Abram Kofman | |
---|---|
Native name | Авраам Кофман |
Born | 1864–1865 Odesa, Russian Empire |
Died | c. 1940 (aged 74–75) |
Occupation | Bookkeeper, Esperantist, poet |
Language | Esperanto, Russian, Ido, Occidental |
Abram Antoni Kofman (Russian : Авраам Кофман; c. 1864–c. 1940), also known as Abraham S. Kofman, was a Russian-Jewish accountant, and poet and translator in several constructed languages. From Odesa, Russian Empire, Kofman learned Esperanto in 1889 and was an early supporter of the language's adoption. He was one of the first Russian Jews to write poetry in Esperanto and has been described by several as a "pioneer". His work appeared in several Esperanto-language magazines and early anthologies, including the Fundamenta Krestomatio . He was the translator of several sections of the Hebrew Bible in both Esperanto and its daughter language, Ido. He was the first Ancient Greek–Esperanto translator, producing a rendition of parts of the Iliad starting in 1895.
Kofman was also involved in the development of the international religion Hillelism by the creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof in 1901, denouncing it as dangerous to Esperanto. Eventually, Kofman moved away from Esperanto to support Ido, and later Occidental (now Interlingue). He produced works in both languages, including textbooks and poetry. Kofman purportedly died during aerial bombing in Odesa around 1940.
Kofman was from Odesa, [1] Russian Empire, and was born in 1864-1865. [2] [3] Professionally, he worked as a bookkeeper. [4] He learnt the international auxiliary language Esperanto in 1889, [3] less than two years after it was debuted by Zamenhof in 1887. [5] Ric Berger names him the first in Russia to promote Esperanto; [6] he was one of the first Esperantist Russian Jews [7] and one of three Jewish Esperantists in Odesa by 1902. [8]
Scholars of Esperanto literature ramify three periods: Kofman worked in the First (Esperanto: Unua periodo), comprising writers until the First World War. Tazio Carlevalo identifies three schools of thought during this period: Kofman belonged to the "Slavic School", [a] active between 1916 and 1920. This was the first main school of Esperanto literature: its writers generally wrote from before the 20th century until 1920. The school may be further divided into two generations: Kofman was a member of the first. Kofman's peers in this group were generally Zamenhof's contemporaries, such as authors Vasilij Devjatnin , Leo Belmont , and Zamenhof's brother Felix Zamenhof . [10] [9] [11] The school of thought sought for stylistic freedom, [12] and Carlevalo notes their "relative abundance of pure lyric voices." [11]
Kofman wrote both original material as well as translations for several Esperanto periodicals; he wrote in a variety of genres, including satirical epigrams and narrative poetry. [3] He appeared in Zamenhof's 1903 anthology Fundamenta Krestomatio (Fundamental Chrestomathy ). [9] A short story was featured in Louis de Beaufront's L'Espérantiste , [3] and he collaborated with the Czech magazine Bohema Esperantisto . [13] [14] Several contributions to La Esperantisto and Lingvo Internacia were made under the pseudonym "Amiko" ("Friend"); although initially believed to be from Zamenhof, they were later discovered to be Kofman's works. [15] In 1896, he planned to publish a collection of poems [4] entitled Voices of People (Voĉoj de Popoloj) in eighteen languages, but it was never released. [16] For the texts in Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Japanese, and Mordvin, he asked for assistance from the Finnish Esperantist Gustaf John Ramstedt, incorrectly believing that Ramstedt could speak Japanese. [17] [16] In an open letter in the magazine Lingvo Internacia , Kofman stated that he hoped to eventually have 35-50 languages. [18]
Kofman was the first Ancient Greek–Esperanto translator, translating Homer's Iliad between 1895 and 1897 as Iliado. [3] He was part of a team of Jewish translators in Odesa which created a translation of the Old Testament into Esperanto, and in 1893 he translated the Book of Esther and the Book of Ruth; Kofman also later translated the Book of Esther into Ido in 1925. [19] [20] In 1902 during the Second World Esperanto Congress, Kofman was elected by the Lingva Komitato (Language Committee) to a commission that corrected errors in the " Universala Vortaro " ("Universal Dictionary") of the Fundamento de Esperanto . [21]
Kofman was a close friend of L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, [16] who communicated with Kofman regarding his ideas for Judaism. On 28 May 1901, Zamenhof sent Kofman a letter [b] about his plans for Hillelism (Hilelismo), his planned version of Judaism that would form an international religion. This included the manuscript form of a brochure for the religion, that Zamenhof would publish later in 1901. Kofman did not read the full brochure, and responded with a letter of disgust, viewing the introduction of a philosophy such as Hillelism dangerous to the reputation of the Esperanto movement; [22] Zamenhof had wanted to use Esperanto as a "neutral language" in the religion. [23] Kofman was one of a number of educated Jews among which Zamenhof allowed the brochure to circulate. [24] He received an overall negative response, particularly from Esperantists in Poland and France. [22]
Kofman has received both positive and negative attention. He has been described as a "pioneer" by several, including Julio Baghy and Geoffrey Sutton . [3] [4] István Szerdahelyi writes: "His pioneering work deserves attention from those to come". The hexameter he produced [1] in his translation of the Iliad was criticised by Gaston Waringhien as "unskillful copying", and worse than work by Kálmán Kalocsay. [3] In the 1933 Enciklopedio de Esperanto, Julio Baghy described Kofman as an artistic translator, writing: [4]
Nia linguo, per sa konstanta[ sic ] devlopo, divenas sempre plu richa, do sempre plu apta a literatural uzado.
Our language, by its constant development, will become ever richer, thus ever more apt for literary use.
Although in 1894, Kofman was one of 157 Esperantists who voted against a reform of Esperanto by Zamenhof, [26] in 1907, he shifted his allegiance from Esperanto to Ido: Idists have used the 1894 reform to support the validity of their movement. [27] Ido was introduced by the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language, and around a tenth of Esperantists would change movement alongside him. [4] He would later come to support Edgar de Wahl's Interlingue (Occidental), [4] and was author of a later-destroyed manuscript of a Russian-Occidental dictionary. [6] Kofman translated poetry into Occidental; a translation of a poem by Ivan Krylov by Kofman appeared in the magazine International magazine of stenography (Occidental: Revúe internationale de sténographie). [28] In 1979, István Szerdahelyi called Kofman "apparently the only one to have written poetry in three [spoken] constructed languages." [29]
Kofman's date of death is uncertain, but is held to be around 1940. [3] A message in the Occidental-language magazine Cosmoglotta records him as having died "just before the war"; [6] he was reported to have died during aerial bombing in 1940. [3] [c]
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication, or "the international language". Zamenhof first described the language in Dr. Esperanto's International Language, which he published under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto. Early adopters of the language liked the name Esperanto and soon used it to describe his language. The word esperanto translates into English as "one who hopes".
L. L. Zamenhof developed Esperanto in the 1870s and '80s. Unua Libro, the first print discussion of the language, appeared in 1887. The number of Esperanto speakers have increased gradually since then, without much support from governments and international organizations. Its use has, in some instances, been outlawed or otherwise suppressed.
L. L. Zamenhof was the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language.
Interlingue, originally Occidental ( ), is an international auxiliary language created in 1922 and renamed in 1949. Its creator, Edgar de Wahl, sought to achieve maximal grammatical regularity and natural character. The vocabulary is based on pre-existing words from various languages and a derivational system which uses recognized prefixes and suffixes.
Edgar von Wahl was a Baltic German mathematics and physics teacher who lived in Tallinn, Estonia. He also used the pseudonym Julian Prorók, and is best known as the creator of Interlingue, an international auxiliary language that was known as Occidental throughout his life.
The Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language was a body of academics convened in the early part of the 1900s (decade) to decide on the issue of which international auxiliary language should be chosen for international use. The ultimate decision of the committee charged by the Delegation was to adopt the Esperanto language, but with certain reforms. The result became a distinct language known as Ido.
Esperanto II or Esperanto 2 was a reform of Esperanto proposed by René de Saussure in 1937, the last of a long series of such proposals beginning with a 1907 response to Ido with a project called Lingwo Internaciona, later called Antido 1. Esperanto II was one of several languages investigated by the International Auxiliary Language Association, the linguistic research body that eventually standardized and presented Interlingua de IALA.
Fundamento de Esperanto is a 1905 book by L. L. Zamenhof, in which the author explains the basic grammar rules and vocabulary that constitute the basis of the constructed language Esperanto. On August 9, 1905, it was made the only obligatory authority over the language by the Declaration of Boulogne at the first World Esperanto Congress. Much of the content of the book is a reproduction of content from Zamenhof's earlier works, particularly Unua Libro.
Nikolai Vladimirovich Nekrasov was a Soviet Esperanto writer, translator, and critic.
Montagu Christie Butler was a British academic, librarian, lexicographer, musician, and Esperantist. A winner of several prizes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, he was a harpist and a versatile music teacher skilled in playing various musical instruments, as well as a teacher of voice and of musical composition.
Adolf Holzhaus was an Esperantist and historian of the Esperanto movement. Between 1959 and 1985, he compiled biographies of the lives of Esperanto creator L. L. Zamenhof and his family, Esperanto pioneer Wilhelm Heinrich Trompeter, and others. He edited and published documents on the history of Esperanto, including Zamenhof's Hillelism and "Provo de gramatiko de novjuda lingvo kaj alvoko al la juda intelektularo".
Detlev Blanke was a German Esperantist. He was an interlinguistics lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He was one of Germany's most active Esperanto philologists and was from 1991 to 2016 both the chair of the Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik and the editor of its newsletter, Interlinguistische Informationen. He and his wife, Wera Blanke, were especially interested in the evolution of language, particularly in the development of terminology for the constructed language, Esperanto, and questions of sociolinguistics. Blanke made a study of Eugen Wüster's work toward common international terminology and international standardization.
Petro Evstaf'evic Stojan was a Russian esperantist, bibliographer and lexicographer and a member of the Esperanto Language Committee from 1914.
Isaj Dratwer was a Polish Jewish bacteriologist and esperantist. In the Esperanto movement, Dratwer was a strong advocate, President of the Esperanto Academy, and committee secretary in 1927 and 1931. He often published articles or letters in the Heroldo de Esperanto, Pola Esperantisto and others. He also translated Russian-language novels by Romanov in 1932.
La Esperantisto, stylised as La Esperantisto., was the first Esperanto periodical, published from 1889 to 1895. L. L. Zamenhof started it in order to provide reading material for the then-nascent Esperanto community.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Esperanto:
Alphonse Matejka was a Swiss exports specialist and proponent of international auxiliary language. Born in St. Gallen to a Czech father and Swiss mother, he worked in the textiles and watchmaking industries, and lived much of his life in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Matejka is best known for his work in the international language movement; first supporting Ido, and later Occidental, he led numerous organisations in the fields, and authored several books teaching these languages. Matejka also helped to found the Center for Documentation and Study about the International Language.
Ernest Karlovich Drezen was a Soviet Esperantist and engineer. He was the leader of the Soviet Esperantist Union (SEU). Drezen was arrested and killed during the Great Purge in the 1930s.
Interlingue literature broadly encompasses the body of fiction and nonfiction work created or translated into Interlingue, a constructed language created by Edgar de Wahl. Although largely composed of original short stories and translations published in the central magazine of the language, Cosmoglotta, full length novels and poetry anthologies also exist, in particular those by authors such as Vicente Costalago, Jan Amos Kajš, and Jaroslav Podobský.