3

Today, I discovered the work ankoraŭ but I confused it with ankaŭ. If I correclty understood the meaning of those words:

ankaŭ
In addition to something

ankoraŭ
This word shows a continuity until now

Because Esperanto works with a suffix/prefix system, I want to know if those words follow this kind of rules:

  • ank- is the root ;
  • -or- is a suffix ;
  • -aŭ is the neutral suffix.

But if I believe my theory, what is the meaning of the -or- suffix? What is the explanation of the construction of those two words?

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
11

No, there’s no such suffix as far as I know and ankaŭ and ankoraŭ are just separate roots. I wouldn’t say that aŭ is a suffix either. It is just a common ending for roots where the role of the word is not clear. It still forms part of the root though because for example you can say ankoraŭa. In that case you are adding to the whole root word ankoraŭ instead of replacing the aŭ ending.

Generally the suffixes can be treated as root words in their own right. Or’ is already a word which means “gold” so it is unlikely that it would also be used as a suffix with a different meaning.

According to the Wiktionary, ankoraŭ and ankaŭ are derived from the Italian words ancora and anche respectively, so they are not derived from a common Esperanto root.

Improve this answer
1
  • 3
    While agreeing that -aŭ is part of the root, I would like to point out that many people writing poetry in Esperanto (myself included) have occasionally replaced it by an apostrophe: ank’, anstat’ etc. As says tekstoj.nl/esperanto/konsiloj.htm: ”Kelkaj eksperimentis pri la elizio de -aŭ (ankor', kvaz')”. Yes, I know this is artistic license at its crudest (violating the basic grammar), but I can understand where it is coming from: Appearing in the unaccented end position of a few very frequent words and sharing sonic qualities with -o, -aŭ kind of feels like a suffix. :-)
    – Bjørn
    Commented Apr 18, 2018 at 7:02
2

-or- doesn't have a meaning in Esperanto. Both "ankaŭ" and "ankoraŭ" are separate roots.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    well, as Neil Roberts points out, or- does have a meaning: gold. :-)
    – Bjørn
    Commented Apr 18, 2018 at 6:47
  • 2
    I meant in this specific context, -or- doesn't have any meaning in the word ankoraŭ.
    – Robin van der Vliet
    Commented Apr 18, 2018 at 9:13
  • – All right, I understand. Sorry if my comment came across as nitpicking.
    – Bjørn
    Commented Apr 19, 2018 at 13:01
0

I don't know who came up with such an idea, but according to Wikipedia, it seems that amoro means ''making love'' or ''intercourse'', as opposed to amo, which means ''love''. So maybe -or- denotes an action related to something? That would also explain the difference between

ankaŭ
In addition to something
ankoraŭ
This word shows a continuity until now
Improve this answer
1
  • Welcome to Esperanto Language Stack Exchange! While this is a nice guess, it corresponds neither with how the language was envisioned and laid out in the Fundamento, nor with how it's commonly used today. Thus I'd say: It's a guess, but it's wrong.
    – das-g ♦
    Commented Mar 25, 2021 at 19:36

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.