The Pearl

Esperanto: A Crash Course

2024-09-05T00:00:00Z

I like Esperanto. While it has its drawbacks, it's certainly a neat language to learn. I especially like that its (relative) ease makes learning the language very rewarding because it is possible to progress quickly with study. In this post, I'm going to give you a short overview of the language's grammar.

# Background

Before we begin, it helps to understand what the language is. Esperanto isn't everyone's cup of tea^[1], despite what a vocal minority of Esperantists preach.

Esperanto is an international auxiliary language (IAL) created in 1887 by a Polish ophthalmologist named L. L. Zamenhof. Zamenhof first described the language in Unua Libro, published in 1887. In 1905, Zamenhof published the Fundamento de Esperanto, the standard for Esperanto today.

Zamenhof's goal for the language was to bridge linguistic barriers between different groups. His philosophy was reflected in the language's name, esperanto, which can be translated into English as "one who hopes."

# Orthography & Phonology

Esperanto's alphabet has 28 letters; it is a modified Latin alphabet. The language is spelled phonetically, meaning that everything is spelled how it sounds.

Uppercase letters

Lowercase letters

Pronunciation (IPA)

t͜s

t͜ʃ

d͜ʒ

# Grammar

# Nouns

Unlike English, there is no indefinite article (English a, an). The definite article is la (English the).

All nouns end in -o. To make a noun plural, -j is added. When the noun is in the accusative case, -n is added.

The accusative case in Esperanto is used to mark the direct object in a sentence (i.e., whatever is being acted upon). For example, in the sentence "I kicked the ball," the ball is the direct object, as the subject of the sentence, me, is kicking it.

Examples:

libro - a book
la libroj - the books
Mi legis la librojn. - I read the books.
- Nouns can have both the accusative ending and the plural ending, ordered as -jn

# Adjectives

Adjectives end with the -a suffix. Adjectives agree with nouns in case and number.

The word pli is equivalent to the English more, and the superlative is expressed with the word plej.

Comparisons are made with the conjunction ol.

Examples:

la bruna hundo - the brown dog
La hundoj estas pli grandaj ol la kato. - The dogs are bigger than the cat.

# Pronouns

Esperanto has a similar pronoun system to English^[2].

	Singular	Plural
First person	mi (I)	ni (we)
Second person	vi (you)	vi (you)
Third person	li (he) ŝi (she) ĝi (it)	ili (they)
Indefinite	oni (one, they, you)	oni (one, they, you)
Reflexive	si (self)	si (self)

# Verbs

Verbs are not conjugated for person or number. The infinitive verb form ends in -i. Verbs in the imperative mood end in -u. Verbs in the conditional verb mood (would be) end in -us.

# Verb forms

	Singular	Plural
Present	-as	-as
Past	-is	-is
Future	-os	-os

# Participle forms

	Active	Passive
Past	-inta	-ita
Present	-anta	-ata
Future	-onta	-ota

# Affixes

Esperanto uses a collection of affixes to form its vocabulary.

To form compound words, the affixes are simply joined together.

Example:
pardono (forgiveness) + peti (to seek) → pardonpeti (to apologize)

# Conclusion

I hope that this short article has helped you with the basic grammar of Esperanto. There are more topics to cover (e.g. the various prepositions), but this should give you a decent starting point. For further learning, I recommend the lessons on Lernu.

Common criticisms include the language's Eurocentrism (especially in regard to its lexicon), its "bizarre phonetic inventory", and the obnoxious nature of a small but vocal minority of the community. ↩︎
The personal pronoun ri, not included in the table, is an unofficial gender-neutral third person singular pronoun that has become relatively popular in recent years. Although not officially endorsed by the Akademio de Esperanto, it is widely understood amongst active Esperanto speakers. ↩︎

Switching to Eleventy

2024-09-02T00:00:00Z

After using Hexo for two years, I've rewritten The Pearl and jumped ship to Eleventy. I mainly did this because of Eleventy's promising backward compatibility. The lack of this in Hexo was a problem for me because I often update The Pearl infrequently, and so updating Hexo inevitably broke it every time.

Besides that, the migration also made it easier to debloat the site by giving me a blank slate to work with. Updates to the website include...

# Light mode!

The website now features a gorgeous light mode theme that is nice on the eyes while keeping the distinctive purplish-indigo accent color. The theme is automatically selected based on your device's settings with an @media query in order to avoid JavaScript.

# Heading anchors

The heading anchors are now clickable and copyable, which is a nice quality-of-life feature.

# Debloating

The homepage now weighs in at a svelte 20.27 kB (uncompressed), which is a 75% improvement from before. Part of this involved removing unused styles, unnecessary icons, and the Umami analytics script.

# Conclusion

I love Eleventy! The docs were fairly pleasant, it builds incredibly quickly, and it is organized logically. While its error messages were cryptic, I would still use it happily again.

Pierce: A year in review

2023-03-12T00:00:00Z

Sitting down to write about Pierce has brought a smile upon my face. Pierce has been a stable element of my life for almost a year now and he has brought me so much joy. Although writing about a cactus may seem strange, it is hard to describe the ways that Pierce is different; it is almost as if he has his own presence.

A picture of Pierce sitting on my desk, brightening my day.

One of Pierce's most special traits is his impeccable behavior. Unlike other pets and some plants, Pierce does not bite or cause trouble. He remains quiet on my desk, adding a splash of color and a touch of life to my bland apartment. Despite being low maintenance, he is a companion who sits by my side whenever I need him.

As Pierce nears the age of one, I cannot help but feel a sense of pride. He has only grown about 0.01 cm taller and looks almost identical to when I first rescued him from a dreary grocery store, but he has changed in other ways since then.

Talking to Pierce about the mundanity of life may be a bit bizarre, but it allows me to vent to someone who is physically incapable of judgement, about the minor annoyances of life.

Of course, I am aware that Pierce does not understand English, or any other language, but I can still imagine that he is rolling his eyes at my stupidity.

While writing about Pierce, I am continually reminded of the benefits of having a plant companion to join you in life. Plants are renowned for their ability to improve indoor air quality and boost the moods of people. However, for me, Pierce is more than a plant. He is a friend who is continually there for me, however I am feeling.

In a world of complex human relationships, Pierce provides simplicity and elegance. He is a reminder that the simplest things in life are often the best.

I am unsure of how to celebrate Pierce's birthday and I welcome your comments. I cannot wait to hear what you think!

Writing the wrong way

2022-06-14T00:00:00Z

Last night, I realized something. For my entire life (since I was three), I have held pens and pencils wrong. I noticed that nobody else in my house holds a pen the same way as I do. I have no idea when I picked up the grip that I have been using for as long as I can remember, but I suspect that I got it when I first started writing with pencils and crayons in preschool.

When I first realized this, I was shocked and slightly upset that I had been writing "wrong" for so long! I was honestly in disbelief because I was sure that I wrote the right way and that I wrote completely normally. However, I was wrong. I tried using the trifold grip and while I could write okay, the text I wrote felt too large and it was fairly slow. I bet that if I had stuck to the trifold grip for several weeks, my handwriting would improve, and my writing speed would also improve. I’m considering trying it, but I don’t know how it would work out.

# Pros of switching to a "proper" grip

With practice, I could write faster and potentially improve my handwriting.
I will hopefully have less hand cramps while writing for long periods of time, which often discourage me from writing with a pen and paper instead of typing everything I write instead.
My handwriting will be more legible (although to be fair, it is still pretty good).

# Cons of switching to a "proper" grip

It will take a while to adjust to the new grip. During this time period, my handwriting and writing speed will suffer.
I have been writing like this for a long time and these habits are deeply ingrained in my muscle memory. Because of this, I will need to be conscious of the grip I use in order to not inadvertently switch to my old grip.
While trying to get a handle on the "proper" method, I might have more hand cramps.

I felt disappointed that I had been writing the "wrong" way for so long. However, I then realized something. I wasn't writing the wrong way. In my opinion, there is only one way to write "wrong"; not writing at all. Words are truly beautiful and paint a stunning picture: colorful and breathtaking, with details that bring it all together. Without writing, our society would cease to exist.

We tell our stories in writing-- we share our lives. We need writing.

So get out there, write something small, write something beautiful!
The only wrong way to write is to not write at all.

How to make a milk tea

2022-05-07T00:00:00Z

# What is milk tea?

Milk tea is exactly what it sounds like: a drink consisting of a milk and tea combination. This little recipe will get you going in no time. Enjoy!🧋

# What you will need

180 milliliters (~6 fl. ounces) of boiling water
3 grams (1 heaping teaspoon) of loose oolong tea
120 milliliters (~4 fl. ounces) of milk
sugar (optional, as much as you desire)

You will also need a loose tea steeper.

# Steps

Add all of the loose oolong tea to your loose tea steeper.
Let steep for 3 minutes.
Remove the loose tea steeper.
If desired, add in your sugar and stir.
Finally, add your milk.
If you want ice, add it in.
Stir and pour into a nice glass.

Extra credit: add tapioca pearls for flavor.

Why I like TailwindCSS

2022-04-14T00:00:00Z

# What is Tailwind?

Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework. It was first introduced in 2019 and over time, it has grown a substantial amount of traction due to the appeal of the ability to have low level control over your HTML. Another useful feature is the elimination of default styles which gives the developer a blank canvas to work from. Due to its flexibility, it has rapidly become a big player in the world of CSS frameworks.

# Why I like Tailwind

I like Tailwind for three major reasons:

Tailwind is flexible. Because it is a blank canvas, you (the developer) have complete control. With utility classes, you can precisely control the appearance of your website without having to manage a complex CSS codebase.
Tailwind is simple. At its core are a set of utility classes based on CSS properties. It gives you the ability to see exactly what CSS is being applied to each element at a glance. This makes it easier for me to make tweaks during development down the line.
Tailwind enables rapid front-end development. With its utility classes, you can see your page take shape as you style it. Additionally, the new JIT can make incremental builds take as little as 3 milliseconds!

For these reasons, I choose to use Tailwind for development. Additionally, Tailwind adds of touch of modernity to websites developed with the clean font.

# Tailwind might not work for you

As with anything, there are downsides to Tailwind and it isn't the best tool for everyone. For one, build sizes can be atrocious depending on your purge config. Additionally, some of the class names are inconsistent and confusing which can slow down development. Finally, once you start using Tailwind for a project, it becomes very difficult to convert it back to traditional semantic CSS.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful boba.🧋