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/January
The language Esperanto is often used to access an international culture, including a large body of original as well as translated literature. There are over 25,000 Esperanto books (originals and translations) as well as over a hundred regularly distributed Esperanto magazines. Many Esperanto speakers use the language for free travel throughout the world using the Pasporta Servo. Others like the idea of having pen pals in many countries around the world using services like the Esperanto Pen Pal Service. Every year, Esperanto speakers meet for the World Congress of Esperanto (Universala Kongreso de Esperanto). These attract around 1500-3000 speakers, and the best-attended conferences are regularly those held in Central or Eastern Europe, close to the birthplace of Esperanto (see statistics at World Congress of Esperanto). Find out more...
/February
TEJO is the Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo, or World Esperanto Youth Organization. TEJO was founded in 1938 under the name Tutmonda Junular-Organizo (World Youth Organization). The current name was taken in 1952. In 1956, TEJO became the youth section of the World Esperanto Association (Universala Esperanto-Asocio, UEA). In 1971, the finances and administration of TEJO were fully integrated into the UEA. Find out more...
/March
Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. Esperantido originally referred to the language of that name, which later came to be known as Ido. The word Esperantido is derived from Esperanto plus the suffix -ido (a descendant). Thus "Esperantido" literally means "an offspring of Esperanto".
A number of Esperantidos have been created to address a number of perceived flaws or weaknesses of Esperanto, or of other Esperantidos, attempting to improve their lexicon, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. (See common criticisms.) Others were created as language games or to add variety to Esperanto literature. The only Esperantido in common use is Ido. Find out more...
/April
Esperanto is written in a Latin alphabet of twenty-eight letters, with upper and lower case. This is supplemented by punctuation marks and by various logograms, such as the numerals 0–9, currency signs such as $, and mathematical symbols.
Twenty-two of the letters are identical in form to letters of the English alphabet (q, w, x, and y being omitted). The remaining six have diacritic marks, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, and ŭ (that is, c, g, h, j, and s circumflex, and u breve). Find out more...
/May
Ludwik Łazarz Zamenhof (pronounced /ˈzɑːmɨnhɒf/ in English; born Eliezer Samenhof, December 15, 1859 – April 14, 1917) was an ophthalmologist, philologist, and the inventor of Esperanto, a constructed language designed for international communication. His native languages were Russian and Yiddish, but he also spoke Polish and German fluently. Later he learned French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English. He also was interested in Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian.
Zamenhof was born on December 15, 1859 in the town of Białystok (now in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire) to parents of Lithuanian Jewish descent. In addition to the Yiddish-speaking Jewish majority, the population of Białystok was made up of three other ethnic groups: Poles, Germans, and Belarusians. Zamenhof was saddened and frustrated by the many quarrels between these groups. He supposed that the main reason for the hate and prejudice lay in mutual misunderstanding, caused by the lack of one common language that would play the role of a neutral communication tool between people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Find out more...
/June
The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, "international language"). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887 in Warsaw, by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. Over the next few years editions were published in Russian, Hebrew, Polish, French, German, and English. This booklet included the Lord's Prayer, some Bible verses, a letter, poetry, the sixteen rules of grammar and 900 roots of vocabulary. Zamenhof declared, "an international language, like a national one, is common property." Zamenhof signed the work as "Doktoro Esperanto" and the title Esperanto stuck as the name of the language which, in Esperanto, means "one who is hoping". Find out more...
/July
Antoni Grabowski (June 11, 1857 in Nowe Dobra, a village 10 km northeast of Chełmno – July 4, 1921 in Warsaw) was a Polish chemical engineer, and an activist of the early Esperanto movement. His translations had an influential impact on the development of Esperanto into a language of literature.
Grabowski was a longstanding chairman of the Warsaw Esperanto Society, founded in 1904, and of the Polish Esperanto Society, founded in 1908. In the same year he became director of the Grammar section of the Esperanto Academy. He published articles and gave lectures on Esperanto and organized Esperanto language courses. Find out more...
/August
The Skolta Esperanto Ligo brings together Esperanto speaking Scouts from all over the world.
Following the immediate spread of Scouting in 1907, it soon became apparent to many that the Scouts might really be able to succeed at the experiment of international fraternity. Alexander William Thompson, leader of an English troop, had the idea on a French battlefield in 1918 to found an international Esperanto speaking Scouting organization to support international friendship and exchange of services. In order to cure the linguistic problems, he recommended Esperanto as an international means of communication. The same year saw the foundation of the League of Esperanto-speaking Scouts, which was the second international Scout organization, prior to the formation of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Find out more...
/September
Anationalism (Esperanto: sennaciismo) is a term originating from the community of Esperanto speakers. It denotes cosmopolitan political concepts that combine some or all of the following tendencies and ideas:
- radical antinationalism,
- universalism,
- "one-world-ism",
- acceptance of the historic trend toward linguistic homogenization on a world scale, and in some cases even a striving to accelerate that trend,
- the necessity of political education and organization of the world proletariat in accordance with those ideas, and
- the utility of Esperanto as an instrument of such political education. Find out more...
/October
Boris Grigorevich Kolker (Борис Григорьевич Колкер, born July 15, 1939) is a language teacher, translator and advocate of the international language Esperanto. He was until 1993 a Soviet and Russian citizen and since then has been a resident and citizen of the United States. In 1985 he was awarded a Ph.D. in linguistics from the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow.
Kolker is a member of the Academy of Esperanto, an honorary member of the World Esperanto Association (Universala Esperanto Asocio) and an associate editor of the monthly magazine Monato. For two decades he headed a large-scale Esperanto correspondence course in Russia that graduated around 900 students. He also taught Esperanto at American universities in San Francisco and Hartford. Find out more...
/November
Proto-Esperanto (or pra-Esperanto in the language itself) is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhof's language project, prior to the publication of his Unua Libro in 1887.
As a child, Zamenhof had the idea to introduce an international auxiliary language for communication between different nationalities. He originally wanted to revive some form of simplified Latin or Greek, but as he grew older he came to believe that it would be better to create a new language for his purpose. During his teenage years he worked on a language project until he thought it ready for public demonstration. On December 17, 1878 (about one year before the first publication of Volapük), Zamenhof celebrated his birthday and the birth of the language with some friends, who liked the project. Zamenhof himself called his language Lingwe Uniwersala ("world language"). Find out more...
/December
Esperanto literature began before the official publication of the constructed language Esperanto; the language's creator, L. L. Zamenhof, translated poetry and prose into the language as he was developing it as a test of its completeness and expressiveness, and published several translations and a short original poem as an appendix to the first book on the language, Unua Libro.
Over 25,000 books in Esperanto have been published, and the largest Esperanto book service at the World Esperanto Association offers over 4,000 books in its catalog. Over 100 original novels have been published in Esperanto, plus a larger number of novellas, short story collections, and poetry collections. Find out more...