Tuesday, 14 October 2008

The father of Esperanto





Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (pronounced /ˈzɑːmɨnhɒf/ in English; born Eliezer Samenhof, December 15, 1859 – April 14, 1917) was an ophthalmologist, philologist, and the inventor of Esperanto, a constructed language designed for international communication.

As of 1975, Esperanto was taught in 600 schools to 20,000 students per year; and there were about 100 journals and 7500 books written in Esperanto, including translations from 65 languages. In addition, it had by that time been used in more than 700 international conferences. As of 2000, per Cambridge Encyclopedia, it had somewhere between 1 and 15 million speakers, according to sources referenced.

In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof

1 comment:

Bill Chapman said...

This is an accurate account of Esperanto and its founder. I would only add that Esperanto is not only used for conferences, but for individual travel and personal frienships.