<Li> when the two consonants that would come together differed in voicing, and would both become different consonants if their voicing were changed, as in rozokolora (rose - colored). This prevents the voicing assimilation that is so prevalent in the world's languages, including Zamenhof's Russian and German, and that would result in "rozkolora" being mispronounced as * / roskolora / or * / rozɡolora / . This is not a problem for sonorants, such as l, r, m, n, j, which do not have voiceless equivalents in Esperanto, so the - o - may be safely dropped from velŝipo . </Li> <Li> when the two consonants would be the same, as in vivovespero (the evening of life). This reflects the general lack of geminate consonants in Esperanto . However, epenthetic vowels are never used with affixes or prepositions, so double consonants are found in such cases, as in mallonga (short). </Li> <Li> when the first element was very short and might not otherwise be recognized, as in diosimila (godlike). </Li> <Li> when the compound would otherwise be homonymous with an existing word, as in konkoludo (shell game); cf . konkludo (conclusion). </Li>

Why does the esperanto language have few redundant terms