Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. It is the only such language with a population of native speakers, of which there are perhaps several thousand. Usage estimates are difficult, but two recent estimates put the number of active speakers at around 100,000. Concentration of speakers is highest in Europe, East Asia and South America. The Universal Esperanto Association has more than 5,500 members in 120 countries. The language has also gained a noticeable presence on the internet in recent years, as it became increasingly accessible on platforms such as Duolingo.
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.
Ido is a constructed language, derived from Reformed Esperanto, created to be a universal second language for speakers of diverse backgrounds. Ido was specifically designed to be grammatically, orthographically, and lexicographically regular, and above all easy to learn and use. In this sense, Ido is classified as a constructed international auxiliary language. It is the most successful of many Esperanto derivatives, called Esperantidoj.
Novial is a constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) for universal communication between speakers of different native languages. It was devised by Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who had been involved in the Ido movement, and later in the development of Interlingua.
An international auxiliary language is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primarily a foreign language. It usually takes words from widely spoken languages.
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.
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.
An Esperantido is a constructed language derived from Esperanto. Esperantido originally referred to the language which is now known as Ido. The word Esperantido is derived from Esperanto plus the affix -id- (-ido), which means a "child, young or offspring" (ido). Hence, Esperantido literally means an "offspring or descendant of Esperanto".
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.
Adjuvilo is a constructed language created in 1910 by Claudius Colas under the pseudonym of "Profesoro V. Esperema". Although it was a full language, it may not have been created to be spoken. Many believe that as an Esperantist, Colas created Adjuvilo to help create dissent in the then-growing Ido movement. Colas himself called his language simplified Ido and proposed several reforms to Ido.
Esperanto and Ido are constructed international auxiliary languages, with Ido being derived from Esperanto.
Spokil is a constructed language created by the Frenchman Adolphe Nicolas.
Novial was created by Otto Jespersen, who had also been a co-author of Ido. Both languages base their vocabularies primarily on the Germanic and Romance languages but differ grammatically in several important respects. Comparisons among Ido, Novial, and other notable international auxiliary languages have formed an important part of interlinguistic studies. For example, both Ido and Novial were among the languages investigated by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA), which developed Interlingua. This article is intended to provide an overview of the salient differences and similarities of Ido and Novial.
The history of Interlingua comprises the formation of the language itself as well as its community of speakers.
Claudius Colas, also known as Profesoro V. Esperema, was a French Esperantist. In 1910, he created the constructed language Adjuvilo, which was a complete language that was never meant to be spoken but instead an effort to help create dissent in the then-growing Ido movement. In 1910, he co-founded IKUE, the foremost organization of Catholic Esperantists in the world. He died during the early days of World War I.
Bolak is a constructed language that was invented by Léon Bollack. The name of the language means both "blue language" and "ingenious creation" in the language itself.
Hellmut Röhnisch, born 1914 in Zeitz in Germany, died 1996 in Örebro in Sweden was a universal language activist, businessman and athlete.
The Esperanto movement, less commonly referred to as Esperantism, is a movement to disseminate the use of the planned international language Esperanto. The movement does not aim to supplant national languages but merely to supplement them. The movement is sometimes used to describe all speakers of Esperanto including their culture, which is not a correct use of the sociological term movement.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Esperanto:
