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Esperanto
Last update: Thursday 09th of February 2012
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| Esperanto | ||
|---|---|---|
| Flag: |  | |
| Created by: | L.L. Zamenhof | 1887 |
| Setting and usage: | International auxiliary language | |
| Total speakers: | Native: approx. 1000; Fluent speakers: est. 100,000 to 2 million | |
| Category (purpose): | constructed language International auxiliary language Esperanto | |
| Category (sources): | vocabulary from Romance and Germanic languages; phonology from Slavic languages | |
| Regulated by: | Akademio de Esperanto | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | eo | |
| ISO 639-2: | epo | |
| ISO 639-3: | epo | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. The name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the Unua Libro in 1887. The word itself means 'one who hopes'. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding.
Although no country has adopted the language officially, it has enjoyed continuous usage by a community estimated at between 100,000 and 2 million speakers. By some estimates, there are about a thousand native speakers.
Today, Esperanto is employed in world travel, correspondence, cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction, television (Internacia Televido) and radio broadcasting. Some state education systems offer elective courses in Esperanto; there is evidence that learning Esperanto is a useful preparation for later language learning (see Esperanto and education).