verdasteloEsperanto Pronunciation : Esperanta Prononco

CMP home Java Glossary home Menu no menu Last updated 2004-06-28 by Roedy Green ©2000-2004 Canadian Mind Products.

Introduction: Enkonduko

Esperanto is very easy to pronounce. It is purely phonetic. There are no silent letters. It is also easy to transcribe. You know exactly how to spell a word, even if you don't know the word, just from hearing it. Every sound can come from only one possible letter. You might quibble on that, since, in theory, a ts sound could be the letter c or the combination ts. However, in all the Esperanto words I am familiar with, the ts sound is always a letter c.

When I attended my first Esperanto conference, I discovered that people spoke Esperanto with regional accents, much the way English is spoken in different ways in different parts of the world. Even though there is a supposedly neutral Esperanto accent, most people betray their country of origin in the way they pronounce. You just have to get used to it. Here is a sampling of three accents. I would be happy to include some more if you have the patience to record the necessary sound files and email them to me. In a pinch, you could just record the words on a cassette tape and mail that to me.

Esperanto Dialects
Sound How Pronounced Sample Esperanto Word North Western American Accent
au		 Canadian Accent
mp3		 South Eastern American Accent
mp3		 English Meaning
a like a in 'father' pala American Canadian American pale
    sana American Canadian American healthy
b like b in 'bath' bano American Canadian American bath
    rabo American Canadian American robbery
c like ts as in tsar laca American Canadian American tired
    caro American Canadian American tsar
cx as ch as in chisel acxa American Canadian American rotten, despicable
    cxamo American Canadian American chamois
d like d in 'dog' dato American Canadian American date
    ada American Canadian American ongoing
e like e in 'get' de American Canadian American of, from
    pale American Canadian American palely
f like f in 'fish' pafi American Canadian American to shoot
    felo American Canadian American fur
g like g in 'gone' agi American Canadian American to act
    gemo American Canadian American a gem
gx like j as in 'John' agxo American Canadian American age (of a person)
    gxemi American Canadian American to groan
h like h as in 'hello' halo American Canadian American hall (large room)
    homo American Canadian American person, human being
hx like ch as in Scottish 'loch' hxoro American Canadian American chorus, choir
    ehxo American Canadian American echo
i i as in 'machine' fina American Canadian American final
    ido American Canadian American offspring
j like y in 'yes' jono American Canadian American ion
    ejo American Canadian American place (for something)
jx zh like s in 'measure' jxus American Canadian American just (in the immediate past)
    ajxo American Canadian American thing, object
k like k in 'ketchup' kelo American Canadian American cellar
    ekbrili American Canadian American to begin to shine
l like l in 'leaf' lumo American Canadian American light
    rolo American Canadian American role
m like m in 'more' muso American Canadian American mouse
    ema American Canadian American having a tendency toward
n like n in 'never' nazo American Canadian American nose
    dankon American Canadian American thanks
o like o in 'forty', not o as in 'code', not o as in 'got'. oro American Canadian American gold
    povas American Canadian American can (am, is, are able)
p like p as in 'pen' porko American Canadian American pig
    kapo American Canadian American head
r Italian trilled r, distinctly pronounced. ruza American Canadian American cunning
    moro American Canadian American (a) moral
s s as in 'sit' sidi American Canadian American to sit
    aso American Canadian American (an) ace (in a deck of cards)
sx like sh as in 'ship' sxultro American Canadian American shoulder
    masxo American Canadian American noose
t like t as in 'terror' temi American Canadian American to have as a subject, topic
    kato American Canadian American cat
u like oo in 'moon' utero American Canadian American womb
    multaj American Canadian American many
ux like w in 'how' hodiaux American Canadian American today
    Euxropo American Canadian American Europe
v like v in 'very' vazo American Canadian American vase
    lavi American Canadian American to wash
z like z in 'zone' zomi American Canadian American to zoom (in)
    frazo American Canadian American sentence
aj like the i in 'bite' bonaj American Canadian American good (plural)
ej like the a in 'mate' vejno American Canadian American vein
oj like the oy in 'royal' bojkoti American Canadian American to boycott
uj like ui in 'ruinous' prujno American Canadian American rime ice
aux like ow in 'how' morgaux American Canadian American tomorrow
eux no English equivalent, a bit like 'ow' in how or 'ow' in slow. neuxtrala American Canadian American neutral

Sample Paragraph: Specimena Pargrafo

Be patient. The sound file for the entire paragraph must download before you hear anything. Click the corresponding flag. Por ni esperantistoj nacianeco estas ne absoluta. Gxi signifas sole malsamon de lingvo, kutimo, kulturo, hauxtkoloro kaj tiel plu. Ni rigardas nin kiel gefratojn de unu granda familio 'homaro'. Ni tion ne teorias, sed sentas. Ekstere ni estas ligitaj de unu sama lingvo, kaj interne de unu sama sento. Ni ankaux amegas nian propran patrion. Tamen tiu cxi amo ne estas tia, kia ne povas kunstari kun amo kaj estimo al aliaj nacioj.

-- from En Cxinio Batalanta by Verda Majo (Hasegawa Teru)

 United Nations male American male Canadian male American female For us Esperantists nationality is not absolute. It means only a difference of language, custom, culture, skin color and so forth. We look at ourselves as brothers in one great family 'mankind'. For us this is not a theory but a feeling. Externally we are linked by the same language, and internally by the same feeling. We also love our own country. But this love is not such as cannot stand together with love and respect for other nations.

The Speakers : La Parolantoj

United Nations male American male Canadian male American female
The International speaker Alan Cranshaw of Montréal Canada doing his best at a neutral accent. A neutral accent sounds somewhat Spanish. He has one year experience. The recordings are *.mp3 files sampled at 128k. You will need an mp3 player such as logoWinamp (recommended), QuickTime, Crescendo, or RealPlayer (not recommended) to hear them. The male American speaker is Don Harlow from Oregon. He is an experienced speaker. His recordings are *.au files sampled at 8 kHz -- hence the relatively poor quality, particularly in sibilant (s) sounds (frequencies above 4 kHz will be garbled). You can see his original pronunciation page. You will need an AU player such as Real Audio to hear these sounds. such as RealPlayerRealPlayer You can download the basic RealPlayer free. The Canadian speaker is Roedy Green from British Columbia, a complete novice. The recordings are *.mp3 files sampled at 64K. You will need an MP3 player such as logoWinamp (recommended), QuickTime, Crescendo, or RealPlayer (not recommended) to hear them. You can hear how difficult the Esperanto r is for Canadian speakers. You might also notice wobbling vowels, particularly o and e improperly pronounced differently in different contexts. A Canadian tends to slur and soften sounds. The female American speaker is Geneva Hagen from Alabama. The recordings are *.mp3 files sampled at 64K. You will need an MP3 player such as logoWinamp (recommended), QuickTime, Crescendo, or RealPlayer (not recommended) to hear them. You can hear how difficult the Esperanto r is for American speakers.
The definitive Esperanto pronunciation would be professor John C. Wells and his 45 phonograph record that came out in the 70s. Unfortunately my copy along with any equipment that could play it, long ago disappeared. Perhaps if enough of us urged him he might put something definitive up on the net.

CMP logo
CMP_home
home		 Canadian Mind Products CSS
HTML Checked!
ICRA ratings logo
mindprod.com IP:[24.87.56.253]
Your IP:[80.134.30.163]
You are visitor number 4458.
Please send errors, omissions and suggestions
to improve this page to Roedy Green.
You can get a fresh copy of this page from: or possibly from your local J: drive mirror:
http://mindprod.com/esounds.html J:\mindprod\esounds.html