Esperanto
Esperanto is a language that was developed in 1887 by Ludwik Zamenhof with
the specific intent of creating an international second language. In 1905, Zamenhof
published his Fundamento de Esperanto, which lays down the basic principles
of the language's structure and formation. About 75 % of Esperanto's vocabulary
comes from Latin and Romance languages (especially French), about 20 % comes
from Germanic languages (German and English), and the rest comes mainly from
Slavic languages (Russian and Polish) and Greek (mostly scientific terms). The
grammar of Esperanto was designed to be very regular to make it easy to learn
and, because it employs free word order (with case marking), speakers from different
language families can translate from their native languages into Esperanto nearly
word for word and still speak perfectly intelligible and grammatically correct
Esperanto. Interestingly, Esperanto has not formed any dialects in its more
than one hundred years of existence. Regional dialects appear when people communicate
mostly with their geographical neighbours and rarely with people from further
away. Since Esperanto is primarily used in long-range communication, dialects
have not formed.
Esperanto was created on the idealistic hope of breaking down barriers across
cultures and providing a neutral and easily learnable common language for the
world. Indeed, many Esperanto enthusiasts still share this hope and have formed
a number of international societies to meet and correspond with people around
the world. It is estimated that there are approximately 2 million speakers of
Esperanto, although an accurate count is hard to come by. Compared to the dreams
of Zamenhof, the present number of Esperantists, whatever it might be, is very
small. However, that Esperantists have created an international linguistic community
whose numbers equal the population of a small country is an unprecedented achievement.
These Esperantists learned their new language, often on their own, and use it
to maintain contacts with their fellows throughout the world.
Sources:
Esperanto.com
Verkoj de Sylvan Zaft
Esperanto.net
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