How many of you have heard of “Esperanto”, an international language? Not many, I suppose. Let me tell you what it is:
Esperanto is an artificial language. This means it was created on purpose, and it is not the natural consequence of the evolution of any communication system. Was it the first attempt to create a language from scratch? No. During history, humans have continuously tried to invent a new language, mostly with the intention to use them as a secret code, maybe during wars. Esperanto, on the contrary, was invented with a different ambition: to unify people.
Stefano Demichelis
Ludwik Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917), a polish physician, had a great idea in mind: to invent a language that could break barriers between countries and help people to see each other as neighbours. He worked on this language for years, until in 1887 he published a book with the results of his studies. The title was Lingvo Internacia, signed by Zamenhof with his pseudonym, Doktoro Esperanto. The language he created had its core in the main Romans and Germanic languages.
