"Con"-sonants

“Con”-sonants Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 31, 2009 in Esperanto Language

I apologize for the horrible pun. I have no idea what possessed me to do that. A decent essay found here suggests that part of Esperanto’s sometimes limited appeal stems from its excessive use of consonants. Admittedly, I’ve always preferred the sibilant over the guttural…It’s part of the reason why I decided to study Spanish back in high school over German. I like the point this particular writer raises about the Esperanto character “hx.” There’s a reason we rarely encounter it – nobody wants to try to pronounce it!

So, since I have a definite language bias, in that I prefer Romance languages over Germanic and other language families, I somewhat agree with the assessment that too many consonants hurt a language, although my opinion is that it harms the beauty moreso than the functionality. I doubt that the abundance of consonants alone hampers our favorite language that much.

What do you all think? Can consonants be a bad thing? Or is it all dependent upon one’s manner of thinking? Let us know your opinion. After all, what is a blog without reader input?

Tags: criticism

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Comments:

Johano:

I actually like the sound of more consonants…and actually most Esperanto speakers, as far as I can judge from the lernu! forums, actually like the ĥ sound and use it whenever possible.

As an English speaker, I don’t find it difficult at all to pronounce initial kn, and even scii I don’t find bad enough to complain about.
Michael McKnight:

I personally don’t care. But I do find words like “thousandths” annoying. However I often enunciate words like that just to make fun.

That said, I do think that a language consisting nothing but consonants might be fun to learn!
Gordon:

Ironic, then, that the Esperanto consonant /hx/ is quite frequent in Spanish.
Johano:

Actually, Esperanto is very rich in sibilants, not gutturals. It has only one, rare, guttural—ĥ—but seven sibilants, cĉĵĝsŝz.
Don:

I have recently been learning Arabic. Now there’s a gutteral language … with different types of gutteral sounds. And while the gutterals are an acquired taste for me, I do find them quite beautiful to listen to now … Even though none of them will ever replace my beloved Esperanto! 😉
Lex:

Is “hx” really that common in Spanish? It’s true that there are plenty of words of Arabic origin, such as “arroz,” “atun,” and “ojala,” which, in their original Arabic forms, probably had the “hx” sound. As matters stand, I think the simple “h” sound from the Spanish “j” character is far more prevalent.
Gordon:

If you were taught that Spanish “j” is a simple “h” sound, you were misled.

Spanish “j” is a voiceless velar fricative, exactly the same as Esperanto “hx”.
FreeXenon:

I am not keen on the consonant squishing. I speak a little Russian and I hated the word Zdrastvoitya (formal greeting) for the longest time because of the ‘zdr” beginning. Once I got used to it the word was not so bad.

In some ways ‘getting used to it’ is a good thing because it can open your mind to and make it easier to those ‘gutteral’ languages, and not just the ‘romance’ languages. =)

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