Poliespo

Poliespo (Polisinteza Esperanto) is an extension of Esperanto using Cherokee words, created by Billy Ray Waldon (also known as Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah).

Principle of creation

Nvwtohiyada believed that certain languages contained (to use his term) "lightning words," or phrases that speed up or clarify thought. Poliespo was an attempt to combine these 'lightning words' into one language. Most of Poliespo comes from Cherokee, English, Esperanto, and Spanish, the languages that Nvwtohiyada could speak.

The philosophy behind the language is reminiscent of sound symbolism or phonosemantics, and therefore radically differs from the principles of Esperanto.

Pronunciation

Alphabet: a, â, á, ấ, b, b̆, c, ĉ, d, e, ê, f, g, ĝ, h, ĥ, i, ĭ, ĭ:, ĭ́, î, î:, î́, j, ĵ, k, k̆, l, m, m̆, n, n̆, o, ô, p, pʷ (actually, an overstruck ʷ), s, ŝ, t, t̂, ť, u, û, ŭ, v, z, ẑ, z̆, q, q́, q̂, q̂́, w, ẃ, ŵ, ŵ́, x, x́, y, 2, 2́.^[1]

The sound values of these are not well explained. It appears that the vowels a, e, i, o, u are as in Esperanto. A circumflex vowel is nasal. Ĭ is [ɪ] as in English 'ship', î is nasal ĭ. The vowel q sounds "like the ir of English 'girl'". W is "like the sound in awful, law", and ŵ is nasal w. X is schwa; its nasal form is written 2, because 2 resembles, according to Waldon, a nose. Acute accents mark a rising tone.

The consonants are as in Esperanto, plus b, k, m, n breve, which are perhaps pre-aspirated with a nasal h. T̂ is voiceless th [θ], ť is voiced th [ð]. Pʷ is 'pw'. Ẑ is [kts], z̆ is [gdz]. Y is perhaps [ç]. Glottal stop is phonemic but not written.

Structure

The structure is more similar to Ido than to Esperanto, since radicals are inflected (it is a polysynthetic language); therefore, the language is not perfectly agglutinative. Unlike Ido, it has only one prefix in addition to those of Esperanto: pe-, which is used to indicate the "neutral" gender. Besides the accusative, there is also a subject suffix, as in Korean and Japanese.

Goal

The suggested goal is to give the western U.S., and mainly the native peoples, the opportunity to acquire the "Cherokee Spirit". According to its speakers, one cannot speak Poliespo (or Po, as it is often called) well unless one speaks Esperanto.

Since Waldon asked for donations from interested people, he has been accused of having dishonest intentions.^[2]

References

External links

• Pli kaj pli malfacila la situacio de Sequoyah - Heroldo Komunikas n-ro 247, text of the article.
• Pli kaj pli malfacila la situacio de Sequoyahx - Radio 3ZZZ, 2004-09-27, the article is read aloud.