The Sixteen Rules

Procursus:

The basic presentation of Esperanto issued by L.L. Zamenhof in 1887 was extremely spare, consisting principally of the material on this page, together with a small vocabulary list. Eventually he supplemented it with some illustrative exercises.

The most famous piece of this is the “16 Rules” considered at the time to constitute the whole grammar of the language. Although any competent linguist would dispute that that is the correct characterization, and even simple textbooks need more that 16 rules to explain what is going on, nevertheless for Zamenhof’s European audience, with its extensive experience with various European languages and the continuing role of Latin and Greek in the school curricula —this was an audience that didn’t need to be told what a dative case was— this was an adequate jumping off point; and indeed the “16 Rules” were considered, correctly, to be a stroke of genius.

The pamphlet contained this material in French, English, German, Russian, and Polish. Proof corrections have been made over the years, but in order to retain stability in the language, the basic presentation, now referred to as the Fundamento has stood as “untouchable,” even though actual usage has evolved slightly. (My textbook, Being Colloquial in Esperanto, available on-line and aimed at the needs of post-beginners, discusses some of this ongoing evolution. Link)

The text here is taken from the web site of the Academy of Esperanto, where the Fundamento is preserved in the original five languages if you are interested (link). In the section on participles I have here deleted the misleading “he” and “that” included by Zamenhof in his unsteady English translations.

DKJ

(Reprinted from La Internacia Lingvo 1887.)

The Sixteen Rules

(Extract from the Fundamento)

by L. L. Zamenhof

A: THE ALPHABET

Remark. ― If it be found impracticable to print works with the diacritical signs (^,˘), the letter h may be substituted for the sign (^), and the sign (˘), may be altogether omitted.

[Update: In order to facilitate both computer input and computer-assisted alphabetizing, as well as unambiguous substitution of the correct symbol in computerized post-processing, by the late XXth century, the letter x was frequently used in both of these cases. For example, ĉagreniĝi was represented as cxagrenigxi rather than chagrenighi and hodiaŭ as hodiaux rather than hodiau. Both conventions were work-arounds never intended for extensive use. The use of x rather than h, although superior for limited purposes of computer processing, was sometimes considered controversial because it was not part of the Fundamento. Since Unicode includes the full Esperanto alphabet, and modern computer input systems often include Esperanto, by the 2020s both substitutions were rapidly becoming obsolescent except in telephone text messaging. In published printed materials, the use of H has always been extremely rare and the use of X virtually unknown. —DKJ]

Aa, a as in “last”	Bb, b as in “be”	Cc, ts as in “wits”	Ĉĉ, ch as in “church”	Dd, d as in “do”	Ee, a as in “make”	Ff, f as in “fly”
Gg, g as in “gun”	Ĝĝ, j as in “join”	Hh, h as in “half”	Ĥĥ, strongly aspirated h; “ch” in “loch” (Scotch)	Ii, i as in “marine”	Jj, y as in “yoke”	Ĵĵ, z as in “azure”
Kk, k as in “key”	Ll, l as in “line”	Mm, m as in “make”	Nn, n as in “now”	Oo, o as in “not”	Pp, p as in “pair”	Rr, r as in “rare”
Ss, s as in “see”	Ŝŝ, sh as in “show”	Tt, t as in “tea”	Uu, u as in “bull”	Ŭŭ, u as in “mount” (used in diphtongs)	Vv, v as in “very”	Zz, z as in “zeal”