Esperanto introduction
From UniLang Wiki
Esperanto is, unlike most languages we know, a constructed language. It is a language that was created at the end of the 19th century by the Polish eye-doctor: L.L Zamenhof.
Esperanto was created because Zamenhof became aware of the many problems that arose due to miscommunication in his own multilingual town of Białystok (nowadays in Poland). Białystok was part of Czarist Russia in those days and had a mix of different people, like Poles, Jews, Russians and Germans, which caused a lot of problems.
Zamenhof decided therefore to create an international language that people can use as auxiliary language to communicate with eachother on a neutral basis. Everybody would be able to learn the same language, which does not belong to any group, religion or nation. So, he worked for ten years developing a basic grammar and about a thousand words and then people just started speaking it and it evolved naturally from there.
Esperanto was also made to be an easy language, it is completely regular and knows no exceptions. Esperanto's conlang grammar is Non-Indoeuropean and agglutinating. Sixty percent of the vocabulary is from latin origin, while thirty percent is of germanic origin. The remaining ten percent is of greek and slavic origin.
Nowadays the number of Esperanto speakers is estimated around 2 million worldwide. There are organizations that promote it and there are also a lot of magazines, books and music in Esperanto.
