Esperanto

Epic card · No. 8495

Esperanto (; Esperanto: [espeˈranto]) is the world's most widely spoken constructed auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 as 'the International Language' (la Lingvo Internacia), it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication. Esperanto culture is grounded in the idea that people can interact on an equal footing across language barriers, without linguistic hierarchies, and with respect for linguistic and cultural diversity. He described the language in Dr. Esperanto's International Language (known as Unua Libro, the 'first book'), which he published under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto. Early adopters of the language liked the name Esperanto ('one who hopes') so much, they soon used it to describe the language itself. Within the range of constructed languages, Esperanto occupies a middle ground between "naturalistic" (imitating existing natural languages) and a priori (where features are not based on existing languages). Esperanto's vocabulary...

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