Esperanto topics
This article is part of the Esperanto series
Language
Esperanto | Grammar | Letters | Phonology | Orthography | Vocabulary
History
History | Zamenhof | Proto-Esperanto | "Unua Libro" | Declaration of Boulogne | "Fundamento" | Prague Manifesto
Culture and media
Culture | Esperantists | Esperantujo | Film | Internacia Televido | La Espero | Libraries | Literature | Music | Native speakers | Pop culture references | Publications | Symbols | Zamenhof Day
Organization and services
Amikeca Reto | Esperanto Academy | Kurso de Esperanto | Encyclopedia | Pasporta Servo | Pen pal service | Plouézec Meetings | TEJO | UEA | World Congress
Criticism
Esperantido | Propedeutic value | Reformed | Riism | Vs. Ido | Vs. Interlingua
Related topics
Auxiliary language | Constructed language | Ido | Interlingua | Novial | Volapük
Wikimedia
Portal | Vikipedio | Vikivortaro | Vikicitaro | Vikifonto | Vikilibroj | Vikikomunejo | Vikispecoj

The constructed international auxiliary language Esperanto was developed in the 1870s and 80s by L. L. Zamenhof, and first published in 1887. The number of speakers has grown gradually over time, although it has not had much support from governments and international bodies, and has sometimes been outlawed or otherwise suppressed. Image File history File links Flag_of_Esperanto. ... As a recently constructed language, Esperantos history is short and relatively well-known. ... Esperanto is a constructed auxiliary language based on the languages of Europe. ... The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, did not specify phonemic-phonetic correspondences for his language. ... Esperanto is written in a Latin alphabet of twenty-eight letters, upper and lower case. ... The word base of Esperanto was originally defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. ... L. L. Zamenhof Dr. Ludovic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer, Ludwik Łazarz) Zamenhof (December 15, 1859–April 14, 1917) was an ophthalmologist, philologist, and the initiator of Esperanto, the most widely spoken constructed language. ... Proto-Esperanto (or pra-Esperanto in the language itself) is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhofs language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887. ... The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language, Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, inter-national language). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887, and later editions were published in Russian, 1888, Hebrew, 1889. ... The Declaration of Boulogne (Bulonja Deklaracio) was a document written by L. L. Zamenhof and endorsed by the attendees of the first world congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1905. ... The Fundamento de Esperanto (Foundation of Esperanto) is a book by L. L. Zamenhof, published in the spring of 1905. ... The Prague Manifesto (or Manifesto de Prago) is a set of seven widely-shared principles of the Esperanto movement. ... Participants at Esperanto international youth conference The language Esperanto is often used to access an international culture. ... Esperantujo, also Esperantio, is a term used by speakers of the planned international language Esperanto to refer to the sphere of activity taking place in that language. ... // Feature films There are two feature films known to have been shot exclusively in the constructed language Esperanto. ... Internacia Televido [[1]] is an Internet-based Esperanto-language television station, launched in 2005. ... La Espero (the hope) is a poem written by L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), the initiator of the Esperanto language. ... The following Esperanto libraries and collections of works in the Esperanto language are worthy of note: The Montagu Butler Library of Esperanto materials, maintained by the British Esperanto Association, whose collection of 30,000 items is often quoted. ... Since Esperanto is the largest planned language, there are over 25,000 books in Esperanto and the largest Esperanto book service at the World Esperanto Association sells over 4,000 books. ... Music in a variety of styles is written, recorded, and performed in Esperanto, a planned language used for international communication. ... Native Esperanto speakers (in Esperanto denaskuloj) come to be in families in which Esperanto (and usually other languages) is spoken. ... The constructed language Esperanto has been used in a number of films and novels. ... December 15 (Zamenhof Day, Zamenhofa Festo) is the birthday of L. L. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. ... Amikeca Reto (Friendship Network) is a directory of people around the world who do not necessarily want to host other Esperanto speakers, but want to work together and exchange ideas with others around the world. ... The Academy of Esperanto is, according to its website, an independent language institute whose task is to conserve and protect the fundamental principles of the language Esperanto and control its evolution. ... Kurso de Esperanto is a free language course software with 12 units for the constructed language Esperanto. ... The Encyclopedia of Esperanto is an encyclopedia about the Esperanto Movement. ... The Pasporta Servo (Passport Service) is a publication in Esperanto. ... The Esperanto Pen Pal Service is an online service to help speakers of the Esperanto language find Esperanto speaking pen pals around the world. ... The Breton village of Plouézec has hosted an International Meeting annually since 1997. ... TEJO is the Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo, or World Esperanto Youth Organization. ... The World Esperanto Association (in Esperanto UEA: Universala Esperanto-Asocio) is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in 119 countries (as of 2000) and in official relations with the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition to individual members, 95 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated to UEA. Its... The World Congress of Esperanto (in Esperanto: Universala Kongreso de Esperanto) has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run of nearly a hundred years. ... Esperanto was conceived as a language of international communication, more precisely as a universal second language. ... Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. ... Experiments have been carried out on so-called propaedeutic Esperanto, i. ... Reformed Esperanto was a reformed version of Esperanto created in 1894. ... Riism (Riismo in Esperanto) is a modification of Esperanto to simplify it, to make it symmetric, and to incorporate non-sexist language and gender-neutral pronouns into it. ... This article attemts to highlight the main differences between Esperanto and Ido, two constructed languages have a related past but have since parted ways. ... This article attemts to highlight the main differences between Esperanto and Interlingua, two planned languages which have taken radically different approaches to the problem of providing an International auxiliary language. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... Ido is a constructed language, arguably the second-most used International Auxiliary Language in the world. ... The constructed language Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) based largely on the Romance languages. ... Novial [nov-, new + IAL, International Auxiliary Language] is a constructed language devised by Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who had previously been involved in the Ido movement. ... Volapük - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... As a recently constructed language, Esperantos history is short and relatively well-known. ... L. L. Zamenhof Dr. Ludovic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer, Ludwik Łazarz) Zamenhof (December 15, 1859–April 14, 1917) was an ophthalmologist, philologist, and the initiator of Esperanto, the most widely spoken constructed language. ...

Development of the language before publication

For more details on this topic, see Proto-Esperanto.

Zamenhof would later say that he had dreamed of a world language since he was a child. At first he considered a revival of Latin, but after learning it in school he decided it was too complicated to be a common means of international communication. When he learned English, he realized that verb conjugations were unnecessary, and that grammatical systems could be much simpler than he had expected. He still had the problem of memorizing a large vocabulary, until he noticed two Russian signs labelled Швейцарская (švejtsarskaja, a porter's lodge — from швейцар švejtsar, a porter) and Кондитерская (konditerskaja, a confectioner's shop — from кондитер konditer, a confectioner). He then realized that a judicious use of affixes could greatly decrease the number of root words needed for communication. He chose to take his word stock from Romance and Germanic, the languages that were most widely taught in schools around the world and would therefore be recognizable to the largest number of people. Proto-Esperanto (or pra-Esperanto in the language itself) is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhofs language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a base morpheme such as a root or to a stem, to form a word. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish Europa latina, Catalan Europa llatina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa...

Zamenhof taught an early version of the language to his high-school classmates. Then, for several years, he worked on translations and poetry to refine his creation. In 1895 he wrote, "I worked for six years perfecting and testing the language, even though it had seemed to me in 1878 that it was already completely ready." When he was ready to publish, the Czarist censors would not allow it. Stymied, he spent his time in translating works such as the Bible and Shakespeare. This enforced delay led to continued improvement. In July 1887 he published his Unua Libro (First Book), a basic introduction to the language. This was essentially the language spoken today. Proto-Esperanto (or pra-Esperanto in the language itself) is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhofs language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887. ... Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language — the source text — and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language — called the target text, or the translation. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the classical name for the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the combination of the Old Testament and New Testament of Christianity (The Bible therefore actually refers to at least... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language, Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, inter-national language). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887, and later editions were published in Russian, 1888, Hebrew, 1889. ...

Esperanto history from publication until the first world congress

At first the movement grew most in the Russian empire and eastern Europe, but soon spread to western Europe and beyond: to Canada in 1901; to Algeria, Chile, Japan, Mexico, and Peru in 1903; to Tunisia in 1904; and to Australia, the United States, Guinea, Indochina, New Zealand, Tonkin, and Uruguay in 1905. Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Southeast Asia. ... Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of Chinas Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. ...

In its first years Esperanto was used mainly in publications by Zamenhof and early adopters like Anton Grabowski, in extensive correspondence (mostly now lost), in the magazine La Esperantisto, published from 1889 to 1895 and only occasionally in personal encounters.

In 1894 under pressure from Wilhelm Trompeter, the publisher of the magazine La Esperantisto, and some other leading users, Zamenhof reluctantly put forward a radical reform to be voted on by readers. He proposed the reduction of the alphabet to 22 letters (by eliminating the accented letters and most of their sounds), the change of the plural to -i, the use of a positional accusative instead of the ending -n, the removal of the distinction between adjectives and adverbs, the reduction of the number of participles from six to two, and the replacement of the table of correlatives with more latinate words or phrases. These reforms were overwhelmingly rejected, but some were picked up in subsequent reforms (such as Ido) and criticisms of the language. In the following decade Esperanto spread into western Europe, especially France. By 1905 there were already 27 magazines being published (Auld 1988). Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. ... Ido is a constructed language, arguably the second-most used International Auxiliary Language in the world. ...

A small international conference was held in 1904, leading to the first world congress in August 1905 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. There were 688 Esperanto speakers present from 20 nationalities. At this congress, Zamenhof officially resigned his leadership of the Esperanto movement, as he did not want personal prejudice against himself (or anti-Semitism) to hinder the progress of the language. He proposed a declaration on founding principles of the Esperanto movement, which the attendees of the congress endorsed. Boulogne-sur-Mer is a city and commune in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... The Declaration of Boulogne (Bulonja Deklaracio) was a document written by L. L. Zamenhof and endorsed by the attendees of the first world congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1905. ...

Esperanto history since the first congress

World congresses have been held every year since 1905, except during the two World Wars.

The autonomous territory of Neutral Moresnet, between Belgium and Germany, had a sizeable proportion of Esperanto-speakers among its small and multiethnic population. There was a proposal to make Esperanto its official language. Unofficial flag of Moresnet (1883) Moresnet or Neutral Moresnet was, from 1816 to 1919, a tiny European mini-state of about 3. ...

In the early 1920s, there was a proposal for the League of Nations to accept Esperanto as their working language. Ten delegates accepted the proposal with only one voice against, the French delegate, Gabriel Hanotaux. Hanotaux did not like how the French language was losing its position as the international language and saw Esperanto as a threat. However, two years later the League recommended that its member states include Esperanto in their educational curricula. Many people see the 1920s as the heyday of the Esperanto movement. The League of Nations was an international organization founded after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

Starting in the 1930s, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin murdered many Esperanto speakers because of their anti-nationalistic tendencies. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that it was created as a universal language to unite the Jewish diaspora. Stalin called it "the language of spies". While Esperanto itself was not enough cause for execution, its use was extended among Jews or trade unionists and encouraged contacts with foreigners. ▶(?) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor) of Germany from 1934 to his death by suicide. ... For other uses, see Stalin (disambiguation). ... // Nationalism is an ideology which holds that the nation, ethnicity or national identity is a fundamental unit of human social life, and makes certain political claims based upon that belief; above all, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and that each nation is... Cover of Mein Kampf Mein Kampf (German for My Struggle) is a book written by Adolf Hitler, combining elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitlers political ideology of Nazism. ... // Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... Look up Diaspora in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term diaspora (Ancient Greek διασπορά, a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands; being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the...

Fascist Italy, on the other hand, made some efforts of promoting tourism in Italy through Esperanto leaflets. Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... With more than 39. ...

The Cold War, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, put a damper on the Esperanto movement as well, as there were fears on both sides that Esperanto could be used for enemy propaganda. However, the language experienced something of a renaissance in the 1970s and spread to new parts of the world, such as its veritable explosion in popularity in Iran in 1975. By 1991 there were enough African Esperantists to warrant a pan-African congress. The language continues to spread, although it is not officially recognized by any country, and is part of the state educational curriculum of only a few. For the generic term for a high-tension struggle between countries, see cold war (war). ... North Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the United States Capitol building. ...

Evolution of the language

The Declaration of Boulogne [1] of 1905 limited changes to Esperanto. That declaration stated, among other things, that the basis of the language should remain the Fundamento de Esperanto ("Foundation of Esperanto", a group of early works by Zamenhof), which is to be binding forever: nobody has the right to make changes to it. The declaration also permits new concepts to be expressed as the speaker sees fit, but it recommends doing so in accordance with the original style. The Declaration of Boulogne (Bulonja Deklaracio) was a document written by L. L. Zamenhof and endorsed by the attendees of the first world congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1905. ...

Many Esperantists believe this declaration stabilizing the language is a major reason why the Esperanto speaker community grew beyond the levels attained by other constructed languages and has developed a flourishing culture. Other constructed languages, such as Ido, have been hindered from developing a stable speaking community by continual tinkering. Also, many developers of constructed languages have been possessive of their brain-children and have worked to prevent others from contributing to the language. One such ultimately disastrous case was Schleyer's Volapük. In contrast, Zamenhof declared that "Esperanto belongs to the Esperantists", and moved to the background once the language was published, allowing others to share in the early development of the language. Ido is a constructed language, arguably the second-most used International Auxiliary Language in the world. ... Johann Martin Schleyer (July 18, 1831 - August 16, 1921), German Catholic priest who invented the constructed language Volapük. ... Volapük - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

The grammatical description in the earliest books was somewhat vague, so a consensus on usage (influenced by Zamenhof's answers to some questions) developed over time within boundaries set by the initial outline (Auld 1988). Even before the Declaration of Boulogne, the language was remarkably stable; only one set of lexical changes were made in the first year after publication, namely changing "when", "then", "never", "sometimes", "always" from kian, tian, nenian, ian, ĉian to kiam, tiam, neniam etc to avoid confusion with the accusative forms of kia "what sort of", tia "that sort of", etc. Thus Esperanto achieved a stability of structure and grammar similar to that which natural languages enjoy by virtue of their native speakers and established bodies of literature. One could learn Esperanto without having it move from underfoot. Changes could and did occur in the language, but only by acquiring widespread popular support; there was no central authority making arbitrary changes, as happened with Volapük and some other languages. Volapük - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Modern Esperanto usage may in fact depart from that originally described in the Fundamento, though the differences are largely semantic (involving changed meaning of words) rather than grammatical or phonological. The translation given for "I like this one", in the sample phrases in the main Esperanto article, offers a significant example. According to the Fundamento, Mi ŝatas ĉi tiun would in fact have meant "I esteem this one". The traditional usage is Tiu ĉi plaĉas al mi (literally, "this one is pleasing to me"), which reflects the phrasing most European languages (French celui-ci me plaît, Spanish éste me gusta, Russian это мне нравится [eto mnye nravitsya], German Das gefällt mir, Italian mi piace). However, the original Ĉi tiu plaĉas al mi is commonly used as well. As a recently constructed language, Esperantos history is short and relatively well-known. ... As a recently constructed language, Esperantos history is short and relatively well-known. ...

Other changes include a reduction of the number of inherently masculine words, and an increase in the East Asian-like use of adjectival verbs. Originally all members of a profession, such as dentisto "a dentist", all people defined by a characteristic, such as junulo "a youth", and all verbal participles used for humans, such as kuranto "a runner", were masculine unless specifically made feminine with the suffix -ino; currently only some twenty words, mostly kinship terms, remain masculine. More recently, stative verbs have been increasingly used instead of copula-plus-adjective phrasing, following some poetic usage, so that one now frequently hears li sanas for li estas sana "he is well". A stative verb is one which asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property (possibly in relation to its other arguments). ...

More minor changes have affected the names of some countries named after ethnicities, whose endings have changed from -ujo to -io, and women's names ending in -a (e.g. Maria), whereas purists once insisted on using the noun ending -o (e.g. Mario or Mariino).

Esperantists have also formed many words to express concepts which arose since the publication of the Fundamento, and these have generally conformed to the existing style of the language. For example, early proposals for the word "computer" included komputero and komputoro, but the word in current use is komputilo (from the root of the verb komputi "to compute" plus the suffix -ilo used for tools and instruments). Eŭro is another example: even though the currency is spelled euro in official legal documents in all the European Union's languages which use a Latin script, in Esperanto eŭro was chosen to better fit the phonotactics of the language. The euro (€; ISO 4217 code EUR, Unicode U+20AC) is the currency of twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, collectively known as the Eurozone/Euroland. ...

Not all new coinages meet ready acceptance, however. For example, the neologism ĉipa "cheap" has appeared as an alternative to the more verbose malmultekosta, "inexpensive", but remains in minority usage. Acceptance, in spirituality, mindfulness, and human psychology, usually refers to the experience of a situation without an intention to change that situation. ... A neologism is word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) —often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form. ...

Dialects, Reform Projects and Derived Languages

Esperanto has not fragmented into regional dialects through natural language use. This may be because it is the language of daily communication for only a small minority of its speakers. However at least three other factors work against dialects, namely the centripetal force of the Fundamento, the unifying influence of the Plena Vortaro and its successors, which exemplified usage from the works of Zamenhof and leading writers, and the transnational ambitions of the speech community itself. Slang and jargon have developed to some extent, but such features interfere with universal communication — the whole point of Esperanto — and so have generally been avoided. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ... Jargon is a type of terminology which is used in conjunction with a specific activity, e. ...

However, in the early twentieth century numerous reform projects were proposed. Almost all of these "esperantido"s were stillborn, but the very first, Ido ("Offspring"), had significant success for several years. Ido was proposed by the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language in Paris in October 1907. Its main reforms were in bringing the alphabet, semantics, and some grammatical features into closer alignment with the Romance languages, as well as removal of adjectival agreement and the accusative case except when necessary. At first a number of leading Esperantists put their support behind the Ido project, but the movement descended into fragmentation and decline first with the accidental death of one of its main proponents and later as people proposed further changes, and the number of current speakers is estimated at between 250 and 5000. However, Ido has proven to be a rich source of Esperanto vocabulary. Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. ... Ido is a constructed language, arguably the second-most used International Auxiliary Language in the world. ... The Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language was a group of linguists who presented proposals for a revision of the Esperanto language in 1907. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Grammar is the discovery, enunciation, and study of rules governing the use of language. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish Europa latina, Catalan Europa llatina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa...

Some more focused reform projects, affecting only a particular feature of the language, have gained a few adherents. One of these is "riism", which modifies the language to incorporate non-sexist language and gender-neutral pronouns. However, most of these projects are specific to individual nationalities (riism from English speakers, for example), and the only changes that have gained acceptance in the Esperanto community have been the minor and gradual bottom-up reforms discussed in the last section. Riism (Riismo in Esperanto) is a modification of Esperanto to simplify it, to make it symmetric, and to incorporate non-sexist language and gender-neutral pronouns into it. ... Gender-neutral language (gender-generic, gender-inclusive, non-sexist, or sex-neutral language) is language that attempts to refer neither to males nor females when discussing an abstract or hypothetical person whose sex cannot otherwise be determined, as opposed to more traditional language forms, which may use male or female... Gender-neutral or epicene pronouns are pronouns that neither reveal nor imply the gender or the sex of a person or thing being referred to. ...

Esperanto is credited with being either the foundation or the inspiration for several later competing language projects, such as the Romance-based Occidental and Interlingua, but these always lagged far behind Esperanto, and even Ido, in their popularity. Only Interlingua, with approximately as many speakers as Ido, has more than a handful of speakers today. Occidental means generally western. It is a traditional designation (especially when capitalized) for anything belonging to the Occident or West — the western part of the classical world (Europe) and the New World, and especially of its society. ... The constructed language Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) based largely on the Romance languages. ...

See also Esperantido

Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. ...

References

• Auld, William. La Fenomeno Esperanto. Rotterdam: UEA, 1988.
• Lins, Ulrich. La Danĝera Lingvo. Gerlingen, Germany: Bleicher Eldonejo, 1988. (Also available in Polish [2])
• Privat, Edmond. The Life of Zamenhof. Bailieboro, Ontario: Esperanto Press, 1980.
• Zamenhof, L. L. Letero al N. Borovko. 1895.[3]

Timeline of Esperanto

• 1859: Lazar Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, is born in Białystok, Russia (now Poland).
• 1873: The Zamenhof family moves to Warsaw.
• 1878: Zamenhof celebrates the completion of his universal language project, Lingwe Uniwersala, with high-school friends.
• 1879: Zamenhof attends medical school in Moscow. His father burns his language project while he's away. Meanwhile Schleyer publishes a sketch of Volapük, the first constructed international auxiliary language to acquire a number of speakers. Many Volapük clubs will later switch to Esperanto.
• 1881: Zamenhof returns to Warsaw to continue medical school, and starts to recreate his project.
• 1887: Zamenhof marries, and with his wife's help publishes Unua Libro, the book introducing modern Esperanto.
• 1888: Leo Tolstoy becomes an early supporter.
• 1894: Zamenhof, reacting to pressure, puts a radical reform to a vote, but it is overwhelmingly rejected.
• 1901: Zamenhof publishes his ideas on a universal religion, based on the philosophy of Hillel the Elder.
• 1905: The first Universala Kongreso (World Congress) is held in Boulogne-sur-Mer, with 688 participants and conducted entirely in Esperanto. The Fundamento de Esperanto is published.
• 1907: Twelve members of the British parliament nominate Zamenhof for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Ĉekbanko Esperantista (Esperantist Checking Bank) is founded in London, using the spesmilo, an auxiliary Esperanto currency based on the gold standard. A committee organized by Louis Couturat in Paris proposes the Ido reform project, which provides significant competition for Esperanto until the First World War.
• 1908: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, the World Esperanto Association, is founded by Hector Hodler, a 19-year-old Swiss Esperantist.
• 1909: The International Association of Esperantist Railway Workers is founded in Barcelona.
• 1910: 42 members of the French parliament nominate Zamenhof for the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1912: In this year, if not earlier, the spiritual leader of the Bahá'í Faith, `Abdu'l-Bahá, instructs his Asian followers to learn Esperanto.
• 1917: Zamenhof dies during World War I.
• 1910s: Esperanto is taught in state schools in China, Samos, and Macedonia. (Today it is part of the curriculum of China, Hungary, and Bulgaria.)
• 1920: The first Esperanto magazine for the blind, Aŭroro, begins publishing in Czechoslovakia. It's still in print today.
• 1921: The French Academy of the Sciences recommends using Esperanto for international scientific communication.
• 1922: Esperanto is banned from French schools. The French delegate to the League of Nations vetoes the use of Esperanto as its working language, leaving English and French.
• 1924: The League of Nations recommends that member states implement Esperanto as an auxiliary language. The Oomoto religion, which holds that Zamenhof is an akitsumikami (manifest divinity), begins publishing in Esperanto.
• 1920s: Offices of the Brazilian Ministry of Education use Esperanto for their international correspondence. Lu Xun, the founder of modern Chinese literature, becomes a supporter of Esperanto. Montagu Butler is the first to raise Esperanto-speaking children.
• 1934: Encyclopedia of Esperanto first published in Budapest.
• 1935: Kalocsay and Waringhien publish the influential Plena Gramatiko de Esperanto (Complete Grammar of Esperanto).
• 1936: Esperanto is banned in Nazi Germany.
• 1937: First mass execution of Esperantists in the Soviet Union.
• 1938: The World Esperanto Youth Organization TEJO is founded.
• 1939-1945: World War II slows down the Esperanto movement. Esperantists are sent to the gulag and to Nazi concentration camps. Internment at the gulag continues through the 1950s.
• 1948: The railway workers' association is refounded as IFEF, the Internacia Fervojista Esperanto-Federacio (International Railway Workers' Esperanto Federation) to foster the use Esperanto in the administration of the railroads of the world (so far, of Eurasia).
• 1954: UNESCO establishes consultative relations with the World Esperanto Association.
• 1966: The precursor to Pasporta Servo is launched in Argentina. Pasporta Servo is a global network of Esperanto speakers who host Esperantists traveling through their countries.
• 1967: István Nemere founds the Renkontiĝo de Esperanto-Familioj, the first organization for Esperanto-speaking families.
• 1975: The Esperanto movement spreads to Iran, with three thousand learning the language in Tehran.
• 1980: The Internacia Junulara Kongreso (International Youth Congress) in Rauma, Finland makes explicit the view of many in the Esperanto movement that Esperanto is a goal in itself.
• 1985: UNESCO encourages UN member states to add Esperanto to their school curricula.
• 1987: 6000 Esperantists attend the 72^nd Universala Kongreso in Warsaw to mark Esperanto's centennial.
• 1991: The first pan-African Esperanto Conference is held in Lomé, Togo.
• 1999: The Esperanto poet William Auld is nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 2001: The Vikipedio project (Esperanto Wikipedia) is launched, resulting in the first general encyclopedia written in a constructed language. It is now one of the most popular websites in Esperanto.
• 2004: The Europe - Democracy - Esperanto party (E°D°E°) contests the European Parliament elections in France, on a platform of making Esperanto the second language of all EU member states, taking 0.15% of the vote.