The Esperantist of the Year (Esperantisto de la Jaro) is an honorary designation bestowed each year by the editors of the Esperanto-language monthly La Ondo de Esperanto (English: The Wave of Esperanto). The award recipient is selected by an international jury led by Halina Gorecka, the Russian publisher of the magazine.
The Esperantist of the Year award was created in 1998.
In 2001 Osmo Buller and Claude Piron received an equal number of votes, but according to rules in effect that year, Buller was declared the winner, as more nominators had proposed his name.
Esperantujo or Esperantio is 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."
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.
The Universal Esperanto Association, also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5501 individual members in 121 countries and 9215 through national associations and in official relations with the United Nations. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA. Its current president is the professor Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main organ used by UEA to inform its members about everything happening in the Esperanto community.
Kálmán Kalocsay was a Hungarian Esperantist poet, translator and editor who considerably influenced Esperanto culture, both in its literature and in the language itself, through his original poetry and his translations of literary works from his native Hungarian and other languages of Europe. His name is sometimes Esperantized as Kolomano Kaloĉajo, and some of his work was published under various pseudonyms, including C.E.R. Bumy, Kopar, Alex Kay, K. Stelov, Malice Pik and Peter Peneter.
Esperanto-USA (E-USA) is the largest organization for speakers and supporters of Esperanto in the United States. It was founded in 1952 as the Esperanto League for North America (ELNA) in Sacramento, California. Headquartered in Portland, Maine, Esperanto-USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the U.S. affiliate of the Universal Esperanto Association. Brandon Sowers is President of E-USA, and Hoss Firooznia is Vice-President.
Bertilo Wennergren is a Swedish Esperantist currently living in the village of Schossin in northern Germany.
Vladimír von Szmurlo was a Russian Esperantist and railway engineer.
La Ondo de Esperanto was an illustrated Esperanto periodical published monthly in the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad. Since 2017 it is available only as an online magazine in PDF or EPUB formats.
Osmo Buller is a Finnish Esperantist. He is General Director of the Universal Esperanto Association.
Petro Evstaf'evic Stojan was a Russian esperantist, bibliographer and lexicographer and a member of the Esperanto Language Committee from 1914.
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.
The World Esperantist Vegetarian Association is a voluntary association of Esperanto-speaking vegetarians. Founded in 1908, the group's working language is Esperanto, and it is the oldest international organization of vegetarians that is currently active. TEVA published a journal, Vegetarano ("Vegetarian") from 1914 to 1932, revived in 2009 as Esperantista Vegetarano, and has also operated a spirited Internet mailing list through Yahoo! Groups since 2005.
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.
Mark Fettes is an Esperantist and university professor of education, and former President of the World Esperanto Association, known by its Esperanto initials as UEA.
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:
Ilona Koutny is a Hungarian linguist and Esperantist. She works as a professor in Poznań, Poland. In 2008, she was honoured as "Esperantist of the Year" by the magazine La Ondo de Esperanto.
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