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In 1887 L. L. Zamenhof, an eye doctor from Białystok, published the first book of Esperanto. He designed it as a regular, easy-to-learn second language that speakers of different languages could share without giving up their own.

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Zamenhof grew up in Białystok, then part of the Russian Empire and now in Poland, a city where Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish were all spoken. He published the book on 26 July 1887 under the pen name Doktoro Esperanto, 'Doctor One-Who-Hopes', and readers soon used that name for the language itself. It listed 917 word roots that could be turned into thousands of words with prefixes and suffixes, and every noun ends in -o. The first World Esperanto Congress met in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, in 1905. Esperanto never became a universal language, but it is the most successful invented international language. Estimates of its speakers range from tens of thousands to about two million, and an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 people have spoken it since birth.

Türkçe oku
Białystoklu göz doktoru L. L. Zamenhof, Esperanto'nun ilk kitabını 1887'de yayımladı. Amacı, kuralları düzenli ve kolayca öğrenilebilen bir ikinci dil yaratmaktı: Farklı dilleri konuşan insanlar, ana dillerinden vazgeçmeden bu dilde anlaşabilecekti.

Zamenhof Białystok'ta büyüdü. O dönem Rus İmparatorluğu'na bağlı olan, bugün Polonya'da bulunan bu kentte Lehçe, Rusça, Almanca ve Yidiş bir arada konuşuluyordu. Kitabı 26 Temmuz 1887'de “Umut Eden Doktor” anlamına gelen Doktoro Esperanto takma adıyla yayımladı; okurlar kısa sürede bu adı dilin kendisi için kullanmaya başladı. Kitapta 917 sözcük kökü vardı; bunlar ön ve son eklerle binlerce sözcüğe dönüşebiliyordu. Dilde her ad -o ile biter. İlk Dünya Esperanto Kongresi 1905'te Fransa'nın Boulogne-sur-Mer kentinde toplandı. Esperanto hiçbir zaman evrensel bir dil olmadı, ama yapay uluslararası diller içinde en başarılısıdır. Konuşanların sayısına ilişkin tahminler birkaç on binden iki milyon dolayına kadar uzanıyor; dili doğuştan öğrenenlerin 1.000 ile 2.000 arasında olduğu sanılıyor.

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Background reading: Esperanto
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