Esperanto
international auxiliary language designed by L. L. Zamenhof
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, syntax, and semantics derive predominantly from languages of the Indo-European group. A substantial majority of its vocabulary (approximately 80%) derives from Romance languages, but it also contains elements derived from Germanic, Greek, and Slavic languages. One of the language's most notable features is its extensive system of derivation, where prefixes and suffixes may be freely combined with roots to generate words, making it possible to communicate effectively with a smaller set of words.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q143. The Library of Congress control number is sh85044883. Authority coordinates are 53.000, 23.000. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “Esperanto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.