Esperanto#Official repression

{{Main|History of Esperanto}}

File:Zamenhof portreto.jpg

File:Unua Libro ru 1st ed.pdf. The title translates to: International Language: Preface and Complete Tutorial.]]

Esperanto was created in the late 1870s and early 1880s by L. L. Zamenhof, a Jewish ophthalmologist from Białystok, then part of the Russian Empire, but now part of Poland. After several iterations (Proto-Esperanto), he self-published the first book of Esperanto grammar ({{lang|eo|Unua Libro|italics=yes}}) on July 26, 1887. He did so under the pseudonym {{Lang|eo|Doktoro Esperanto}} ({{lit|one who hopes}}) and simply called the language "the international language" ({{Lang|eo|la lingvo internacia}}). Early speakers grew fond of the name Esperanto and began to use it as the name for the language.{{cite book |last1=Schor |first1=Esther |title=Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language |date=4 October 2016 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-4299-4341-3|language=en |page=70|author-link=Esther Schor}}

Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language that would serve as a universal second language, to foster world peace and international understanding, and to build a "community of speakers".{{Cite web |last=Yaffe |first=Deborah |date=January 11, 2017 |title=A Language for Idealists |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/language-idealists |access-date=March 30, 2022 |website=Princeton Alumni Weekly}} Zamenhof wrote that he wanted mankind to "learn and use ... en masse ... the proposed language as a living one".L.L.Zamenhof. [http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.html International Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222105540/http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.html |date=December 22, 2012 }}. Warsaw. 1887 The goal for Esperanto to become an international auxiliary language was not Zamenhof's only goal; he also wanted to "enable the learner to make direct use of his knowledge with persons of any nationality, whether the language be universally accepted or not; in other words, the language is to be directly a means of international communication". His feelings and the situation in Białystok may be gleaned from an extract from his letter to Nikolai Borovko:{{sfn|Matthias|2002}}

{{blockquote|In Białystok the inhabitants were divided into four distinct elements: Russians, Poles, Germans, and Jews; each of these spoke their own language and looked on all the others as enemies. In such a town a sensitive nature feels more acutely than elsewhere the misery caused by language division and sees at every step that the diversity of languages is the first, or at least the most influential, basis for the separation of the human family into groups of enemies. I was brought up as an idealist; I was taught that all people were brothers, while outside in the street at every step I felt that there were no people, only Russians, Poles, Germans, Jews, and so on.|L. L. Zamenhof, in a letter to Nikolai Borovko, c. 1895}}

Because people were reluctant to learn a new language which hardly anyone spoke, Zamenhof asked people to sign a promise to start learning Esperanto once ten million people made the same promise. He "was disappointed to receive only a thousand responses".{{cite journal | journal= New Yorker | author= Joan Acocella | date= October 24, 2016 | title= A Language to Unite Humankind | url= https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/a-language-to-unite-humankind | access-date= May 24, 2020 | archive-date= May 29, 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200529082013/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/a-language-to-unite-humankind | url-status= live }} Nevertheless, the number of speakers grew rapidly over the next few decades; at first, primarily in the Russian Empire and Central Europe, then in other parts of Europe, the Americas, China, and Japan.

In 1905, Zamenhof published the Fundamento de Esperanto as a definitive guide to the language. Later that year, French Esperantists organized with his participation the first World Esperanto Congress, an ongoing annual conference, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Zamenhof also proposed to the first congress that an independent body of linguistic scholars should steward the future evolution of Esperanto, foreshadowing the founding of the Akademio de Esperanto (in part modeled after the Académie française), which was established soon thereafter.

File:1905-03-ge-frankf-mapo.jpg

After the First World War, a great opportunity for Esperanto seemingly presented itself, when the Iranian delegation to the League of Nations proposed that the language be adopted for use in international relations following a report by a Japanese delegate to the League named Nitobe Inazō, in the context of the 13th World Congress of Esperanto, held in Prague.{{cite web|url=http://www.esperanto.ie/en/zaft/zaft_2.html|title=New EAI pages|website=esperanto.ie|access-date=February 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924002210/http://www.esperanto.ie/en/zaft/zaft_2.html|archive-date=September 24, 2015|url-status=dead}} Ten delegates accepted the proposal with only one voice against, the French delegate, Gabriel Hanotaux. Hanotaux opposed all recognition of Esperanto at the League, from the first resolution on December 18, 1920, and subsequently through all efforts during the next three years.{{Cite web|url=http://impofthediverse.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-dark-day-for-esperanto.html|title=Imp of the Diverse: A Dark Day for Esperanto|first=John|last=Dumas|date=December 19, 2014|access-date=September 15, 2019|archive-date=May 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529090329/http://impofthediverse.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-dark-day-for-esperanto.html|url-status=live}} However, two years later, the League recommended that its member states include Esperanto in their educational curricula. The French government retaliated by banning all instruction in Esperanto in France's schools and universities.{{Cite web|url=http://impofthediverse.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-french-say-non-to-esperanto.html|title=Imp of the Diverse: The French Say "Non" to Esperanto|first=John|last=Dumas|date=July 16, 2014|access-date=September 15, 2019|archive-date=May 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529094456/http://impofthediverse.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-french-say-non-to-esperanto.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://impofthediverse.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-danger-of-esperanto.html|title=Imp of the Diverse: The Danger of Esperanto|first=John|last=Dumas|date=September 10, 2014|access-date=September 15, 2019|archive-date=May 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529074440/http://impofthediverse.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-danger-of-esperanto.html|url-status=live}} The French Ministry of Public Instruction said that "French and English would perish and the literary standard of the world would be debased". Nonetheless, many people see the 1920s as the heyday of the Esperanto movement. During this time, anarchism as a political movement was very supportive of both anationalism and the Esperanto language.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Esperanto kaj anarkiismo|url=https://www.nodo50.org/esperanto/anarkiismo.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423014718/https://www.nodo50.org/esperanto/anarkiismo.htm|archive-date=April 23, 2020|access-date=|website=www.nodo50.org|quote={{lang|eo|Anarkiistoj estis inter la pioniroj de la disvastigo de Esperanto. En 1905 fondiĝis en Stokholmo la unua anarkiisma Esperanto-grupo. Sekvis multaj aliaj: en Bulgario, Ĉinio kaj aliaj landoj. Anarkiistoj kaj anarki-sindikatistoj, kiuj antaŭ la Unua Mondmilito apartenis al la nombre plej granda grupo inter la proletaj esperantistoj, fondis en 1906 la internacian ligon Paco-Libereco, kiu eldonis la Internacian Socian Revuon. Paco-libereco unuiĝis en 1910 kun alia progresema asocio, Esperantista Laboristaro. La komuna organizaĵo nomiĝis Liberiga Stelo. Ĝis 1914 tiu organizaĵo eldonis multe da revolucia literaturo en Esperanto, interalie ankaŭ anarkiisma. Tial povis evolui en la jaroj antaŭ la Unua Mondmilito ekzemple vigla korespondado inter eŭropaj kaj japanaj anarkiistoj. En 1907 la Internacia Anarkiisma Kongreso en Amsterdamo faris rezolucion pri la afero de internacia lingvo, kaj venis dum la postaj jaroj similaj kongresaj rezolucioj. Esperantistoj, kiuj partoprenis tiujn kongresojn, okupiĝis precipe pri la internaciaj rilatoj de la anarkiistoj.}}}}

Fran Novljan was one of the chief promoters of Esperanto in the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was among the founders of the Croatian {{Lang|hr|Prosvjetni savez}} (Educational Alliance), of which he was the first secretary, and organized Esperanto institutions in Zagreb. Novljan collaborated with Esperanto newspapers and magazines, and was the author of the Esperanto textbook Internacia lingvo esperanto i Esperanto en tridek lecionoj.[http://istra.lzmk.hr/clanak.aspx?id=1917 Istarska enciklopedija] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210003219/http://istra.lzmk.hr/clanak.aspx?id=1917 |date=February 10, 2021 }} Josip Šiklić: Novljan, Fran (pristupljeno 23. ožujka 2020.)Pleadin, Josip. Biografia leksikono de kroatiaj esperantistoj. Đurđevac: Grafokom 2002, p. 108-109, {{ISBN|953-96975-0-6}}

In 1920s Korea, socialist thinkers pushed for the use of Esperanto through a series of columns in The Dong-a Ilbo as resistance to both Japanese occupation as well as a counter to the growing nationalist movement for Korean language standardization. This lasted until the Mukden Incident in 1931, when changing colonial policy led to an outright ban on Esperanto education in Korea.{{Cite journal|last=Yang|first=Jinsuk|date=2016-02-10|title=A historical analysis of language policy and language ideology in the early twentieth Asia: a case of Joseon, 1910–1945|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10993-015-9396-5|journal=Language Policy|volume=16|issue=1|pages=59–78|doi=10.1007/s10993-015-9396-5|s2cid=146666430|issn=1568-4555|access-date=March 18, 2021|archive-date=February 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207055648/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10993-015-9396-5|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}

File:1911 Anvers Congrès Esperanto.jpg, August 1911]]

Esperanto attracted the suspicion of many states. Repression was especially pronounced in Nazi Germany, Francoist Spain up until the 1950s, and the Soviet Union under Stalin, from 1937 to 1956.

In Nazi Germany, there was a motivation to ban Esperanto because Zamenhof was Jewish, and due to the internationalist nature of Esperanto, which was perceived as "Bolshevist". In his work Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler specifically mentions Esperanto as an example of a language that could be used by an international Jewish conspiracy once they achieved world domination.{{cite book|last=Sutton|first=Geoffrey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Z_8CG9g2jIC&pg=PA161|title=Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto, 1887–2007|publisher=Mondial|year=2008|isbn=978-1-59569-090-6|pages=161–162|quote=Hitler specifically attacked Esperanto as a threat in a speech in Munich (1922) and in Mein Kampf itself (1925). The Nazi Minister for Education banned the teaching of Esperanto on May 17, 1935. [...] all Esperantists were essentially enemies of the state – serving, through their language, Jewish-internationalist aims.|access-date=February 29, 2016|archive-date=July 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722235450/https://books.google.com/books?id=-Z_8CG9g2jIC&pg=PA161|url-status=live}} Esperantists were killed during the Holocaust, with Zamenhof's family in particular singled out to be killed.{{cite web|url=http://esperantodc.org/esw6.html |title=About ESW and the Holocaust Museum |publisher=Esperantodc.org |date=December 5, 1995 |access-date=December 5, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125045310/http://esperantodc.org/esw6.html |archive-date=November 25, 2010 }} The efforts of a minority of German Esperantists to expel their Jewish colleagues and overtly align themselves with the Reich were futile, and Esperanto was legally forbidden in 1935. Esperantists in German concentration camps did, however, teach Esperanto to fellow prisoners, telling guards they were teaching Italian, the language of one of Germany's Axis allies.{{sfn|Lins|2017}}

In Imperial Japan, the left wing of the Japanese Esperanto movement was forbidden, but its leaders were careful enough not to give the impression to the government that the Esperantists were socialist revolutionaries, which proved a successful strategy.{{cite journal |last=Lins |first=Ulrich |year=2008 |title=Esperanto as language and idea in China and Japan |journal=Language Problems and Language Planning |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=47–60 |publisher=John Benjamins |issn=0272-2690 |doi=10.1075/lplp.32.1.05lin |access-date=July 2, 2012 |url=http://benjamins.com/series/lplp/32-1/art/05lin.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222105549/http://benjamins.com/series/lplp/32-1/art/05lin.pdf |archive-date=December 22, 2012 }}

After the October Revolution of 1917, Esperanto was given a measure of government support by the new communist states in the former Russian Empire and later by the Soviet Union government, with the Soviet Esperantist Union being established as an organization that, temporarily, was officially recognized.{{cite web|url=http://literaturo.org/HARLOW-Don/Esperanto/EBook/chap07.html|title=Donald J. Harlow, The Esperanto Book, chapter 7|publisher=Literaturo.org|access-date=September 29, 2016|archive-date=October 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002141103/http://literaturo.org/HARLOW-Don/Esperanto/EBook/chap07.html|url-status=live}} In his biography on Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky mentions that Stalin had studied Esperanto.{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/stalin/ch04.htm|title=Chapter IV: The period of reaction: Leon Trotsky: Stalin – An appraisal of the man and his influence (1940)|author=Leon Trotsky|publisher=Marxists.org|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=January 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114015403/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/stalin/ch04.htm|url-status=live}} However, in 1937, at the height of the Great Purge, Stalin completely reversed the Soviet government's policies on Esperanto; many Esperanto speakers were executed, exiled or held in captivity in the Gulag labour camps. Quite often the accusation was: "You are an active member of an international spy organization which hides itself under the name of 'Association of Soviet Esperantists' on the territory of the Soviet Union." Until the end of the Stalin era, it was dangerous to use Esperanto in the Soviet Union, even though it was never officially forbidden to speak Esperanto.{{sfn|Lins|2017}}

Fascist Italy allowed the use of Esperanto, finding its phonology similar to that of Italian and publishing some tourist material in the language.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-05 |title=The History of Esperanto: A Modern Lingua Franca? |url=https://www.thecollector.com/esperanto-history/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=TheCollector |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Divjak |first=Alenka |date=June 2017 |title=Esperanto and tourism |url=https://www.quaestus.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Alenka-DIVJAK.pdf |journal=Quaestus |volume=6 |issue=11 |pages=142–153 |issn=2285-424X |via=ProQuest}}

During and after the Spanish Civil War, Francoist Spain suppressed anarchists, socialists and Catalan nationalists for many years, among whom the use of Esperanto was extensive,{{cite web|url=http://www.nodo50.org/esperanto/artik68es.htm|title=La utilización del esperanto durante la Guerra Civil Española|publisher=Nodo50.org|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=January 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116083834/http://www.nodo50.org/esperanto/artik68es.htm|url-status=live}} but in the 1950s the Esperanto movement was again tolerated.{{sfn|Lins|2017}}

{{See also|Modern evolution of Esperanto}}

In 1954, the United Nations — through UNESCO — granted official support to Esperanto as an international auxiliary language in the Montevideo Resolution.{{cite web|title=Records of the General Conference, Eighth Session, Montevideo 1954; Resolutions|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001145/114586e.pdf|website=UNESDOC Database|publisher=UNESCO|access-date=May 16, 2018|archive-date=February 2, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202095202/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001145/114586e.pdf|url-status=live|page=36}} However, Esperanto is not one of the six official languages of the UN.{{Cite news |title=Official Languages |url=https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=United Nations |language=en |quote=There are six official languages of the UN. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.}}

The development of Esperanto has continued unabated into the 21st century.{{cite web |last1=Ferrari |first1=Pisana |title=Esperanto Day, July 26, celebrates the birth of a language aimed at fostering harmony among peoples. How is it faring today? |url=https://www.capstan.be/esperanto-day-july-26-celebrates-the-birth-of-a-language-aimed-at-fostering-harmony-among-peoples-is-it-still-relevant-today/#:~:text=Instead%2C%20the%20development%20of%20Esperanto,renewed%20interest%20in%20the%20language. |website=cApStAn |date=July 26, 2022 |access-date=2 October 2023}} The advent of the Internet has had a significant impact on the language, as learning it has become increasingly accessible on platforms such as Duolingo, and as speakers have increasingly networked on platforms such as Amikumu.{{cite web|author=Salisbury, Josh|title='Saluton!': the surprise return of Esperanto|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/06/saluton-the-surprise-return-of-esperanto|access-date=May 16, 2018|website=The Guardian|date=December 6, 2017|archive-date=December 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228193216/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/06/saluton-the-surprise-return-of-esperanto|url-status=live}} With up to two million speakers, it is the most widely spoken constructed language in the world.{{citation|last=Zasky|first=Jason|title=Discouraging Words|date=July 20, 2009|url=http://failuremag.com/index.php/feature/article/discouraging_words/|magazine=Failure Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111119133127/http://failuremag.com/index.php/feature/article/discouraging_words/|quote=But in terms of invented languages, it's the most outlandishly successful invented language ever. It has thousands of speakers – even native speakers – and that's a major accomplishment as compared to the 900 or so other languages that have no speakers. – Arika Okrent|archive-date=November 19, 2011|url-status=dead}} Although no country has adopted Esperanto officially, {{lang|eo|Esperantujo|italics=yes}} ("Esperanto-land") is the name given to the collection of places where it is spoken.{{Cite web |date=2009-04-30 |title=Esperantujo |url=https://blogs.transparent.com/esperanto/esperantujo/ |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=Esperanto Language Blog {{!}} Language and Culture of the Esperanto-Speaking World}}

File:Moresnet.png proposed making Neutral Moresnet the world's first Esperanto‑speaking state.]]

Esperanto is the working language of several non-profit international organizations such as the {{lang|eo|Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda}}, a left-wing cultural association which had 724 members in over 85 countries in 2006.{{Cite news |title=Esperanto {{!}} language |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Esperanto |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724233935/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Esperanto |archive-date=July 24, 2021 |access-date=August 8, 2017 |work=Encyclopædia Britannica}} There is also Education@Internet, which has developed from an Esperanto organization; most others are specifically Esperanto organizations. The largest of these, the Universal Esperanto Association, has an official consultative relationship with the United Nations and UNESCO, which recognized Esperanto as a medium for international understanding in 1954.[http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001607/160782eb.pdf Report on the international petition in favour of Esperanto] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304124631/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001607/160782eb.pdf|date=March 4, 2016}}, UNESCO, June 1, 1954 The Universal Esperanto Association collaborated in 2017 with UNESCO to deliver an Esperanto translation{{cite web |title=Esperanto translation |url=http://uea.org/pdf/Unesko-Kuriero_1-2017.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419214418/https://uea.org/pdf/Unesko-Kuriero_1-2017.pdf |archive-date=April 19, 2018 |access-date=January 31, 2018}} of its magazine UNESCO Courier ({{Langx|eo|Unesko Kuriero en Esperanto}}). The World Health Organization offered an Esperanto version of the COVID-19 pandemic occupational safety and health education course.{{Cite web |title=OpenWHO {{!}} Courses |url=https://openwho.org/courses?lang=eo |access-date=2023-02-12 |publisher=World Health Organization}}

All personal documents sold by the World Service Authority, including the World Passport, are written in Esperanto, together with the official languages of the United Nations: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese.{{cite web |title=World Government Documents (Personal) |url=http://worldservice.org/doc.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820073208/http://worldservice.org/doc.html |archive-date=August 20, 2017 |access-date=January 14, 2015 |publisher=Worldservice.org}}

Esperanto has not been a secondary official language of any recognized country. However, it has entered the education systems of several countries, including HungaryMichael Byram and Adelheid Hu: Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. 2nd edition. Taylor and Francis, Hoboken 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-136-23554-2}}, page 229. and China.{{cite web |title=Esperanto and Anarchism (translation of Lexikon der Anarchie, Schwarzer Nachtschatten), Plön 1998, (ISBN 3-89041-014-6) The Anarchist Library |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/will-firth-esperanto-and-anarchism |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808154726/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/will-firth-esperanto-and-anarchism |archive-date=August 8, 2017 |access-date=August 8, 2017 |website=theanarchistlibrary.org}}

Esperanto was also the first language of teaching and administration of the now-defunct International Academy of Sciences San Marino.{{cite web |title=Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj (AIS) San-Marino |url=http://www.ais-sanmarino.org/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427095758/http://www.ais-sanmarino.org/ |archive-date=April 27, 2011 |access-date=December 5, 2010 |publisher=Ais-sanmarino.org}}

The League of Nations made attempts to promote the teaching of Esperanto in its member countries, but the resolutions were defeated (mainly by French delegates, who did not feel there was a need for it).David Richardson: "Esperanto Learning and Using the International Language". Esperanto-USA 3rd edition 2004, {{ISBN|0-939785-06-4}} page 34

The Chinese government has used Esperanto since 2001 for an Esperanto version of its China Internet Information Center. China also uses Esperanto in China Radio International, and for the Internet magazine El Popola Ĉinio.{{cite web |title=China Interreta Informa Centro-esperanto.china.org.cn |url=http://esperanto.china.org.cn/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721151446/http://esperanto.china.org.cn/ |archive-date=July 21, 2021 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |work=china.org.cn}}

The Vatican Radio has an Esperanto version of its podcasts and its website.{{cite web |title=Radio Vatikana |url=http://eo.radiovaticana.va/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160211101325/http://eo.radiovaticana.va/ |archive-date=February 11, 2016}}

In the summer of 1924, the American Radio Relay League adopted Esperanto as its official international auxiliary language,{{Cite journal |last=Hamann |first=F.A. |date=April 1928 |title=The Progress of Esperanto since the World War |journal=The Modern Language Journal |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=545–552 |doi=10.2307/315767 |jstor=315767 |issn = 0026-7902 }} and hoped that the language would be used by radio amateurs in international communications, but its actual use for radio communications was negligible.{{cite book |last=Forster |first=P. G. |title=The Esperanto Movement |publisher=Mouton |year=1982 |isbn=978-90-279-3399-7|pages=180–185}}

File:Isola delle Rose 1968.jpg in the Adriatic Sea used Esperanto as its official language in 1968; it has since been demolished]]

Beginning in 1908, there were efforts to establish the world's first Esperanto state in Neutral Moresnet, which at the time was a Belgian–Prussian condominium in central-western Europe. Any such efforts came to an end with the beginning of World War I and the German invasion of Belgium, voiding the treaty which established joint sovereignty over the territory. The Treaty of Versailles subsequently awarded the disputed territory to Belgium, effective January 10, 1920.{{Cite web |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Eduard |last2=Nendza |first2=Jürgen |date=2003-09-19 |editor-last=Zindel |editor-first=Udo |title=Galmei und Esperanto – Der fast vergessene europäische Kleinstaat Neutral-Moresnet |trans-title=Galmei and Esperanto – The almost forgotten European microstate Neutral Moresnet |url=http://www.swr.de/-/id%3D11528232/property%3Ddownload/nid%3D660374/1orb31p/swr2-wissen-20130820.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315141447/http://www.swr.de/-/id=11528232/property=download/nid=660374/1orb31p/swr2-wissen-20130820.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-15 |publisher=SWR2 Wissen |pages=8–10 |language=de}}

The self-proclaimed micronation of Rose Island, on an artificial island near Italy in the Adriatic Sea, used Esperanto as its official language in 1968. Another micronation, the extant Republic of Molossia, near Dayton, Nevada, uses Esperanto as an official language alongside English.{{cite web |title=What is Esperanto? |url=http://www.molossia.org/esperanto.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706103815/http://www.molossia.org/esperanto.html |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |access-date=August 4, 2017 |website=Republic of Molossia |quote=Esperanto is the second language of the Republic of Molossia. |location=Dayton, Nevada}}

On May 28, 2015, the language learning platform Duolingo launched a free Esperanto course for English speakers.{{cite web|url=https://www.duolingo.com/course/eo/en/Learn-Esperanto.|title=duolingo - learn Esperanto in 5 mins per day|access-date=4 December 2023}} On March 25, 2016, when the first Duolingo Esperanto course completed its beta-testing phase, that course had 350,000 people registered to learn Esperanto through the medium of English. By July 2018, the number of learners had risen to 1.36 million. On July 20, 2018, Duolingo changed from recording users cumulatively to reporting only the number of "active learners" (i.e., those who are studying at the time and have not yet completed the course),{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} which as of October 2022 stands at 299,000 learners.[https://www.duolingo.com/courses Language Courses for English Speakers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023033042/https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/eo/en/Learn-Esperanto |date=October 23, 2022 }}, October 23, 2021, Duolingo.com. Accessed October 23, 2021{{Primary source inline|date=March 2023}}

As of October 2018, {{lang|eo|Lernu!}}, another online learning platform for Esperanto, had 320,000 registered users, and nearly 75,000 monthly visits.{{Cite web |title=Lernu.net Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa |url=https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/lernu.net?p=&r= |access-date=2019-04-05 |website=www.alexa.com |archive-date=May 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528013005/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/lernu.net?p=&r= |url-status=dead }} 50,000 users possess at least a basic understanding of Esperanto.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

The language-learning platforms Drops, Memrise and LingQ also have materials for Esperanto.{{cite news |last=Malheiro|first=Allan |date=23 December 2023 |title=Esperanto: what future in Europe? |url=https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/esperanto-what-future-in-europe?lang=fr |url-status=live |work=The New Federalist |location=Brussels, Belgium |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240325180523/https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/esperanto-what-future-in-europe?lang=fr |archive-date=25 March 2024 |access-date=26 March 2024 |quote=It is now possible to learn Esperanto thanks to popular learning apps (where it has millions of learners) such as Duolingo, Drops, Memrise or LingQ [...]}}

On February 22, 2012, Google Translate added Esperanto as its 64th language.{{cite web|last=Brants|first=Thorsten|date=February 22, 2012|title=Tutmonda helplingvo por ĉiuj homoj|url=http://googletranslate.blogspot.com/2012/02/tutmonda-helplingvo-por-ciuj-homoj.html|access-date=August 14, 2012|work=Google Translate Blog|archive-date=February 25, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225204436/http://googletranslate.blogspot.com/2012/02/tutmonda-helplingvo-por-ciuj-homoj.html|url-status=live}} On July 25, 2016, Yandex Translate added Esperanto as a language.{{Cite web|title=Яндекс.Переводчик освоил 11 новых языков — Блог Переводчика|url=https://yandex.ru/blog/translate/yandeks-perevodchik-osvoil-11-novykh-yazykov|website=yandex.ru|access-date=April 24, 2019|archive-date=August 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811231218/https://yandex.ru/blog/translate/yandeks-perevodchik-osvoil-11-novykh-yazykov|url-status=live}}

File:Wikipedia-logo-v2-eo-200k.png

As of January 2025, Esperanto Wikipedia (Vikipedio) contains about {{formatnum:{{#expr:{{NUMBEROF|ARTICLES|eo}} round -3}}}} articles, making it the 37th-largest Wikipedia, as measured by the number of articles,{{Cite web |title=List of Wikipedias - Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias |access-date=2023-04-18 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en}} and is the largest Wikipedia in a constructed language.{{cite web|title=List of Wikipedias by language group|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias_by_language_group#Indo-European-based_Constructed_.28340.2C659_.E2.80.93_1.3.25.29|access-date=January 14, 2015|publisher=Meta.wikimedia.org|archive-date=July 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717092529/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias_by_language_group#Indo-European-based_Constructed_.28340.2C659_.E2.80.93_1.3.25.29|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Gentry |first=Alex |date=2017-06-07 |title=The Secret of International Auxiliary Languages |url=https://medium.com/salvo-faraday/the-secret-of-international-auxiliary-languages-7d45a1f1e312 |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=Medium |publisher=Circuit Youth Slavo |language=en |quote=Volapük... at one time it surpassed the Esperanto Wikipedia in number of articles, though Esperanto now has the largest Wikipedia of any constructed language.}} About 150,000 users consult the Vikipedio regularly, as attested by Wikipedia's automatically aggregated log-in data, which showed that in October 2019 the website has 117,366 unique individual visitors per month, plus 33,572 who view the site on a mobile device instead.Bonvenon al Vikipedia ("Welcome to Wikipedia"), main page of the Esperanto-language version of Wikipedia, October 4, 2019. Accessed October 4, 2019.

Esperanto has been described as "a language lexically predominantly Romanic, morphologically intensively agglutinative, and to a certain degree isolating in character".{{cite journal |last=Blanke |first=Detlev |title=Internationale Plansprachen. Eine Einführung |trans-title=International Planned Languages. An Introduction |journal=Sammlung Akademie-Verlag |publisher=Akademie-Verlag |year=1985 |issn=0138-550X}} Approximately 80% of Esperanto's vocabulary is derived from Romance languages, and the remainder primarily from German, Greek and Slavic languages. New words are formed through extensive use of affixes and compounds.

Typologically, Esperanto has prepositions and a pragmatic word order that by default is subject–verb–object (SVO). Adjectives can be freely placed before or after the nouns they modify, though placing them before the noun is more common.{{cite book | chapter=A typological description of Esperanto as a natural language| author=Ilona Koutny|editor=Ilona Koutny | title=Interlingwistyka i Esperantologia | date=2015 | isbn=978-83-63664-96-1 | pages=43–62| publisher=Wydawnictwo Rys}} The article {{lang|eo|la}} "the", demonstratives such as {{lang|eo|tiu}} "that" and prepositions (such as {{lang|eo|ĉe}} "at") must come before their related nouns. Similarly, the negative {{lang|eo|ne}} "not" and conjunctions such as {{lang|eo|kaj}} "and" and {{lang|eo|ke}} "that" must precede the phrase or clause that they introduce. In copular (A = B) clauses, word order is just as important as in English: "people are animals" is distinguished from "animals are people".

Esperanto's phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and semantics are based on the Indo-European languages spoken in Europe. Beside his native Yiddish and (Belo)Russian, Zamenhof studied German, Hebrew, Latin, English, Spanish, Lithuanian, Italian, French, Aramaic and Volapük, knowing altogether something of 13 different languages, which had an influence on Esperanto's linguistic properties.Prace Komisji Spraw Europejskich PAU. Tom II, pp. 40-41. Ed. Andrzej Pelczar. Krak'ow: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 2008, 79 pp.{{Cite web |last=Devlin |first=Thomas Moore |date=April 25, 2019 |title=What Is Esperanto, And Who Speaks It? |url=https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-esperanto-and-where-is-it-spoken |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=Babbel Magazine |language=en |quote=Evidence also shows that he learned Yiddish from his mother and that he studied German, English, Spanish, Lithuanian, Italian and French. In addition, Zamenhof learned the classical languages Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic in school. Esperanto was not even the first constructed language he'd dealt with. First, he learned a bit of Volapük, which was invented in Germany almost a decade before Esperanto. Having command of so many languages had a tremendous impact on his creation of Esperanto, which would be Zamenhof's 14th language.}}

Esperantist and linguist Ilona Koutny notes that Esperanto's vocabulary, phrase structure, agreement systems, and semantic typology are similar to those of Indo-European languages spoken in Europe. However, Koutny and Esperantist Humphrey Tonkin also note that Esperanto has features that are atypical of Indo-European languages spoken in Europe, such as its agglutinative morphology.{{cite book | last=Tonkin | first=Humphrey | title=Studies in World Language Problems | chapter=10. The semantics of invention: Translation into Esperanto | publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company | publication-place=Amsterdam | volume=3 | date=2010 | pages=169–190 | isbn=978-90-272-2834-5 | doi=10.1075/wlp.3.15ton}} Claude Piron argued that Esperanto word-formation has more in common with that of Chinese than with typical European languages, and that the number of Esperanto features shared with Slavic languages warrants the identification of a Slavic-derived stratum of language structure that he calls the "Middle Plane".{{cite web|url=http://claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm|title=Esperanto: european or asiatic language?|last=Piron|first=Claude|date=1981|author-link=Claude Piron}} A 2010 linguistic typological study concluded that "Esperanto is indeed somewhat European in character, but considerably less so than the European languages themselves."{{Cite journal|last=Parkvall|first=Mikael|date=2010-04-01|title=How European is Esperanto?: A typological study*|url=http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/lplp.34.1.04par|journal=Language Problems and Language Planning|language=en|volume=34|issue=1|pages=63–79|doi=10.1075/lplp.34.1.04par|issn=0272-2690|access-date=November 6, 2021|archive-date=November 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106190107/https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/lplp.34.1.04par|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}

{{Main|Esperanto phonology}}

Esperanto typically has 22 to 24 consonants (depending on the phonemic analysis and individual speaker), five vowels, and two semivowels that combine with the vowels to form six diphthongs. (The consonant {{IPA|/j/}} and semivowel {{IPA|/i̯/}} are both written ⟨j⟩, and the uncommon consonant {{IPA|/dz/}} is written with the digraph ⟨dz⟩,Kalocsay & Waringhien (1985) {{lang|eo|Plena analiza gramatiko de Esperanto}}, § 17, 22 which is the only consonant that does not have its own letter.) Tone is not used to distinguish meanings of words. Stress is always on the second-to-last vowel in proper Esperanto words, unless a final vowel {{lang|eo|o}} is elided, a phenomenon mostly occurring in poetry. For example, {{Wikt-lang|eo|familio}} "family" is {{IPA|[fa.mi.ˈli.o]}}, with the stress on the second i, but when the word is used without the final {{lang|eo|o}} ({{lang|eo|famili’}}), the stress remains on the second {{lang|eo|i}}: {{IPA|[fa.mi.ˈli]}}.

There is some degree of allophony:

• The sound {{IPAslink|r}} is usually rendered as an alveolar trill {{IPAblink|r}}, but can also be a uvular trill {{IPAblink|ʀ}},{{cite web|title=PMEG – Bazaj elparolaj reguloj – Konsonanta variado|url=http://bertilow.com/pmeg/skribo_elparolo/elparolo/bazaj_reguloj.html#i-7fo|website=PMEG|access-date=January 31, 2018|archive-date=February 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213013903/http://bertilow.com/pmeg/skribo_elparolo/elparolo/bazaj_reguloj.html#i-7fo|url-status=live}} a uvular fricative {{IPAblink|ʁ}},{{cite web|title=Fundamento de Esperanto – Gramatiko Franca|url=http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/fundamento/gramatiko_franca.html|website=Akademio de Esperanto|access-date=January 31, 2018|archive-date=February 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201075352/http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/fundamento/gramatiko_franca.html|url-status=live}} and an alveolar approximant {{IPAblink|ɹ}}.{{cite web|title=Fundamento de Esperanto – Gramatiko Angla|url=http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/fundamento/gramatiko_angla.html|website=Akademio de Esperanto|access-date=January 31, 2018|archive-date=May 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530075537/http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/fundamento/gramatiko_angla.html|url-status=live}} Many other forms such as an alveolar tap {{IPAblink|ɾ}} are done and accepted in practice.
• The {{IPAslink|v}} is normally pronounced like English v, but may be pronounced {{IPAblink|ʋ}} (between English v and w) or {{IPAblink|w}}, depending on the language background of the speaker.
• A semivowel {{IPA|/u̯/}} normally occurs only in diphthongs after the vowels {{IPAslink|a}} and {{IPAslink|e̞|e}}, not as a consonant {{IPA|/w/}}.
• Common, if debated, assimilation includes the pronunciation of {{lang|eo|nk}} as {{IPA|[ŋk]}} and {{lang|eo|kz}} as {{IPA|[ɡz]}}.

A large number of consonant clusters can occur, up to three in initial position (as in {{Wikt-lang|eo|stranga}}, "strange") and five in medial position (as in ekssklavo, "former slave"). Final clusters are uncommon except in unassimilated names, poetic elision of final {{Wikt-lang|eo|o}}, and a very few basic words such as {{Wikt-lang|eo|cent}} "hundred" and {{Wikt-lang|eo|post}} "after".

Esperanto has the five monophthongs found in such languages as Spanish, Modern Hebrew, and Modern Greek.

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Since there are only five vowel qualities, significant variation in pronunciation is tolerated. For instance, e commonly ranges from {{IPA|[e]}} (French {{lang|fr|é}}) to {{IPA|[ɛ]}} (French {{lang|fr|è}}). These details often depend on the speaker's native language. A glottal stop may occur between adjacent vowels in some people's speech, especially when the two vowels are the same, as in {{Wikt-lang|eo|heroo}} "hero" ({{IPA|[he.ˈro.o]}} or {{IPA|[he.ˈro.ʔo]}}) and {{Wikt-lang|eo|praavo}} "great-grandfather" ({{IPA|[pra.ˈa.vo]}} or {{IPA|[pra.ˈʔa.vo]}}).

{{Main|Esperanto orthography}}

The Esperanto alphabet is based on the Latin script, using a one-sound-one-letter principle, with the exception of [d͡z]. It includes six letters with diacritics: five with circumflexes (⟨ĉ⟩, ⟨ĝ⟩, ⟨ĥ⟩, ⟨ĵ⟩, and ⟨ŝ⟩), and one with a breve (⟨ŭ⟩). The alphabet does not include the letters ⟨q⟩, ⟨w⟩, ⟨x⟩, or ⟨y⟩, which are only used in the writing of proper names and unassimilated borrowings.

The alphabet was designed with a French typewriter in mind, and although modern computers support Unicode, entering the letters with diacritic marks can be more or less problematic with certain operating systems or hardware. One of the first reform proposals (for Esperanto 1894) sought to do away with these marks and the language Ido went back to the basic Latin alphabet.

All letters lacking diacritics are pronounced approximately as their respective IPA symbols, with the exception of ⟨c⟩.

The letters ⟨j⟩ and ⟨c⟩ are used in a way that is familiar to speakers of many Central and Eastern European languages, but may be unfamiliar to English speakers. ⟨j⟩ has the sound of English ⟨y⟩, as in yellow and boy (Esperanto jes has the same pronunciation as its English cognate yes), and ⟨c⟩ has a "ts" sound, as in hits or the ⟨zz⟩ in pizza. In addition, the ⟨g⟩ in Esperanto is always 'hard', as in gift. Esperanto makes use of the five-vowel system, essentially identical to the vowels of Spanish and Modern Greek.

The accented letters are:

• ⟨ĉ⟩ is pronounced like English ch in chatting
• ⟨ĝ⟩ is pronounced like English g in gem
• ⟨ĥ⟩ is pronounced like the ch in German {{lang|de|Bach}} or Scottish English loch.
• ⟨ĵ⟩ is pronounced like the s in English fusion or the j in French Jacques
• ⟨ŝ⟩ is pronounced like English sh.
• ⟨ŭ⟩ in ⟨aŭ⟩ is pronounced like English ow in cow.

According to one of Zamenhof's entries in the Lingvaj respondoj, the letter ⟨n⟩ ought to be pronounced as [n] in all cases, but a rendering as [ŋ] is admissible before ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩, and ⟨ĥ⟩.

{{Main article|Substitutions of the Esperanto alphabet|}}

Even with the widespread adoption of Unicode, the letters with diacritics (found in the "Latin-Extended A" section of the Unicode Standard) can cause problems with printing and computing, because they are not found on most physical keyboards and are left out of certain fonts.

There are two principal workarounds to this problem, which substitute digraphs for the accented letters. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, created an "h-convention", which replaces ⟨ĉ⟩, ⟨ĝ⟩, ⟨ĥ⟩, ⟨ĵ⟩, ⟨ŝ⟩, and ⟨ŭ⟩ with ⟨ch⟩, ⟨gh⟩, ⟨hh⟩, ⟨jh⟩, ⟨sh⟩, and ⟨u⟩, respectively.Akademio de Esperanto (2007): [http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/oficialaj_informoj/oficialaj_informoj_6_2007.html Oficialaj Informoj, Numero 6 - 2007 01 21] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731050315/http://www.akademio-de-esperanto.org/oficialaj_informoj/oficialaj_informoj_6_2007.html |date=July 31, 2019 }}. The main issue with this convention is its ambiguity: If used in a database, a program could not easily determine whether to render, for example, ⟨ch⟩ as /c/ followed by /h/ or as /ĉ/. Such words do exist in Esperanto: {{lang|eo|senchava}} could not be rendered unambiguously, unless its component parts were intentionally separated, as in senc·hava. A more recent "x-convention" has also gained prominence with the advent of computing, utilizing an otherwise absent ⟨x⟩ to produce the digraphs ⟨cx⟩, ⟨gx⟩, ⟨hx⟩, ⟨jx⟩, ⟨sx⟩, and ⟨ux⟩; this has the incidental advantage of alphabetizing correctly in most cases, since the only letter after ⟨x⟩ is ⟨z⟩.

There are computer keyboard layouts that support the Esperanto alphabet, and some systems use software that automatically replaces x- or h-convention digraphs with the corresponding diacritic letters (for example, {{lang|eo|Amiketo}}Amiketo and Tajpi are keyboard layouts which support the Esperanto alphabet for [http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/klivo/amiketo/ Windows] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123231615/http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/klivo/amiketo/ |date=November 23, 2016 }}, [http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/klivo/amiketo/makamiketo.html Mac OS X] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405160459/http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/klivo/amiketo/makamiketo.html |date=April 5, 2016 }}, and [http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/klivo/amiketo/linamiketo.html Linux] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207213204/http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/klivo/amiketo/linamiketo.html |date=December 7, 2016 }} for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux and Gboard and AnySoftKeyboard for Android). On Linux, the GNOME, Cinnamon, and KDE desktop environments support the entry of characters with Esperanto diacritics.{{Cite web|title=typography - How do I type the Esperanto letters with accents on Linux?|url=https://esperanto.stackexchange.com/questions/378/how-do-i-type-the-esperanto-letters-with-accents-on-linux|access-date=2021-09-01|website=Esperanto Language Stack Exchange|archive-date=September 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901164905/https://esperanto.stackexchange.com/questions/378/how-do-i-type-the-esperanto-letters-with-accents-on-linux|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=Donald|title=Linux|url=https://www.esperanto.org.nz/learn-and-use-esperanto/kiel-tajpi-en-esperanto/linux/|access-date=2021-09-02|website=Esperanto Association of New Zealand|language=en-NZ|archive-date=September 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902005626/https://www.esperanto.org.nz/learn-and-use-esperanto/kiel-tajpi-en-esperanto/linux/|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Esperanto vocabulary}}

{{Wiktionary category|category=Esperanto language}}

The core vocabulary of Esperanto was defined by {{lang|eo|Unua Libro}}, published by Zamenhof in 1887. This book listed 917 roots; these could be expanded into tens of thousands of words using prefixes, suffixes, and compounding. In 1894, Zamenhof published the first Esperanto dictionary, {{ill|Universala Vortaro|eo}}, which had a larger set of roots. The rules of the language allowed speakers to borrow new roots as needed; it was recommended, however, that speakers use most international forms and then derive related meanings from these.

Since then, many words have been borrowed, primarily (but not solely) from the European languages. Not all proposed borrowings become widespread, but many do, especially technical and scientific terms. Terms for everyday use, on the other hand, are more likely to be derived from existing roots; {{lang|eo|komputilo}} "computer", for instance, is formed from the verb {{lang|eo|komputi}} "compute" and the suffix {{lang|eo|-ilo}} "tool". Words are also calqued; that is, words acquire new meanings based on usage in other languages. For example, the word {{lang|eo|muso}} "mouse" has acquired the meaning of a computer mouse from its usage in many languages (English mouse, French souris, Dutch muis, Spanish ratón, etc.). Esperanto speakers often debate about whether a particular borrowing is justified or whether meaning can be expressed by deriving from or extending the meaning of existing words.

Some compounds and formed words in Esperanto are not entirely straightforward; for example, {{lang|eo|eldoni}}, literally "give out", means "publish", paralleling the usage of certain European languages (such as German {{lang|de|herausgeben}}, Dutch {{lang|nl|uitgeven}}, Russian {{lang|ru|издать izdat'}}). In addition, the suffix -um- has no defined meaning; words using the suffix must be learned separately (such as {{lang|eo|dekstren}} "to the right" and {{lang|eo|dekstrumen}} "clockwise").

There are not many idiomatic or slang words in Esperanto, as these forms of speech tend to make international communication difficult—working against Esperanto's main goal.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

Instead of derivations of Esperanto roots, new roots are taken from European languages in the endeavor to create an international language.{{lang|eo|La Bona Lingvo}}, Claude Piron. Vienna: {{lang|eo|Pro Esperanto}}, 1989. {{lang|eo|La lingvo volas eleganti, ne elefanti.}} "The language wants to be elegant, not elephantine."

{{Main|Esperanto grammar}}

Esperanto words are mostly derived by stringing together roots, grammatical endings, and at times prefixes and suffixes. This process is regular so that people can create new words as they speak and be understood. Compound words are formed with a modifier-first, head-final order, as in English (compare "birdsong" and "songbird", and likewise, {{lang|eo|birdokanto}} and {{lang|eo|kantobirdo}}). Speakers may optionally insert an o between the words in a compound noun if placing them together directly without the o would make the resulting word hard to say or understand.

The different parts of speech are marked by their own suffixes: all common nouns are marked with the suffix {{lang|eo|-o}}, all adjectives with {{lang|eo|-a}}, all derived adverbs with {{lang|eo|-e}}, and all verbs except the jussive (or imperative) and infinitive end in {{lang|eo|-s}}, specifically in one of six tense and mood suffixes, such as the present tense {{lang|eo|-as}}; the jussive mood, which is tenseless, ends in {{lang|eo|-u}}. Nouns and adjectives have two cases: nominative for grammatical subjects and in general, and accusative for direct objects and (after a preposition) to indicate direction of movement.

Singular nouns used as grammatical subjects end in {{lang|eo|-o}}, plural subject nouns in {{lang|eo|-oj}} (pronounced [oi̯] like English "oy"). Singular direct object forms end in {{lang|eo|-on}}, and plural direct objects with the combination {{lang|eo|-ojn}} ([oi̯n]; rhymes with "coin"): {{lang|eo|-o}} indicates that the word is a noun, {{lang|eo|-j}} indicates the plural, and {{lang|eo|-n}} indicates the accusative (direct object) case. Adjectives agree with their nouns; their endings are singular subject {{lang|eo|-a}} ([a]; rhymes with "ha!"), plural subject {{lang|eo|-aj}} ([ai̯], pronounced "eye"), singular object {{lang|eo|-an}}, and plural object {{lang|eo|-ajn}} ([ai̯n]; rhymes with "fine"). In the past some people found the Classical Greek forms of the plural (nouns in -oj, adjectives in -aj) to be awkward, proposing instead that Italian -i be used for nouns, and that no plural be used for adjectives. These suggestions were adopted by the Ido reform.{{Cite web|url=http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/|title=Ranto (JBR Anti-Zamenhofism)|website=jbr.me.uk|access-date=2020-02-22|archive-date=February 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222074330/http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://miresperanto.com/konkurentoj/not_my_favourite.htm|title=Why Esperanto is not my favourite Artificial Language|website=miresperanto.com|access-date=2020-02-22|archive-date=December 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211053403/http://miresperanto.com/konkurentoj/not_my_favourite.htm|url-status=live}}

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The suffix {{lang|eo|-n}}, besides indicating the direct object, is used to indicate movement and a few other things as well.

The six verb inflections consist of three tenses and three moods. They are present tense {{lang|eo|-as}}, future tense {{lang|eo|-os}}, past tense {{lang|eo|-is}}, infinitive mood {{lang|eo|-i}}, conditional mood {{lang|eo|-us}} and jussive mood {{lang|eo|-u}} (used for wishes and commands). Verbs are not marked for person or number. Thus, {{lang|eo|kanti}} means "to sing", {{lang|eo|mi kantas}} means "I sing", {{lang|eo|vi kantas}} means "you sing", and {{lang|eo|ili kantas}} means "they sing".

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{{See also|Gender reform in Esperanto}}

Esperanto is sometimes accused of being inherently sexist, because the default form of some nouns is used for descriptions of men while a derived form is used for the women. This is said to retain traces of the male-dominated society of late 19th-century Europe of which Esperanto is a product.[http://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/o-vortoj/seksa_signifo.html Bertilo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019160056/http://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/o-vortoj/seksa_signifo.html |date=October 19, 2013 }} (in Esperanto){{cite web|title=Critiche all'esperanto ed alle altre lingue internazionali|url=http://parracomumangi.altervista.org/domande.htm|url-status=live|access-date=December 5, 2010|website=Parra Comu Mangi|publisher=|language=it|archive-date=July 16, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716064219/http://parracomumangi.altervista.org/Domande.htm}} These nouns are primarily titles, such as baron/baroness, and kinship terms, such as sinjoro "Mr, sir" vs. sinjorino "Ms, lady" and patro "father" vs. patrino "mother". Before the movement toward equal rights for women, this also applied to professional roles assumed to be predominantly male, such as doktoro, a holder of a doctorate (male or unspecified), versus doktorino, a female doctorate-holder. This paralleled the contemporary situation with the English suffix -ess, as in the words waiter/waitress, actor/actress, etc.

On the other hand, the pronoun ĝi ("it") may be used generically to mean he/she/they; the pronoun li ("he") is always masculine and ŝi ("she") is always female, despite some authors' arguments.{{cite book|last1=Kalocsay |first1= Kálmán|last2= Waringhien|first2= Gaston|title = Plena analiza gramatiko de Esperanto|date=1985|page=73|publisher = Universala Esperanto-Asocio|isbn = 9789290170327}} A gender-neutral singular pronoun ri has gradually become more widely used in recent years, although it is minority usage.{{cite web|url=https://lingvakritiko.com/2020/05/12/la-efektiva-uzado-de-seksneutralaj-pronomoj-lau-empiria-esplorstudo/|title=La efektiva uzado de seksneŭtralaj pronomoj laŭ empiria esplorstudo|last=Kramer|first=Markos|date=12 May 2020|website=Lingva Kritiko|access-date=30 November 2020|trans-title=The actual use of gender-neutral pronouns according to an empirical research study|language=eo|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130170049/https://lingvakritiko.com/2020/05/12/la-efektiva-uzado-de-seksneutralaj-pronomoj-lau-empiria-esplorstudo/|archive-date=30 November 2020}} The plural pronoun ili ("they") is always neutral, while nouns with the prefix ge– specifically includes both sexes, for example gesinjoroj (equivalent, depending on context, to either sinjoro kaj sinjorino "Mr. and Ms." or sinjoroj kaj sinjorinoj "Ladies and Gentlemen"), gepatroj "parents" (equivalent to patro kaj patrino "mother and father").

Listed below are some useful Esperanto words and phrases along with IPA transcriptions:

{{Quote box

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|quote = Ĉiuj homoj estas denaske liberaj kaj egalaj laŭ digno kaj rajtoj. Ili posedas racion kaj konsciencon, kaj devus konduti unu al alia en spirito de frateco.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

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|source = The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article I{{cite web |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Esperanto|url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/pages/Language.aspx?LangID=1115 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107200830/https://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/pages/Language.aspx?LangID=1115 |archive-date=January 7, 2022 |access-date=January 7, 2022 |website= |publisher=United Nations (which owns "OHCHR.org")}}{{cite news|url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights|newspaper=United Nations|access-date=January 7, 2022|archive-date=March 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316050452/https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|url-status=live}}

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The following short extract gives an idea of the character of Esperanto:Maire Mullarney Everyone's Own Language, p147, Nitobe Press, Channel Islands, 1999

• Esperanto:

:«{{lang|eo|En multaj lokoj de Ĉinio estis temploj de la drako-reĝo. Dum trosekeco oni preĝis en la temploj, ke la drako-reĝo donu pluvon al la homa mondo. Tiam drako estis simbolo de la supernatura estaĵo. Kaj pli poste, ĝi fariĝis prapatro de la plej altaj regantoj kaj simbolis la absolutan aŭtoritaton de la feŭda imperiestro. La imperiestro pretendis, ke li estas la filo de la drako. Ĉiuj liaj vivbezonaĵoj portis la nomon drako kaj estis ornamitaj per diversaj drakofiguroj. Nun ĉie en Ĉinio videblas drako-ornamentaĵoj, kaj cirkulas legendoj pri drakoj.}}»

• English translation:

:In many places in China, there were temples of the dragon-king. During times of drought, people would pray in the temples that the dragon-king would give rain to the human world. At that time the dragon was a symbol of the supernatural creature. Later on, it became the ancestor of the highest rulers and symbolized the absolute authority of a feudal emperor. The emperor claimed to be the son of the dragon. All of his personal possessions carried the name "dragon" and were decorated with various dragon figures. Now dragon decorations can be seen everywhere in China, and legends about dragons circulate.

{{Update|section|date=May 2022}}

Esperanto speakers learn the language through self-directed study, online tutorials, and correspondence courses taught by volunteers. More recently, free teaching websites like {{lang|eo|lernu!}} and {{lang|eo|Duolingo}} have become available.

Esperanto instruction is occasionally available at schools, including four primary schools in a pilot project under the supervision of the University of Manchester, and by one count at a few universities.{{cite web|url=http://uea.org/agadoj/instruado/pirlot.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120529120733/http://uea.org/agadoj/instruado/pirlot.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-05-29 |title=Esperanto en universitatoj |publisher=Uea.Org |date=April 17, 2003 |access-date=December 5, 2010}} However, outside China and Hungary, these mostly involve informal arrangements, rather than dedicated departments or state sponsorship. Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest had a department of Interlinguistics and Esperanto from 1966 to 2004, after which time instruction moved to vocational colleges; there are state examinations for Esperanto instructors.{{cite web|url=http://geocities.com/bujdosoivan/tarte.htm |title=enhavo |date=October 27, 2009 |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091027105835/http://geocities.com/bujdosoivan/tarte.htm |archive-date = October 27, 2009}}{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/bujdosoivan/okt.htm#3 |title=Elte Btk |publisher=Webcitation.org |access-date=December 5, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091021083127/http://geocities.com/bujdosoivan/okt.htm#3 |archive-date=October 21, 2009 }} Additionally, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland offers a diploma in Interlinguistics.{{cite web|url=http://amu.edu.pl/en/home/about-us/education/degree-list/full-degree-students/diploma-in-interlinguistics-esperanto|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418022807/http://amu.edu.pl/en/home/about-us/education/degree-list/full-degree-students/diploma-in-interlinguistics-esperanto |archive-date=April 18, 2012|title=Diploma in Interlinguistics (ESPERANTO)}} The Senate of Brazil passed a bill in 2009 that would make Esperanto an optional part of the curriculum in public schools, although mandatory if there is demand for it. {{As of|2015}}, the bill is still under consideration by the Chamber of Deputies.{{cite web|url=http://www.senado.gov.br/sf/atividade/materia/detalhes.asp?p_cod_mate=83989|title=Atividade Legislativa – Projetos e Matrias|publisher=Senado.gov.br|language=pt|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=May 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525231804/http://www.senado.gov.br/sf/atividade/materia/detalhes.asp?p_cod_mate=83989|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.camara.gov.br/sileg/Prop_Detalhe.asp?id=454210|title=PL 6162/2009 – Projetos de Lei e Outras Proposições – Câmara dos Deputados|publisher=Camara.gov.br|language=pt|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=February 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207055656/https://www.camara.leg.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetramitacao?idProposicao=454210|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www12.senado.gov.br/noticias/materias/2009/06/18/entidades-manifestam-apoio-a-proposta-de-incluir-ensino-de-esperanto-na-grade-de-disciplinas-da-rede-publica|title=Entidades manifestam apoio à proposta de incluir ensino de Esperanto na grade de disciplinas da rede pública|work=Senado Federal – Portal de Notícias|language=pt|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=January 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114174130/http://www12.senado.gov.br/noticias/materias/2009/06/18/entidades-manifestam-apoio-a-proposta-de-incluir-ensino-de-esperanto-na-grade-de-disciplinas-da-rede-publica|url-status=live}}

In the United States, Esperanto is notably offered as a weekly evening course at Stanford University's Bechtel International Center. Conversational Esperanto, The International Language, is a free drop-in class that is open to Stanford students and the general public on campus during the academic year. With administrative permission, Stanford students can take the class for two credits a quarter through the Linguistics Department.{{cite web |title=Esperanto – Stanford University |url=http://www.esperanto.org/stanford/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190116150045/http://www.esperanto.org/stanford/ |archive-date=January 16, 2019 |access-date=January 16, 2019 |website=esperanto.org}}

Esperanto-USA suggests that Esperanto can be learned in, at most, one quarter of the amount of time required for other languages.{{cite web |url=http://esperanto-usa.org/?q=node/77 |title=Is Esperanto four times easier to learn? |publisher=Esperanto-USA |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310081949/http://esperanto-usa.org/?q=node%2F77 |archive-date=2013-03-10}}

The Zagreb method is an Esperanto teaching method that was developed in the city of Zagreb in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a response to the unsatisfactory learning outcomes of traditional natural-language teaching techniques when used for Esperanto. Its goal was to streamline the material in order to equip learners with practical knowledge that could be put to use in as short a time frame as possible. It is now implemented and available on some of the well-known learning websites in the community.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

{{Main|Paderborn method}}

From 2006 to 2011, four primary schools in Britain, with 230 pupils, followed a course in "propaedeutic Esperanto"—that is, instruction in Esperanto to raise language awareness, and to accelerate subsequent learning of foreign languages—under the supervision of the University of Manchester. As they put it,

Many schools used to teach children the recorder, not to produce a nation of recorder players, but as a preparation for learning other instruments. [We teach] Esperanto, not to produce a nation of Esperanto-speakers, but as a preparation for learning other languages.{{cite web |url=http://www.springboard2languages.org |title=Springboard to Languages |publisher=Springboard2languages.org |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109022411/https://www.springboard2languages.org/ |url-status=live }}

The results showed that the pupils achieved enhanced metalinguistic awareness, though the study did not indicate whether a course in a language other than Esperanto would have led to similar results.{{cite web|url=http://repository.essex.ac.uk/5991/1/Repository_Roehr_2012b_EAB.pdf|author=Karen Roehr|title=The Springboard to Languages evaluation project: a summary report|publisher=University of Essex|access-date=2021-06-26|archive-date=June 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626135228/http://repository.essex.ac.uk/5991/1/Repository_Roehr_2012b_EAB.pdf|url-status=live}} Similar studies have been conducted in New Zealand,Report: Article in {{lang|eo|Enciklopedio de Esperanto}}, volume I, p.436, on the pedagogic value of Esperanto. the United States,Report: Edward Thorndike, Language Learning. Bureau of Publications of Teachers College, 1933. [http://www.interlingua.org/ Interlingua.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820025141/http://www.interlingua.org/ |date=August 20, 2008 }}Helen S. Eaton, "The Educational Value of an Artificial Language." The Modern Language Journal, No. 12, pp. 87–94 (1927). [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/mlj/newsearchres.asp?contenttype=AA&topic=Artificial%20Language&searchtype=adv Blackwellpublishing.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703210156/http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/mlj/newsearchres.asp?contenttype=AA&topic=Artificial%20Language&searchtype=adv |date=July 3, 2009 }} England,Williams, N. (1965) 'A language teaching experiment', Canadian Modern Language Review 22.1: 26–28 and Germany.Protocols of the annual November meetings in Paderborn "{{lang|eo|Laborkonferencoj: Interlingvistiko en Scienco kaj Klerigo}}" (Working conference: Interlinguistics in Science and Education), which can be obtained from the Institute of Pedagogic Cybernetics in Paderborn. Also in the works by Frank, Lobin, Geisler, and Meder. Many of these experiments' findings were compromised by unclear objectives, brief or anecdotal reporting, and a lack of methodological rigor.{{cite book |last1=Tellier |first1=Angela |title=Esperanto as a starter language for child second-language learners in the primary school |date=2013 |publisher=Esperanto UK |location=Great Britain |isbn=978-0-902756-35-9 |edition=second |pages=11–12}} However, the results of these studies were consistently favorable, and suggested that studying Esperanto before another foreign language expedites the acquisition of the other, natural language.

{{Main|Esperantujo}}

File:PS mapo 2015.png}}, the Esperanto homestay community, by 2015]]

Esperanto is by far the most widely spoken constructed language in the world.{{cite book|last=Byram |first=Michael |title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning |year=2001 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-33286-9 |page=464 }} Speakers are most numerous in Europe and East Asia, especially in urban areas, where they often form Esperanto clubs.{{Cite book|last=Sikosek|first=Ziko M.|title=Esperanto Sen Mitoj|trans-title=Esperanto without Myths|edition=2nd|place=Antwerp|publisher=Flandra Esperanto-Ligo|date=2003|lang=eo}} Esperanto is particularly prevalent in the northern and central countries of Europe; in China, Korea, Japan, and Iran within Asia; in Brazil, and the United States in the Americas;{{e25|epo}} and in Togo in Africa.{{cite web|url=http://pagesperso-orange.fr/eric.coffinet/Afrika_Agado.html |title=Afrika Agado |language=eo|publisher=Pagesperso-orange.fr |access-date=December 5, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109212420/http://pagesperso-orange.fr/eric.coffinet/Afrika_Agado.html |archive-date=January 9, 2009}}

Countering a common criticism against Esperanto, the statistician Svend Nielsen has found no significant correlation between the number of Esperanto speakers and the similarity of a given national native language to Esperanto. He concludes that Esperanto tends to be more popular in rich countries with widespread Internet access and a tendency to contribute more to science and culture. Linguistic diversity within a country was found to have no, or perhaps a slightly reductive, correlation with Esperanto popularity.{{cite web|url=https://svendvnielsen.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/explaining-the-density-of-esperanto-speakers-with-language-and-politics/|title=Explaining the density of Esperanto speakers with language and politics|author=Svend Vendelbo Nielsen|publisher=Kalkulinda|date=September 24, 2017|access-date=October 7, 2017|archive-date=October 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007173441/https://svendvnielsen.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/explaining-the-density-of-esperanto-speakers-with-language-and-politics/|url-status=live}}

An estimate of the number of Esperanto speakers was made by Sidney S. Culbert, a retired psychology professor at the University of Washington and a longtime Esperantist, who tracked down and tested Esperanto speakers in sample areas in dozens of countries over a period of twenty years. Culbert concluded that between one and two million people speak Esperanto at Foreign Service Level 3, "professionally proficient" (able to communicate moderately complex ideas without hesitation, and to follow speeches, radio broadcasts, etc.).Culbert, Sidney S. [http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/ Three letters about his method for estimating the number of Esperanto speakers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514105444/http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/ |date=May 14, 2011 }}, scanned and HTMLized by David Wolff Culbert's estimate was not made for Esperanto alone, but formed part of his listing of estimates for all languages of more than one million speakers, published annually in the World Almanac and Book of Facts. Culbert's most detailed account of his methodology is found in a 1989 letter to David Wolff.{{cite web |url=http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/culbert-methods.html |title=Number of Esperantists (methods) |publisher=Panix.com |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=November 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120200544/http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/culbert-methods.html |url-status=live }} Since Culbert never published detailed intermediate results for particular countries and regions, it is difficult to independently gauge the accuracy of his results.

In the Almanac, his estimates for numbers of language speakers were rounded to the nearest million, thus the number of Esperanto speakers is shown as two million. This latter figure appears in Ethnologue. Assuming that this figure is accurate, that means that about 0.03% of the world's population speaks the language. Although it does not meet Zamenhof's goal of a universal language, it still represents a level of popularity unmatched by any other constructed language.

Marcus Sikosek (now Ziko van Dijk) has challenged this figure of 1.6 million as exaggerated. He estimated that even if Esperanto speakers were evenly distributed, assuming one million Esperanto speakers worldwide would lead one to expect about 180 in the city of Cologne. Van Dijk finds only 30 fluent speakers in that city, and similarly smaller-than-expected figures in several other places thought to have a larger-than-average concentration of Esperanto speakers. He also notes that there are a total of about 20,000 members of the various Esperanto organizations (other estimates are higher). Though there are undoubtedly many Esperanto speakers who are not members of any Esperanto organization, he thinks it unlikely that there are fifty times more speakers than organization members.

In 1996, Finnish linguist Jouko Lindstedt, an expert on native-born Esperanto speakers, presented the following schemeLindstedt, Jouko. "Re: {{lang|eo|Kiom?}}" (posting). [http://www.helsinki.fi/~jslindst/denask-l.html DENASK-L@helsinki.fi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507110433/http://www.helsinki.fi/%7Ejslindst/denask-l.html |date=May 7, 2011 }}, April 22, 1996. to show the overall proportions of language capabilities within the Esperanto community:

• 1,000 have Esperanto as their native family language.
• 10,000 speak it fluently.
• 100,000 can use it actively.
• One million understand a large amount passively.
• Ten million have studied it to some extent at some time.

In 2017, doctoral student Svend Nielsen estimated around 63,000 Esperanto speakers worldwide, taking into account association memberships, user-generated data from Esperanto websites and census statistics. This number, however, was disputed by statistician Sten Johansson, who questioned the reliability of the source data and highlighted a wide margin of error, the latter point with which Nielsen agrees. Both have stated, however, that this new number is likely more realistic than some earlier projections.

In the absence of Culbert's detailed sampling data, or any other census data, it is impossible to state the number of speakers with certainty. According to the website of the Universal Esperanto Association:

Numbers of textbooks sold and membership of local societies put "the number of people with some knowledge of the language in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions".{{cite web |url=http://uea.org/info/en/ghisdate_pri_esperanto |title=An Update on Esperanto |publisher=Universala Esperanto‑Asocio |archive-date=2016-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209111559/http://uea.org/info/en/ghisdate_pri_esperanto |url-status=live |location=New York |quote=Based on the number of textbooks sold and membership ..., the number of people with some knowledge of Esperanto is in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions. ... In 1954 ... UNESCO ... recognised that the achievements of Esperanto match UNESCO's aims and ideals, and official relations were established between UNESCO and UEA. }}

{{Main|Native Esperanto speakers}}

Native Esperanto speakers ({{Langx|eo|label=eo|text=denaskuloj|lit=person from/since birth}}) have learned the language from birth from Esperanto-speaking parents.{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=epo |title=Ethnologue report for language code:epo |publisher=Ethnologue.com |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=August 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822095633/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=epo |url-status=live }} This usually happens when Esperanto is the chief or only common language in an international family, but sometimes occurs in a family of Esperanto speakers who often use the language.{{cite journal

|author=Jouko Lindstedt

|title=Native Esperanto as a Test Case for Natural Language, as part of "A man of measure: Festschrift in honour of Fred Karlsson on his 60th birthday"

|publisher=University of Helsinki—Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures

|date=January 2006

|url=http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/julkaisut/SKY2006_1/1FK60.1.5.LINDSTEDT.pdf

|journal=SKY Journal of Linguistics |volume=19

|access-date=May 4, 2007

|archive-date=July 16, 2011

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716154438/http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/julkaisut/SKY2006_1/1FK60.1.5.LINDSTEDT.pdf

|url-status=live

}} In 2004, an estimated 2,000 children in about a thousand families use Esperanto as one of their languages.{{cite journal |last1=Corsetti |first1=Renato |authorlink=Renato Corsetti|last2= Pinto|first2=Maria A.|last3=Tolomeo|first3=Maria |date=2004 |title=Regularizing the regular: The phenomenon of overregularization in Esperanto-speaking children |url= https://unstable.nl/andreas/ai/psy/s3.pdf|journal=Language Problems & Language Planning |volume=28 |issue=3 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |pages=261–282 |doi=10.1075/lplp.28.3.04cor |hdl=11573/401219 |access-date=}} Citing this research, the 2022 edition of Ethnologue gives 1,000 first language users.

However, native speakers do not occupy an authoritative position in the Esperanto community, as they would in other language communities. This presents a challenge to linguists, whose usual source of grammaticality and meanings are native speakers.{{Cite journal|last=Miner|first=Ken|date=2011-02-08|title=The impossibility of an Esperanto linguistics / La neebleco de priesperanta lingvoscienco|url=https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/inkoj/article/view/838|journal=InKoj. Interlingvistikaj Kajeroj |language=it|volume=2|issue=1|pages=26–51|doi=10.13130/2037-4550/838|issn=2037-4550|quote=The task of linguistics is to reveal the principles which relate sentences to meanings. One cannot work out these principles if one does not know (1) the grammatical sentences of the language and (2) their meanings. Due to absence of native speakers (the usual source of grammaticality and of meanings), sentence-meanings and grammaticality in Esperanto are radically imprecise in comparison with those of ethnic languages. Due to this imprecision it is not possible to construct linguistic arguments regarding Esperanto: esperantology [sic] is possible, but not a linguistics of Esperanto.}}{{Cite web|last=Miner|first=Ken|date=2015-08-04|title=Esperanto: some observations of a speaker-linguist|url=https://hiphilangsci.net/2015/08/05/esperanto-some-observations-of-a-speaker-linguist/|access-date=2022-02-25|website=History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences|language=en}}

File:Uk 2008 libroservo.JPG, Rotterdam 2008]]

{{Main|Esperanto culture|Esperanto literature|Esperanto film|Esperanto music}}

Esperantists participate in an international culture, including a large body of original as well as translated literature. There are more than 25,000 Esperanto books, both originals and translations, as well as several regularly distributed Esperanto magazines. In 2013, a museum about Esperanto opened in China.{{cite web|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/culture/2013-11/18/c_132897910.htm|title=China's first Esperanto museum opens|agency=Xinhua News Agency|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208002954/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/culture/2013-11/18/c_132897910.htm|archive-date=December 8, 2013|url-status=dead}} Esperantists use the language for free accommodations with Esperantists in 92 countries using the {{lang|eo|Pasporta Servo}} or to develop pen pals through {{Interlanguage link|Esperanto Koresponda Servo|eo}}.{{cite web |url=http://esperantofre.com/eks/ |title=Esperanto Koresponda Servo |date=June 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111223117/http://esperantofre.com/eks/ |archive-date=2016-01-11 |url-status=live |first=Enrique |last=Ellemberg |publisher=Esperanto Fremont |location=Fremont, California |orig-year=1st pub. 1996}}

Every year, Esperantists meet for the World Congress of Esperanto ({{lang|eo|Universala Kongreso de Esperanto}}).Ziko van Dijk. {{lang|eo|Sed homoj kun homoj: Universalaj Kongresoj de Esperanto 1905–2005}}. Rotterdam: UEA, 2005.{{cite web |author=Szilvási László |url=http://www.eventoj.hu/ |title=International Esperanto meetings |publisher=Eventoj.hu |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=February 3, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010203174500/http://www.eventoj.hu/ |url-status=live }} World congresses have been held in different countries every year, except during the two World Wars, and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic (when it was moved to an online-only event). Since the Second World War, they have been attended by an average of more than 2,000 people, and up to 6,000 people at the most.

Historically, much music has been written in the language such as {{lang|eo|Kaj Tiel Plu}}.{{cite web|url=http://www.musicexpress.com.br/artisto.asp?Artista=135#musica=Adiaux%20Birdeto%20Mia|title=musicexpress.com.br|publisher=Musicexpress.com.br|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=October 7, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007083335/http://www.musicexpress.com.br/artisto.asp?Artista=135#musica=Adiaux%20Birdeto%20Mia|url-status=dead}} There is also a variety of classical and semi-classical choral music, both original and translated, as well as large ensemble music that includes voices singing Esperanto texts. Lou Harrison, who incorporated styles and instruments from many world cultures in his music, used Esperanto titles and/or texts in several of his works, most notably {{lang|eo|La Koro-Sutro}} (1973). David Gaines used Esperanto poems as well as an excerpt from a speech by Zamenhof for his Symphony No. One (Esperanto) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1994–98). He wrote original Esperanto text for his {{lang|eo|Povas plori mi ne plu}} (I Can Cry No Longer) for unaccompanied SATB choir (1994).

There are also shared holidays, such as Zamenhof Day (also known as Esperanto Book Day, December 15) and Esperanto Day (July 26).{{cite web |url=http://www.linguistic-rights.org/zamenhof-tago/2017/Zamenhof_Day_Esperanto_Book_Day_15_December_2017_EN.html |title=Zamenhof-Day / Esperanto Book Day, 15 December |first=Stefano |last=Keller |translator-first=Brian |translator-last=Moon |publisher=Universal Esperanto Association |access-date=2018-12-14 |df=dmy-all}}

Proponents of Esperanto, such as Humphrey Tonkin, a professor at the University of Hartford, argue that Esperanto is "culturally neutral by design, as it was intended to be a facilitator between cultures, not to be the carrier of any one national culture". The late Scottish Esperanto author William Auld wrote extensively on the subject, arguing that Esperanto is "the expression of a common human culture, unencumbered by national frontiers. Thus it is considered a culture on its own."{{Cite book|last=Auld|first=William|title=La Fenomeno Esperanto|trans-title=The Esperanto Phenomenon|place=Rotterdam|publisher=Universala Esperanto-Asocio|date=1988|language=eo|isbn=978-92-9017-037-2}}

Several Esperanto associations also advance Esperanto education, and aim to preserve its culture and heritage.Update 79, oct. 2017, p. 2, Esperanto Association of Britain (EAB) Poland added Esperanto to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2014.[http://niematerialne.nid.pl/Aktualnosci/archiwum/folder%20krajowa%20lista%20niematerialne%20EN.pdf Polish Intangible Cultural Heritage List] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303105618/http://niematerialne.nid.pl/Aktualnosci/archiwum/folder%20krajowa%20lista%20niematerialne%20EN.pdf |date=March 3, 2018 }}, Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa (Polish national heritage institute), pp. 14-15, 2014.

{{Main|Esperanto authors}}

{{Div col|colwidth=13em}}

• Muztar Abbasi (translated the Quran into Esperanto)
• William Auld
• Julio Baghy
• Kazimierz Bein ({{lang|eo|Kabe}})
• Marjorie Boulton
• Jorge Camacho
• Fernando de Diego (mainly translations)
• Vasili Eroshenko
• Jean Forge
• Antoni Grabowski
• Kálmán Kalocsay
• Anna Löwenstein
• Kenji Miyazawa (translated his pre-existing works into Esperanto)
• Nikolai Nekrasov
• István Nemere
• Claude Piron
• Edmond Privat
• Frederic Pujulà i Vallès
• Baldur Ragnarsson
• Reto Rossetti
• Raymond Schwartz
• Tibor Sekelj
• Tivadar Soros
• Spomenka Štimec
• Éva Tófalvy
• Vladimir Varankin
• Gaston Waringhien
• L. L. Zamenhof
• Þórbergur Þórðarson

{{Div col end}}

{{Main|Esperanto in popular culture}}

In the futuristic novel Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson, Esperanto is presented as the predominant language of the world, much as Latin is the language of the Church.{{cite book |last1=Bensen |first1=Robert Hugh |title=Lord of the World |date=1907 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |location=New York, USA |page=125 |edition=1917 |url=https://archive.org/stream/lordoftheworld00bensrich#page/125/mode/2up |access-date=August 17, 2020}} A reference to Esperanto appears in the science-fiction story War with the Newts by Karel Čapek, published in 1936. As part of a passage on what language the salamander-looking creatures with human cognitive ability should learn, it is noted that "...in the Reform schools, Esperanto was taught as the medium of communication." (p. 206).War with the Newts. Karel Čapek. 1936. The Penguin Group. Edition published in 2010 by Penguin Classics. Translated by M. & R. Weatherall.

Esperanto has been used in many films and novels. The Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator (1940) showed Jewish ghetto shop signs in Esperanto. Two full-length feature films have been produced with dialogue entirely in Esperanto: {{lang|eo|Angoroj}}, in 1964, and Incubus, a 1965 B-movie horror film which is also notable for starring William Shatner shortly before he began working on Star Trek. In Captain Fantastic (2016) there is a dialogue in Esperanto. The 1994 film Street Fighter contains Esperanto dialogue spoken by the character Sagat. Finally, Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón has publicly shown his fascination for Esperanto,{{Cite web|url=http://esperantodocumentary.com/blog/an-interview-with-director-alfonso-cuaron.html|title=The Universal Language {{pipe}} An Interview with Director Alfonso Cuarón|website=esperantodocumentary.com|access-date=April 6, 2019|archive-date=February 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221100221/http://esperantodocumentary.com/blog/an-interview-with-director-alfonso-cuaron.html|url-status=live}} going as far as naming his film production company Esperanto Filmoj ("Esperanto Films").

File:Bertalan Farkas (Author - Rudolf Csiba).jpg, the first Esperantist in space]]

In 1921 the French Academy of Sciences recommended using Esperanto for international scientific communication. A few scientists and mathematicians, such as Maurice Fréchet (mathematics), John C. Wells (linguistics), Helmar Frank (pedagogy and cybernetics), and Nobel laureate Reinhard Selten (economics) have published part of their work in Esperanto. Frank and Selten were among the founders of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino, sometimes called the "Esperanto University", where Esperanto is the primary language of teaching and administration.{{cite web |url=http://www.liberafolio.org/2011/akademio-internacia-de-la-sciencoj-rande-de-pereo |title=Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj rande de pereo |date=September 5, 2011 |work=Libera Folio |language=eo |access-date=July 1, 2012 |archive-date=November 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101071109/http://www.liberafolio.org/2011/akademio-internacia-de-la-sciencoj-rande-de-pereo |url-status=live }}{{cite book |title=AIS – La Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino / Die Internationale Akademie der Wissenschaften San Marino|last=Frank |first=Helmar |author-link=Helmar Frank |author2=Fössmeier, Reinhard |year=2000 |publisher=Institut für Kybernetik |isbn=978-3-929853-12-4 |page=449 }}

Esperanto business groups have been active for many years. Research conducted in the 1920s by the French Chamber of Commerce and reported in The New York Times suggested that Esperanto seemed to be the best business language.{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70817F8395810738DDDAF0994DA405B818EF1D3|title=PARIS BUSINESS MEN WOULD USE ESPERANTO; Chamber of Commerce Committee Finds It Useful as a Code in International Trade.|work=The New York Times|date=February 16, 1921|access-date=October 22, 2013|archive-date=October 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029203028/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70817F8395810738DDDAF0994DA405B818EF1D3|url-status=live}}

Zamenhof had three goals, as he wrote in 1887: to create an easy language, to create a language ready to use "whether the language be universally accepted or not" and to find some means to get many people to learn the language. So Zamenhof's intention was not only to create an easy-to-learn language to foster peace and international understanding as a general language, but also to create a language for immediate use by a (small) language community. Esperanto was to serve as an international auxiliary language, that is, as a universal second language, not to replace ethnic languages. This goal was shared by Zamenhof among Esperanto speakers at the beginning of the movement.{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jul26/unua-libro-en-esperanto-first-book-esperanto/ |title=1887: Unua Libro en Esperanto (First Book in Esperanto, see introduction) |website=NationalGeographic.org |access-date=October 19, 2017 |archive-date=October 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020135352/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jul26/unua-libro-en-esperanto-first-book-esperanto/ |url-status=dead }} Later, Esperanto speakers began to see the language and the culture that had grown up around it as ends in themselves, even if Esperanto is never adopted by the United Nations or other international organizations.

Esperanto speakers who want to see Esperanto adopted officially or on a large scale worldwide are commonly called {{lang|eo|finvenkistoj}}, from {{lang|eo|fina venko}}, meaning "final victory".{{cite web |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/405278671 |title=Esperanto: A surprising 2 million speakers worldwide get their words' worth; from the 'planned language' created in the 19th century |work=The Boston Globe |date=May 12, 1999 |page=F01 |first=Mark |last=Feeney |author-link=Mark Feeney |issn=0743-1791 |url-access=subscription |quote=Esperantists speak of the fina venko, or 'final victory'. The concept is that eventually every moderately educated person ... will know Esperanto enough to ... order a cup of coffee ... |access-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-date=June 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623090654/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/doc/405278671.html |id={{ProQuest|405278671}} |url-status=live }}

There are two kinds of finvenkismo: desubismo aims to spread Esperanto between ordinary people (desube, from below) to form a steadily growing community of Esperanto speakers, while desuprismo aims to act from above (desupre), beginning with politicians.

Zamenhof considered the first way more plausible, as "for such affairs as ours, governments come with their approval and help usually only when everything is completely ready".[http://www.steloj.de/esperanto/paroloj/kongr6a.html Parolado antaŭ la Sesa Kongreso Esperantista en Washington en la 15a de aŭgusto 1910] (Speech before the Sixth Esperantist Congress in Washington, 15 August 1910): "La celo, por kiu ni laboras, povas esti atingita per du vojoj: aŭ per laborado de homoj privataj, t.e. de la popolaj amasoj, aŭ per dekreto de la registaroj. Plej kredeble nia afero estos atingita per la vojo unua, ĉar al tia afero, kiel nia, la registaroj venas kun sia sankcio kaj helpo ordinare nur tiam, kiam ĉio estas jam tute preta." {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226205843/http://www.steloj.de/esperanto/paroloj/kongr6a.html |date=February 26, 2021 }}

{{anchor|raŭmistoj}}Those who focus on the intrinsic value of the language are commonly called {{lang|eo|raŭmistoj}}, from Rauma, Finland, where a declaration on the short-term improbability of the {{lang|eo|fina venko}} and the value of Esperanto culture was made at the International Youth Congress in 1980.{{cite web |url=http://esperanto-ondo.ru/H-silf55.htm |title=Kion signifas Raŭmismo |work=La Ondo de Esperanto |year=1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020530131146/http://esperanto.org/Ondo/H-silf55.htm |archive-date=2002-05-30 |url-status=live |first=Giorgio |last=Silfer |language=eo |location=Kaliningrad, Russia |issue=5 (55)}} However the "Manifesto de Raŭmo" clearly mentions the intention to further spread the language: "We want to spread Esperanto to put into effect its positive values more and more, step by step"."Ni celas disvastigi Esperanton por pli kaj pli, iom post iom realigi ĝiajn pozitivajn valorojn". [http://www.esperantio.net/index.php?id=10 Manifesto de Raŭmo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627094814/http://www.esperantio.net/index.php?id=10 |date=June 27, 2016 }}

In 1996 the Prague Manifesto was adopted at the annual congress of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA); it was subscribed by individual participants and later by other Esperanto speakers. More recently, language-learning apps like Duolingo and Amikumu have helped to increase the amount of fluent speakers of Esperanto, and find others in their area to speak the language with.

{{Main|Esperanto symbols}}

{{multiple image

| align = right

| header = Esperanto symbols

| direction = vertical

| width = 150

| image1 = Flag of Esperanto.svg

| caption1 = The flag of Esperanto

| image2 = Esperanto star.svg

| caption2 = The {{lang|eo|verda stelo}}

| image3 = Jubilea simbolo.svg

| caption3 = The {{lang|eo|jubilea simbolo}}

}}

The earliest flag, and the one most commonly used today, features a green five-pointed star against a white canton, upon a field of green. It was proposed to Zamenhof by Richard Geoghegan, author of the first Esperanto textbook for English speakers, in 1887. The flag was approved in 1905 by delegates to the first conference of Esperantists at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The green star on white ({{lang|eo|la verda stelo}}) is also used by itself as a round (buttonhole, etc.) emblem by many esperantists, among other reasons to enhance their visibility outside the Esperanto world.

A version with an E superimposed over the green star is sometimes seen.

Other variants include that for Christian Esperantists, with a white Christian cross superimposed upon the green star, and that for Leftists, with the color of the field changed from green to red.{{cite web|url=http://flagspot.net/flags/qy-eo.html|title=Flags of Esperanto|publisher=Flagspot.net|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=February 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220034212/https://flagspot.net/flags/qy-eo.html|url-status=live}}

In 1987, a second flag design was chosen in a contest organized by the UEA celebrating the first centennial of the language.

It featured a white background with two stylised curved "E"s facing each other.

Dubbed the {{lang|eo|jubilea simbolo}} (jubilee symbol),{{cite web|title=Esperanto flag: The jubilee symbol|url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/qy-eo.html#jub|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070831011723/https://www.fotw.info/flags/qy-eo.html#jub|archive-date=2007-08-31|access-date=December 5, 2010|website=Flags of the World}} it attracted criticism from some Esperantists, who dubbed it the {{lang|eo|melono}} (melon) for its elliptical shape.

It is still in use, though to a lesser degree than the traditional symbol, known as the {{lang|eo|verda stelo}} (green star).{{cite web|title=Esperanto flag|url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/qy-eo.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070831011723/https://www.fotw.info/flags/qy-eo.html|archive-date=2007-08-31|access-date=December 5, 2010|website=Flags of the World}}

Esperanto has been placed in many proposed political situations. The most popular of these is the Europe–Democracy–Esperanto, which aims to establish Esperanto as the official language of the European Union. In 2005, Swiss economist François Grin published a report at the request of the Haut conseil de l'éducation that found that the use of English as the lingua franca within the European Union costs billions annually and significantly benefits English-speaking countries financially. The report considered a scenario where Esperanto would be the lingua franca, and found that it would have many advantages, particularly economically speaking, as well as ideologically.{{citation |last=Grin |first=François |author-link=François Grin|year=2005 |title=L'enseignement des langues étrangères comme politique publique |publisher=Haut Conseil de L'Évaluation de L'École |language=fr |url=https://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapports-publics/054000678.pdf |access-date=June 9, 2019 |archive-date=December 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222173114/https://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapports-publics/054000678.pdf |url-status=live }}.

Left-wing currents exist in the wider Esperanto world, mostly organized through the Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda founded by French theorist Eugène Lanti.{{Cite web|title=[SAT - Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda]|url=http://satesperanto.org/|access-date=2020-09-15|website=satesperanto.org|archive-date=August 20, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820070649/http://www.satesperanto.org/-SAT-Kulturo-.html|url-status=live}} Other notable Esperanto socialists include Nikolai Nekrasov and Vladimir Varankin, both of whom were put to death in October 1938 during the Stalinist repressions.{{Cite web|title=Hopeful Anniversary {{!}} Hamodia Jewish and Israel News|url=https://hamodia.com/columns/hopeful-anniversary/|access-date=2020-09-15|website=Hamodia|language=en|archive-date=November 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121143854/https://hamodia.com/columns/hopeful-anniversary/|url-status=dead}} Nekrasov was accused of being "an organizer and leader of a fascist, espionage, terrorist organization of Esperantists."

The Oomoto religion in Japan encourages the use of Esperanto among its followers and includes Zamenhof as one of its deified spirits.{{cite web |url=http://www.oomoto.or.jp/Esperanto/index-es.html |title=The Oomoto Esperanto portal |publisher=Oomoto.or.jp |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=August 17, 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817221252/http://www.oomoto.or.jp/Esperanto/index-es.html |url-status=live }}

The Baháʼí Faith encourages the use of an auxiliary international language. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá praised the ideal of Esperanto, and there was an affinity between Esperantists and Baháʼís during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

On February 12, 1913, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá gave a talk to the Paris Esperanto Society, stating:

Now, praise be to God that Dr. Zamenhof has invented the Esperanto language. It has all the potential qualities of becoming the international means of communication. All of us must be grateful and thankful to him for this noble effort; for in this way he has served his fellowmen well. With untiring effort and self-sacrifice on the part of its devotees Esperanto will become universal. Therefore every one of us must study this language and spread it as far as possible so that day by day it may receive a broader recognition, be accepted by all nations and governments of the world, and become a part of the curriculum in all the public schools. I hope that Esperanto will be adopted as the language of all the future international conferences and congresses, so that all people need acquire only two languages—one their own tongue and the other the international language. Then perfect union will be established between all the people of the world. Consider how difficult it is today to communicate with various nations. If one studies fifty languages one may yet travel through a country and not know the language. Therefore I hope that you will make the utmost effort, so that this language of Esperanto may be widely spread.{{cite book |last= Esslemont |first= J.E. |author-link= John Esslemont |year= 1980 |orig-year= 1923 |title= Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era |edition= 5th |publisher= Baháʼí Publishing Trust |location= Wilmette, Illinois, USA |isbn= 0-87743-160-4 |page= 165 |chapter= Universal Language |chapter-url= http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/o/BNE/bne-135.html |url= http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/je/BNE/ |access-date= June 6, 2017 |archive-date= May 22, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210522110030/https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/je/BNE/ |url-status= live }}

Lidia Zamenhof, daughter of L. L. Zamenhof, became a Baháʼí around 1925.{{cite encyclopedia |last= Smith |first= Peter |author-link= Peter Smith (historian) |encyclopedia= A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith |title= Esperanto |year= 2000 |publisher= Oneworld Publications |location= Oxford |isbn= 1-85168-184-1 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/134 134–135] |url= https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/134 }} James Ferdinand Morton Jr., an early member of the Baháʼí Faith in Greater Boston, was vice-president of the Esperanto League for North America.{{cite web | last = Katz | first = Esther | author-link = Esther | title = Morton, Jr., James Ferdinand (1870–1941) | work = The Margaret Sanger Papers Electronic Edition: Margaret Sanger and The Woman Rebel, 1914–1916 | publisher = Model Editions Partnership | year = 1999 | url = http://wyatt.elasticbeanstalk.com/mep/MS/xml/bmortonj.html | access-date = June 6, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171011115850/http://wyatt.elasticbeanstalk.com/mep/MS/xml/bmortonj.html | archive-date = October 11, 2017 | url-status = dead }} Ehsan Yarshater, the founding editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, notes how as a child in Iran he learned Esperanto and that when his mother was visiting Haifa on a Baháʼí pilgrimage he wrote her a letter in Persian as well as Esperanto.{{cite web |url= http://www.payvand.com/news/12/aug/1166.html |title= Interview with Professor Ehsan Yarshater, the Founder and Editor of Encyclopedia Iranica |date= March 25, 2016 |website= Payvand News |access-date= May 22, 2017 |archive-date= September 21, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120921061937/http://www.payvand.com/news/12/aug/1166.html |url-status= live }} At the request of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Agnes Baldwin Alexander became an early advocate of Esperanto and used it to spread the Baháʼí teachings at meetings and conferences in Japan.

Today there exists an active sub-community of Baháʼí Esperantists and various volumes of Baháʼí literature have been translated into Esperanto. In 1973, the Baháʼí Esperanto-League for active Baháʼí supporters of Esperanto was founded.

In 1908, spiritist Camilo Chaigneau wrote an article named "Spiritism and Esperanto" in the periodic La Vie d'Outre-Tombe recommending the use of Esperanto in a "central magazine" for all spiritists and Esperantists. Esperanto then became actively promoted by spiritists, at least in Brazil, initially by Ismael Gomes Braga and František Lorenz; the latter is known in Brazil as Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz, and was a pioneer of both spiritist and Esperantist movements in this country.{{Cite web|url=http://www.espirito.org.br/portal/artigos/geae/o-esp-e-o-esperanto.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091216040313/http://www.espirito.org.br/portal/artigos/geae/o-esp-e-o-esperanto.html|url-status=dead|title=O Espiritismo e o Esperanto (Spiritism and Esperanto)|archive-date=December 16, 2009}} The Brazilian Spiritist Federation publishes Esperanto coursebooks, translations of Spiritism's basic books, and encourages Spiritists to become Esperantists.{{cite web|url=http://www.math.uu.se/esperanto/207pardue.pdf#search=%22esperanto%20%2Breligion%22|title=Uma só língua, uma só bandeira, um só pastor: Spiritism and Esperanto in Brazil by David Pardue|format=PDF|publisher=University of Kansas Libraries|access-date=August 26, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923050241/http://www.math.uu.se/esperanto/207pardue.pdf#search=%22esperanto%20%2Breligion%22|archive-date=September 23, 2006}}

William T. Stead, a famous spiritualist and occultist in the United Kingdom, co-founded the first Esperanto club in the U.K.{{cite book |last1=Garvía Soto |first1=Roberto |title=Esperanto and its rivals: the struggle for an international language |date=2015 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0812291278 }}{{rp|113}}

{{Broader|Theosophy}}

The {{lang|eo|Teozofia Esperanta Ligo|italics=yes}} (Theosophical Esperantist League) was formed in 1911, and the organization's journal, Espero Teozofia, was published from 1913 to 1928.{{rp|113}}

{{Main article|Bible translations into Esperanto}}

The first translation of the Bible into Esperanto was a translation of the Tanakh (or Old Testament) done by L. L. Zamenhof. The translation was reviewed and compared with other languages' translations by a group of British clergy and scholars before its publication at the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1910. In 1926 this was published along with a New Testament translation, in an edition commonly called the "{{lang|eo|Londona Biblio}}". In the 1960s, the {{lang|eo|Internacia Asocio de Bibliistoj kaj Orientalistoj}} tried to organize a new, ecumenical Esperanto Bible version.{{cite web|url=http://home.att.net/~el_sxadaj/kbiblio.htm |title=La Sankta Biblio – "Londona text" |access-date=August 26, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061222215537/http://home.att.net/~el_sxadaj/kbiblio.htm |archive-date=December 22, 2006 }} Since then, the Dutch Remonstrant pastor Gerrit Berveling has translated the Deuterocanonical or apocryphal books, in addition to new translations of the Gospels, some of the New Testament epistles, and some books of the Tanakh. These have been published in various separate booklets, or serialized in {{lang|eo|Dia Regno}}, but the Deuterocanonical books have appeared in recent editions of the Londona Biblio.

File:Esperanto-meso La Habana 2010 (Peter Knauer).jpg

Christian Esperanto organizations and publications include:

• After a failed attempt to start a Catholic Esperanto organization, Emile Peltier, a parish priest near Tours, France, published the first issue of Espero Katolika (Catholic Hope) in 1902. A year after Peltier's death, the International Union of Catholic Esperantists (Internacia Katolika Unuiĝo Esperantista, IKUE) was formed in 1910. Father Max Metzger founded the World Peace League of the White Cross in 1916 and the German Catholics' Peace Association in 1919, both of which used Esperanto as their working language.{{Cite journal |last=Lins |first=Ulrich |date=1971 |title=Max Joseph Metzger |journal=Kontakto |volume=2 |pages=16–17}} Two Roman Catholic popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, regularly used Esperanto in their multilingual {{lang|la|Urbi et Orbi}} blessings at Easter and Christmas each year since Easter 1994.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eraonlus.org/en/78-era-news/6356/christmas-2010-benedict-xvi-and-radicals-the-use-of-esperanto-remains-to-be-the-only-thing-in-common.html|title=Linguistic Democracy – Christmas 2010, Benedict XVI and Radicals: the use of Esperanto remains to be the only thing in common|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215214713/https://www.eraonlus.org/en/78-era-news/6356/christmas-2010-benedict-xvi-and-radicals-the-use-of-esperanto-remains-to-be-the-only-thing-in-common.html|archive-date=February 15, 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sahiIBTUcC4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/sahiIBTUcC4| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=THE POPE BLESSING IN ESPERANTO.avi|website=YouTube| date=April 9, 2012}}{{cbignore}}
• In 1911, The International League of Christian Esperantists ({{lang|eo|Kristana Esperantista Ligo Internacia|italics=yes}}, KELI) was founded during the Universal Congress of Esperanto in Antwerp. The founder, Paul Hübner (1881-1970), was an early supporter of the Nazi movement, a fact which disenfranchised liberal and Jewish members, thus severely limiting the growth of the KELI during the first half of the 20th century. KELI's bimonthly interdenominational magazine, Dia Regno, continues to be published and is reportedly made available to readers in 48 countries. They have also published several Esperanto hymnals including the 1971 Adoru Kantante (Worship by Singing) and Tero kaj Ĉielo Kantu (Earth and Heaven Sing).{{Cite web |title=League of Christian Esperantists International |url=http://keli.chez.com/keli_en.htm |access-date=May 20, 2022 |website=KELI kaj Dia Regno}}
• The Quaker Esperanto Society ({{lang|eo|Kvakera Esperanto-Societo|italics=yes}}, KES) was established in 1921{{cite web|url=http://www.noos.ch/kes/index.php?pg=2&lg=en|title=KES – Quakers|website=noos.ch|access-date=November 1, 2016|archive-date=November 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103215830/http://www.noos.ch/kes/index.php?pg=2&lg=en|url-status=live}} and described in multiple issues of "The Friend"{{cite journal

|journal=The Friend

|title=Esperanto Lives On

|author=Eric Walker

|date=May 27, 2005

}}{{Cite journal |last=Phillips |first=Brian W. G. |date=June 15, 1968 |title=Beyond Babel to a World Language |url=https://www.friendsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/emember/downloads/1968/HC12-50432.pdf |journal=The Friend |pages=302}} Advices and Queries (Konsiloj kaj Demandoj) and several other Quaker texts have been translated.{{Cite web |title=A few texts in Esperanto about Quakerism |url=http://www.noos.ch/kes/index.php?pg=6&lg=en |website=Kvakera Esperanto-Societo}} Well-known Esperantists who were also Quakers include authors and historians, Edmond Privat and Montagu Christie Butler.

• The first Christadelphian publications in Esperanto were published in 1910.Botten J. The Captive Conscience 2002 p.110 re. Esperanto speaking Christadelphians in Tsarist Russia.{{cite web |url=http://www.biblio-misio.org |title=Internacia Biblio-Misio |publisher=Biblio-misio.org |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110625154003/http://www.biblio-misio.org/ |archive-date=2011-06-25 |url-status=dead }}
• The Book of Mormon has been partially translated into Esperanto, although the translation has not been officially endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.{{cite web |title=ELEKTITAJ ĈAPITROJ EL LA LIBRO DE MORMON |url=http://pemanoj.blogspot.com/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006212431/http://pemanoj.blogspot.com/ |archive-date=October 6, 2017 |access-date=October 6, 2017}} There exists a group of Latter-day Saint Esperantists who distribute church literature in the language.{{cite web |title=Por-Esperanta Mormonaro |url=http://poresperantamormonaro.weebly.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921230312/http://poresperantamormonaro.weebly.com/ |archive-date=September 21, 2018 |access-date=September 21, 2018 |website=Por-Esperanta Mormonaro}}

Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran called on Muslims to learn Esperanto and praised its use as a medium for better understanding among peoples of different religious backgrounds. After he suggested that Esperanto replace English as an international lingua franca, it began to be used in the seminaries of Qom. An Esperanto translation of the Qur'an was published by the state shortly thereafter.{{When|date=May 2025}}{{cite web |url=http://www.webcom.com/~donh/efaq.html |title=Esperanto – Have any governments opposed Esperanto? |publisher=Donald J. Harlow |access-date=August 26, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202101831/http://192.220.96.203/efaq.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 2, 2009}}{{cite web |url=http://porneniu.wordpress.com/learn-esperanto/ |title=Esperanto in Iran (in Persian) |publisher=Porneniu |access-date=August 26, 2006 |archive-date=November 19, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061119125455/http://porneniu.wordpress.com/learn-esperanto/ |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Esperantido}}

Though Esperanto itself has changed little since the publication of {{lang|eo|Fundamento de Esperanto}} (Foundation of Esperanto),{{Cite journal |last=Blanke |first=Detlev |date=2009-01-01 |title=Causes of the relative success of Esperanto |url=https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/lplp.33.3.04bla |journal=Language Problems and Language Planning |language=en |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=251–266 |doi=10.1075/lplp.33.3.04bla |issn=0272-2690|url-access=subscription }} a number of reform projects have been proposed over the years, starting with Zamenhof's proposals in 1894 and Ido in 1907. Several later constructed languages, such as Universal, Saussure, Romániço, Internasia, Esperanto sen Fleksio, and Mundolingvo, were all based on Esperanto.

In modern times, conscious attempts have been made to eliminate perceived sexism in the language, such as Riism. Many words with {{lang|eo|ĥ}} now have alternative spellings with {{lang|eo|k}} and occasionally {{lang|eo|h}}, so that {{lang|eo|arĥitekto}} may also be spelled {{lang|eo|arkitekto}}; see Esperanto phonology for further details of {{lang|eo|ĥ}} replacement. Reforms aimed at altering country names have also resulted in a number of different options, either due to disputes over suffixes or Eurocentrism in naming various countries.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

{{See also|Zamenhof-Esperanto object}}

There are some geographical and astronomical features named after Esperanto, or after its creator L. L. Zamenhof. These include Esperanto Island in Antarctica,{{cite web|url=http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=136818|title=Esperanto Island|publisher=Data.aad.gov.au|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=May 24, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524002424/http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=136818|url-status=live}} and the asteroids 1421 Esperanto and 1462 Zamenhof discovered by Finnish astronomer and Esperantist Yrjö Väisälä.

{{Portal|Constructed languages|Language}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|

• Outline of Esperanto
• World Esperanto Youth Organization
• Esperantology
• Esperantic Studies Foundation
• Esperanto library
• Encyclopedias in Esperanto
• Esperanto movement
• Global language system
• Economics of language
• Homaranismo
• Interlingua (Comparison with Esperanto)
• Novial (Comparison with Esperanto)
• International English
• Standard French
• Arcaicam Esperantom
• Esperanto in China
• China Esperanto League}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite book

|title = The Esperanto Movement

|author = Peter Glover Forster

|publisher = Walter de Gruyter

|year = 1982

|page = 181

|isbn = 978-90-279-3399-7}}

{{cite encyclopedia |last = Smith

|first = Peter

|encyclopedia = A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith

|title = Zamenhof, Lidia

|year = 2000

|publisher = Oneworld Publications

|location = Oxford

|isbn = 1-85168-184-1

|pages = 368

|url = https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/368

}}

}}

• {{Cite book|url=|title=Dangerous Language – Esperanto under Hitler and Stalin|last=Lins|first=Ulrich|date=February 10, 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-54917-4|language=en}}
• {{Cite book |title=Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language |last=Schor |first=Esther |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5DLpDAAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-42994-341-3 |lccn=2015018907 |access-date= May 8, 2017}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://www.u-matthias.de/latino/latin_en.htm|title=Esperanto: The New Latin for the Church and Ecumenism| year = 2002 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917221244/http://www.u-matthias.de/latino/latin_en.htm |archive-date=September 17, 2008|first=Ulrich|last=Matthias|lang=en|translator-first=Mike|translator-last=Leon|translator-first2=Maire|translator-last2=Mullarney|isbn=90-77066-04-7|place=Antwerp|publisher=Flandra Esperanto-Ligo}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book|last=Fians|first=Guilherme|title=Esperanto Revolutionaries and Geeks - Language Politics, Digital Media and the Making of an International Community|date=2021|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-3-030-84229-1}}
• Butler, Montagu C. Step by Step in Esperanto. ELNA 1965/1991. {{ISBN|0-939785-01-3}}.
• DeSoto, Clinton (1936). 200 Meters and Down. West Hartford, Connecticut, US: American Radio Relay League, p. 92.
• Gledhill, Christopher. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719135041/http://stl.recherche.univ-lille3.fr/sitespersonnels/gledhill/Esperanto_a_corpus-based_description_GLEDHILL.pdf The Grammar of Esperanto: A Corpus-Based Description.] Second edition. Lincom Europa, 2000. {{ISBN|3-89586-961-9}}.
• [http://katalogo.uea.org/index.php?inf=4006 Ludovikologia dokumentaro I] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222105548/http://katalogo.uea.org/index.php?inf=4006 |date=December 22, 2012 }} Tokyo: Ludovikito, 1991. Facsimile reprints of the Unua Libro in Russian, Polish, French, German, English and Swedish, with the earliest Esperanto dictionaries for those languages.
• Okrent, Arika. [http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com/ In the Land of Invented Languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602080529/http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com/ |date=June 2, 2015 }}.
• {{cite journal |last1=Patterson |first1=Robert |last2=Huff |first2=Stanley M. |date=November 1999 |title=The Decline and Fall of Esperanto|journal=Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association |volume=6|issue=6|pages=444–446|pmc=61387|pmid=10579602|doi=10.1136/jamia.1999.0060444}}
• Wells, John. Lingvistikaj aspektoj de Esperanto ("Linguistic Aspects of Esperanto"). Second edition. Rotterdam: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, 1989.

{{refend}}

{{Wikibooks}}

{{Spoken Wikipedia|Esperanto spoken article.ogg|date=2010-08-18}}

• [https://uea.org/ UEA.org] – Website of the Universal Esperanto Association
• Esperanto Bookshelf at Project Gutenberg
• [https://lernu.net/en/vortaro Dictionary – lernu.net], a bilingual Esperanto dictionary by {{lang|eo|lernu!}}
• {{lang|eo|[https://vortaro.net/ Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto 2020]|italics=no}}, an online version of the 2020 edition of the {{lang|eo|Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto}} (PIV), a monolingual Esperanto dictionary.
• [https://eventaservo.org/ Eventa Servo], an overview of worldwide Esperanto events (in Esperanto).

{{Sister bar|auto=1|wikt=Category:Esperanto language|n=Category:Esperanto|voy=no|d=Q143|s=Category:Esperanto|v=Topic:Esperanto|iw=eo}}

{{Constructed languages}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:Polish inventions