Colloquial Esperanto
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Mainly because of its extremely young age as a large-scale language, Esperanto has not yet fully developed much slang or many colloquial differences. But that does not mean there is none; abbreviations and slang have evolved fairly quickly, considering Esperanto's youth.
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Slang
bonantagulo = a lazy person who learns only a few simple Esperanto phrases such as "Bonan tagon!"
etoso = ethos, atmosphere, "karma" (as of an Esperanto congress, etc.)
kabei = to disappear from the Esperanto movement (named after author Kabe)
krokodili = to speak one's native language among a group of Esperanto speakers
mojosa = "cool"
samideano = Esperantist
verda papo = "green pope"; one who talks at great length about the ideals of Esperanto
volapukaĵo = nonsense (named after obsolete constructed language Volapük)
Exclamations
This section may contain inappropriate language.
Ha! = Ha!
Ho! = Oh!
Ba! = Bah!
Ej! = Hey!
Hej! = Hey!
He! = Hey!
Fi! = For shame!
Aĉ! = Gross!
Dio mia! = My God!
Fek'! = Shit!
Ne! = No!
Jes! = Yes!
Jes ja! = Definitely!
Bis! = Encore!
Hura! = Hurray!
Nu... = Well...
Ve! = Oh no!
Abbreviations
ktp = et cetera, etc
ka = et alia, et al, and others
kc = and the rest
ks = and so forth
atm = A.M.
ptm = P.M.
bk = postcard
te = that is, id est
Dialects
Zamenhof intended the language to be spoken with something similar to an Italian accent. Some dialects stray off the path and may sound somewhere between German and Spanish. Because Esperanto is an artificial language, there really aren't any defined dialects. Esperanto should be spoken quite quickly, at about the speed of German or French.
Coming soon: listen to a standard dialect of Esperanto be spoken.
