12 Comments
31
Elsewhere we encounter "La dancisto dancas la dancon." Why couldn't this be "La muzikisto muzikas la muzikon?" Wouldn't this be more universally understood? The fact that what is done with music is "play" seems like it would not be common to all languages. Is this an anglocentric or eurocentric construction?
Why not composing music? Why not listening to it?
I already think that the usage of the same verb to mean both "playing with toys" and "playing music" is very Eurocentric :) I mean what do they have in common?!
In Spanish:
Ludi: jugar
"Musiki": tocar [instrumentos]
So, it's different. I agree with using "musikas" :)
- 31
I looked through the PIV and muziki appears as a transitive verb in Hebrea Biblio. It means to cause a musical piece to be heard. The example sentence is muziku la gloron de Lia nomo which I believe in English language bibles is typically rendered as "sing the glory of his name." Though, obviously, that rendering changes the meaning.
There do appear to be a lot of Zamenhofian references using ludi, so that is probably fundamento and therefore must be preserved as intelligible and appropriate, although the use of muziki may not be, which would mean that we could theoretically use it in this way if we preferred it.
If there are any experts who would like to check on this I would welcome it.
As it stands it seems to me that you can muzikas muzikaĵo but can not muzikas muzikilo.
I wanted to ask just that and I've been curious for a while if, in Esperanto, you can use "ludi" with an instrument. I don't know many languages, but I know that, in French, you can "play a game" and "play an instrument" (the same verb "jouer"), but in Romanian you can't, there are different verbs.
According to PIV you can "ludi":
- a sport
- an instrument
- a piece of music
- a dramatic play or role
"La muzakisto ludas muzakon." The elevator music player plays elevator music.
-isto usually denotes a profession. Should you use a different word for a musician that plays music for a hobby?
Only by modifying it with an adjective: senĝena muzikisto (a casual musician), for example.
While the affix "-ist-" often refers to a profession, it actually means someone with enough skill to claim some level of mastery in a given field: think Esperantisto.
There is a difference in English between "the musician plays music" (a statement of fact) and "the musician is playing music" (something that is happening now). Is there any way to distinguish this in Esperanto? Can a different tense be used?
From what I've heard, it is usually understandable by context. If not, you can use compound tenses to make yourself clear
