Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by Polish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was 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". Zamenhof was motivated by the broader goals of his philosophy homoranismo, for which a universal language seemed necessary. The word esperanto translates into English as "one who hopes".
Esperantujo or Esperantio is the Esperanto community; the community of speakers of the Esperanto language and their culture, as well as the places and institutions where the language is used. The term is used "as if it were a country."
Esperanto culture refers to the shared cultural experience of the Esperantujo, or Esperanto-speaking community. Despite being a constructed language, Esperanto has a history dating back to the late 19th century, and shared cultural social mores have developed among its speakers. Some of these can be traced back to the initial ideas of the language's creator, Ludwig Zamenhof, including the theory that a global second language would foster international communication. Others have developed over time, as the language has allowed different national and linguistic cultures to blend together. Some researched also the ideologies of Esperanto.
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the southwest, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's mostly mountainous territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi), with a population of over 5.4 million. The capital and largest city is Bratislava, while the second largest city is Košice.
The Esperantic Studies Foundation, abbreviatedESF is a non-profit organisation initiated in 1968 by Jonathan Pool, E. James Lieberman and Humphrey Tonkin, with the aim to further the understanding and practice of linguistic justice in a multicultural world, with a special focus on the study of interlinguistics and the role of Esperanto.
The Esperanto Wikipedia is the Esperanto version of Wikipedia, which was started on 11 May 2001, alongside the Basque Wikipedia. With over 314,000 articles as of June 2016, it is the 32nd-largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, and the largest Wikipedia in a constructed language.
Ľubomír Feldek is a Slovak poet, writer, playwright, and translator. He is married to Oľga Feldeková.
Jiří Levý (1926–1967) was a Czech literary theoretician, literary historian and translation theoretician. Levý's work was crucial for the development of translation theory in Czechoslovakia and it has subsequently influenced scholars internationally.
Július Tomin was a high school teacher and well-known author from Czechoslovakia. He was persecuted during the Soviet occupation for promoting Interlingua as a second language.
Rüdiger Eichholz, was a Canadian physicist and Esperantist and a member of the Esperanto Academy. He is best known for publishing the "Esperanto picture dictionary" (1988) and a massive anthology co-edited with his wife, Esperanto in the Modern World (1982).
E@I ("Education@Internet") is an international youth non-profit organization that hosts educational projects and meetings to support intercultural learning and the usage of languages and internet technologies.
A pan-Slavic language is a zonal auxiliary language for communication among the Slavic peoples.
Eugen Wüster was an industrialist and terminologist.
The Esperantist of the Year is an honorary designation bestowed each year by the editors of the Esperanto-language monthly La Ondo de Esperanto. The award recipient is selected by an international jury led by Halina Gorecka, the Russian publisher of the magazine.
Peter Baláž, in Esperanto known as Petro, is an Esperantist, publisher and editor; he was selected as the 2012 Esperantist of the Year. Baláž lives in his hometown of Partizánske and speaks Slovak, Czech, German, Polish, Russian and English, as well as the international planned language Esperanto.
Komputeko is an online project of the non-profit youth organization E@I (“Education@Internet”) with the goal of bringing together parallel computer terminology from various dictionaries in order to facilitate access to and comparison between different translations and thus promote exact use of language and counteract the usage of linguistic borrowings from American English. Komputeko is short for the Esperanto noun phrase "Prikomputila terminokolekto", meaning "collection of computer terms". The dictionary is written in five languages, and there are plans to expand it into other languages. A preliminary version with a few other languages already exists.
Summer Esperanto Study is the biggest annual international event aiming to teach Esperanto. It occurs every summer since 2007, lasts for a week and attracts up to 250 participants from 30 countries, being aimed both at beginners and fluent speakers of the language. The event is organised by E@I and usually takes places in Slovakia, with the exception of 2014 when it also occurred in Russia. It has been supported several times by the Slovak ministry of education and the local mayor. In its first year, the event had a narrower focus and was called Slavic Esperanto Study.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Esperanto:
Amri Wandel is a senior scientist in Astrophysics at the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Wandel is an expert in astrobiology and chairman of the Israeli Association of Astrobiology and Early Life. He is also president of the International Academy of Sciences San Marino.
