Esperanto ( /ˌɛspəˈræntoʊ/ or /-ˈrɑː-/; ) is a constructed international auxiliary language. With an estimated two million speakers worldwide, it is the most widely spoken constructed language in the world. The Polish- Jewish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, Unua Libro, in Warsaw on July 26 [ O.S. July 14] 1887. The name of Esperanto derives from Doktoro Esperanto ( Esperanto translates as "one who hopes"), the pseudonym under which Zamenhof published Unua Libro. Zamenhof had three goals, as he wrote in Unua Libro:
According to the database Ethnologue (published by the Summer Institute of Linguistics), up to two million people worldwide, to varying degrees, speak Esperanto, including about 1000 to 2000 native speakers who learned Esperanto from birth. Find out more...