.

  • Esperanto has a definite article "la", but no indefinite article. Salveto has an indefinite article ("un") but no definite article.

  • In Esperanto, adjectives have to match the plurality of the nouns they modify. Salveto has no such requirement; adjectives have but a single form.

  • In Salveto, nouns can be used as adjectives (as in "the corner bicycle shop").

  • Salveto has clearer verb transitivity.

  • Salveto does not use Esperanto's "mal-" concept. The most commonly mal'd words are usually short and useful as roots or affixes for other words.

  • Salveto avoids the sexism of Esperanto (and most Romance languages). Maleness and femaleness are equal concepts, and neither is assumed within the language unless specifically indicated by the speaker.

  • Esperanto has a table of correlatives that succinctly and elegantly express a variety of concepts (what, where, when, why, who, whose, how, how much, and what kind). Salveto employs the more conventional structures used by actual world languages.







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this page last modified mar 2010

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