Comparative and superlative in Esperanto

Question

As far as I know, one should use pli and plej for render comparative and superlative in Esperanto. So :

• longer : pli longa
• longest : plej longa

Now, following this comment, I wonder if -eg- can also be used to create superlative from the root.

I don't think so, to my mind longega means tre longa (very long), rather than longest ("most long"). But I would like to be more confident about that.

Also, if I'm wrong, then I would like to know if there is a comparative affix, even an non-official one, equivalent to the English suffix -er for short words. So longer ("more long") could also be translated long▢▢a beside pli longa.

Answer 1

I explain it this way. The suffix -eg- is for making the next category of thing - bigger or more intense. So domego is not just a big house, but it's a mansion. Kuregi doesn't mean simply to run fast, but to sprint all out. Generally, if you're sprinting all out, you're moving at your personal fastest, but this doesn't mean that kuregi actually means "fastest".

I've never heard of an unofficial or even hypothetical comparative suffix. It's a big world though. Someone somewhere may have thought of one - but nobody payed it any attention.

Answer 2

No. Eg is simply an amplifier.

The suffix -eg- is the opposite of -et- and increases the size or strength of the root http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/eo/colloq/colloq130.html

• domo = house
• domego = mansion (this doesn't mean that it is the biggest mansion)

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Mia domego estas pli granda ol domo, sed ĝi ne estas la plej granda domego.

My mansion is bigger than a house (all houses), but it is not the biggest mansion.

Answer 3

As a side note, Plena Analiza Gramatiko have the following remarks on superlative:

Rim. Estas gene, ke la adverbo de tiu malsupereca komparativo estas kunmetita: la akcento falas sur la prefikso mal, kaj la renkontigo kun sarnprefiksa adjektivo estas fojfoje konfuzodona: ma/pli malfermita, mi petas! (kaj se la substantivo sa- me komencigas: ma/pli maldolca malfelico ... ! ). Kurioze, la internacia formo kase trovigas en la Fundamenta almenaii (al-men·au)

And PMEG also have a few words about men.

Also in the PAG and:

Aca, ega kaj eta estas t.n. diafanaj suflksoj: ili ne sangas la gramatikan karakteron kaj sencon de la radiko, nur modifas iom la lastan. En iliaj derivajoj ili estas analizeblaj adjektive (ce substantivoj), aii adverbe (ce adjektivoj kaj verboj): dometo: eta domo; grandega: ege granda; parolaCi: aee paroli.

While Volapuk seems to use -um-, no affix seems to express the same meaning in Esperanto (which is fine to my mind, as it avoids language "orthogonality"). However one might also use the preposition as a prefix, according to PIV.