L. L. Zamenhof
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person L. L. ZamenhofTemplate:Efn (15 December 1859Template:Snd14 April 1917)Template:Efn was the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language.<ref name=Korzhenkov>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Jason Zasky" />
Zamenhof published Esperanto in 1887, although his initial ideas date back as far as 1873. He grew up fascinated by the idea of a world without war and believed that this could happen with the help of a new international auxiliary language (IAL).<ref name="YIVO">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The language was intended as a tool to gather people together through neutral, fair, equitable communication.<ref>Guilherme Moreira Fians, Hoping for the language of Hope Template:Webarchive, University of Amsterdam, ACLC Seminar, Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR),</ref> He successfully formed a community which has survived to this day, despite the World Wars of the 20th century<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and various attempts to reform the language or create more modern IALs (Esperanto itself had displaced another similarly-motivated language, Volapük). Additionally, Esperanto has developed like other languages: through the interaction and creativity of its users.<ref>Humphrey Tonkin, Fourth Interlinguistic Symposium, p. 213, JKI-12-2017[1] (pdf).</ref>
In light of his achievements, and his support of intercultural dialogue, UNESCO selected Zamenhof as one of its eminent personalities of 2017, on the 100th anniversary of his death.<ref>Fourth Interlinguistic Symposium, p. 209, Template:Dead link#x5D;.pdf JKI-12-2017[1].</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Esperanto communities, as of 2019 there are approximately 2 million people speaking Esperanto, including approximately 1,000 native speakers,<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> although evidence to that has been heavily disputed,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the last major effort to improve the estimate occurred in 2004.<ref name=":0" />
NameEdit
Zamenhof came from a multilingual area. His name is transliterated as follows:
- English: Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof – English pronunciation: Template:IPAc-en
- Esperanto: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- French: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- German: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- Template:Langx – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- Lithuanian: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
- Polish: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- Template:Langx
- Template:Langx
- Template:Langx
Born into an Ashkenazi family, at his birth Zamenhof was given the common Hebrew name Eliezer by his parents, which is translated into English as Lazarus. However, as the area was a part of the Russian Empire at the time, his name was recorded on his birth certificate as Template:Langx, using the Yiddish form of the forename and a russified version of his surname;<ref name="bialystok">Birth Certificate N 47: "Leyzer Zamengov, son of Mordkha Fayvelovich Zamengov and Liba Sholemovna Sofer" Template:Webarchive</ref> many later Russian language documents also include the patronymic Template:Langx « son of Mark » (in reference to his father, Markus), as is the custom in the language. His family name is of German origin and was originally written Samenhof; this was later transcribed into Yiddish as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, then re-romanized back as Zamenhof. The change of the initial letter from « S » to « Z » is not unusual, as in German an initial « s » is pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.
In his adolescence, he used both the Yiddish Leyzer and the Russian Lazar when writing his first name. While at university, Zamenhof began using the Russian name Lyudovik (also transcribed Ludovic or translated as Ludwig) in place of Lazar, possibly in honour of Francis Lodwick, who in 1652 had published an early conlang proposal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When his brother Leon became a doctor and started signing his name "Dr L. Zamenhof",<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Zamenhof reclaimed his birth name Lazar and from 1901 signed his name "Dr L. L. Zamenhof" to avoid confusion with his brother. The two L's do not seem to have specifically represented either name and the order Ludwik Lejzer is a modern convention.
BiographyEdit
Early yearsEdit
Zamenhof was born on 15 December 1859,Template:Efn the son of Mark and Rozalia Zamenhof (Template:Nee), in the multi-ethnic city of Belostok<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (now Białystok in Poland).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kiselman" /> At that time, the city was in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire. His parents were of Litvak descent and were Jewish. He appears to have been natively bilingual in Yiddish and Russian.<ref name="Kiselman">Template:Cite book</ref> His father was a teacher of French and German. From him, Zamenhof learned both languages, as well as Hebrew. He also spoke some major languages of Białystok, such as Polish and Belarusian. Polish became the native language of his children in Warsaw. In school, he studied the classical languages Latin, Greek, and Aramaic. He later learned some English, though in his own words not very well. He had an interest in Italian and Lithuanian and learned Volapük when it came out in 1880. By that time, his international language project was already well-developed.<ref>Christer Kiselman, "Esperanto: Its origins and early history" Template:Webarchive, in Andrzej Pelczar, ed., 2008, Prace Komisji Spraw Europejskich PAU, vol. II, pp. 39–56, Krakaw.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In addition to the Jewish Yiddish-speaking minority, the population of Białystok included Polish Catholics and the Russian Orthodox (the latter of whom were mainly government officials), with smaller groups of Belarusians, Germans and other ethnicities. Zamenhof was saddened and frustrated by the many quarrels among these groups. He supposed that the main reason for the hate and prejudice lay in the mutual misunderstanding caused by the lack of a common language. If such a language existed, Zamenhof postulated, it could play the role of a neutral communication tool between people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As a student at secondary school in Warsaw, Zamenhof attempted to create an international language with a grammar that was rich, but complex. When he later studied English, he decided that the international language must have simpler grammar. Apart from his parents' native languages Russian and Yiddish and his adopted language Polish, his projects were also aided by his mastery of German, a good passive understanding of Latin, Hebrew and French, and a basic knowledge of Greek, English and Italian.<ref>Holzhaus, Adolf: Doktoro kaj lingvo Esperanto. Helsinki: Fondumo Esperanto. 1969</ref>
By 1878, his project Lingwe uniwersala was finished.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, Zamenhof was too young then to publish his work. Soon after graduation, he began to study medicine, first in Moscow, and later in Warsaw. In 1885, Zamenhof graduated from university and began his practice as a doctor in Veisiejai. After 1886, he worked as an ophthalmologist in Płock and Vienna. While healing people there, he continued to work on his project of an international language.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
For two years, he tried to raise funds to publish a booklet describing the language, until he received financial help from his future wife's father. In 1887, the book titled Международный язык. Предисловие и полный учебникъ (International language: Introduction and complete textbook) was published in Russian<ref>Keith Brown and Sarah Ogilvie, Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World (Elsevier, 2009: Template:ISBN), p. 375.</ref> under the pseudonym "Doktoro Esperanto" (Doctor Hoper, or literally "Doctor One Who Hopes"). Zamenhof initially called his language "Lingvo internacia" (international language), but those who learned it began to call it Esperanto after his pseudonym, and this soon became the official name for the language. For Zamenhof, this language, far from being merely a communication tool, was a way to promote peaceful coexistence between people of different cultures.<ref name="Jason Zasky">Template:Citation</ref>
Work on Yiddish language and Jewish issuesEdit
In 1879, Zamenhof wrote the first grammar of Yiddish. It was partly published years later in the Yiddish magazine {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>Vilnius, 1909; see Esperanto translation as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (On Yiddish grammar and reform in Yiddish) in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (A Hebrew from the ghetto: From Zionism to Hillelism), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, vol. 5, 1976</ref> The complete original Russian text of this manuscript was only published in 1982, with parallel Esperanto translation by Adolf Holzhaus, in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (An attempt at a grammar of neo-Jewish language), Helsinki, pp. 9–36. In this work, not only does he provide a review of Yiddish grammar, but also proposes its transition to the Latin script and other orthographic innovations. In the same period, Zamenhof wrote some other works in Yiddish, including perhaps the first survey of Yiddish poetics (see p. 50 in the above-cited book).
A wave of pogroms within the Russian Empire in 1882, including Congress Poland, motivated Zamenhof to take part in the Hibbat Zion, and to found a Zionist student society in Warsaw.<ref name="maimon">Template:Cite journal</ref> He left the movement following the publication of Unua Libro in 1887, and in 1901 published a statement in Russian with the title Hillelism, in which he argued that the Zionist project would fail due to Jews not having a common language.<ref name="maimon"/>
In 1914, he declined an invitation to join a new organization of Jewish Esperantists, the TEHA. In his letter to the organizers, he said, "I am profoundly convinced that every nationalism offers humanity only the greatest unhappiness ... It is true that the nationalism of oppressed peoples – as a natural self-defensive reaction – is much more excusable than the nationalism of peoples who oppress; but, if the nationalism of the strong is ignoble, the nationalism of the weak is imprudent; both give birth to and support each other".<ref name="maimon"/> The Hebrew Bible is among the many works that Zamenhof translated into Esperanto.
Zamenhof died in Warsaw on 14 April 1917,Template:Efn possibly of a heart attack,<ref>"Ludwig Lazar Zamenhof – Founder of Esperanto" Template:Webarchive, Department of Planned Languages.</ref> and was buried at the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery. The farewell speech was delivered by the chief rabbi and preacher of the Great Synagogue in Warsaw, Samuel Abraham Poznański, who said: "There will be a time where the Polish soil and nation will understand what fame gave this great son of God to his homeland."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FamilyEdit
Zamenhof and his wife Klara Silbernik raised three children, a son, Adam, and two daughters, Zofia and Lidia. All three were murdered by the Nazis.<ref>Template:Cite book, p. 116 Template:Webarchive: "Between world wars, Esperanto fared worse and, sadly, became embroiled in political power moves. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that the spread of Esperanto throughout Europe was a Jewish plot to break down national differences so that Jews could assume positions of authority.... After the Nazis' successful Blitzkrieg of Poland, the Warsaw Gestapo received orders to 'take care' of the Zamenhof family.... Zamenhof's son was shot... his two daughters were put in Treblinka death camp."</ref>
Lidia Zamenhof in particular took a keen interest in Esperanto, and as an adult became a teacher of the language, travelling through Europe and to America to teach classes in it. Through her friendship with Martha Root, Lidia accepted Bahá'u'lláh and became a member of the Baháʼí Faith. As one of its social principles, the Baháʼí Faith teaches that an auxiliary world language should be selected by the representatives of all the world's nations.
Zamenhof's grandson, Louis-Christophe Zaleski-Zamenhof (Adam's son), lived in France from the 1960s until his death in 2019. As of 2020, Louis-Christophe's daughter, Template:Ill, is active in the Esperanto movement.
Religious philosophyEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
Besides his linguistic work, Zamenhof published a religious philosophy he called Homaranismo (the term in Esperanto, usually rendered as "humanitism" in English,<ref>Meaning in the Age of Modernism: C. K. Ogden and his contemporaries Template:Webarchive, Thesis of James McElvenny, 2013</ref> sometimes rendered loosely as humanitarianism or humanism), based on the principles and teachings of Hillel the Elder. He said of Homaranismo: "It is indeed the object of my whole life. I would give up everything for it."<ref>Edmond Privat, The Life of Zamenhof, Template:P..</ref>
Honours and namesakesEdit
In 1905, Zamenhof received the Légion d'honneur for creating Esperanto.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1910, Zamenhof was first nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, by four British Members of Parliament (including James O'Grady and Philip Snowden) and Professor Stanley Lane Poole.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (The Prize was instead awarded to the International Peace Bureau.) Ultimately Zamenhof was nominated 12 times for the Nobel Peace Prize.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the occasion of the fifth Universala Kongreso de Esperanto in Barcelona, Zamenhof was made a Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by King Alfonso XIII of Spain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A monument or place linked to Zamenhof or Esperanto is known as a Zamenhof-Esperanto object (or ZEO).
The minor planet 1462 Zamenhof is named in his honour. It was discovered on 6 February 1938 by Yrjö Väisälä. There is also a minor planet named in honour of Esperanto (1421 Esperanto).
Hundreds of city streets, parks, and bridges worldwide have also been named after Zamenhof. In Lithuania, the best-known Zamenhof Street is in Kaunas, where he lived and owned a house for some time. There are others in Poland, the United Kingdom, France, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Spain (mostly in Catalonia), Italy, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands and Brazil. There are Zamenhof Hills in Hungary and Brazil, and a Zamenhof Island in the Danube.<ref>Hommages au Dr Zamenhof, à l'espéranto et à ses pionniers.</ref>
In some Israeli cities, street signs identify Esperanto's creator and give his birth and death dates, but refer to him solely by his Jewish name Eliezer, his original birth name. Zamenhof is honoured as a deity by the Japanese religion Oomoto, which encourages the use of Esperanto among its followers. A genus of lichen has been named Zamenhofia in his honour,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as the species Heteroplacidium zamenhofianum.<ref name="Clauzade & Roux 1985">Template:Cite book</ref>
Russian writer Template:Wikidata fallback link, who lived in Odessa, together with Template:Wikidata fallback link, founded a branch of the first official Esperanto society Esrero in Russia. In the years 1896–97 N. A. Borovko became its chairman. A monument to L. Zamenhof was installed in Odessa in an ordinary residential courtyard. Esperantist sculptor Nikolai Vasilyevich Blazhkov lived in this house, who in the early 1960s brought a sculptural portrait into the courtyard because the customs authorities did not allow the sculpture to be sent to the Esperanto Congress in Vienna.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A public square in Gothenburg, Sweden is named Esperantoplatsen, where a café named Zamenhof opened in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In Italy, a few streets are named after Esperanto, including Largo Esperanto in Pisa.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}.</ref>
In 1959, UNESCO honoured Zamenhof on the occasion of his centenary.<ref>Jewish Telegraphic Agency: UNESCO to Honor Memory of Zamenhof, Jewish Creator of Esperanto Template:Webarchive, 16 December 1959</ref> In 2015, it decided to support the celebration of the 100th anniversary of his death.<ref>Unesco Template:Webarchive; UEA: Zamenhof omaĝota Template:Webarchive</ref>
His birthday, 15 December, is celebrated annually as Zamenhof Day by users of Esperanto. On 15 December 2009, Esperanto's green-starred flag flew on the Google homepage to commemorate Zamenhof's 150th birthday.<ref>Google Doodles Archive: 150th Birthday of LL Zamenhof Template:Webarchive Retrieved 1 April 2010.</ref>
The house of the Zamenhof family and a monument to Zamenhof are sites on the Jewish Heritage Trail in Białystok, which was opened in June 2008 by volunteers at The University of Białystok Foundation.<ref>Jewish Heritage Trail in Białystok Template:Webarchive accessed 25 July 2009.</ref> Białystok is also home to the Ludwik Zamenhof Centre.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1960, Esperanto summer schools were established in Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom by the Esperanto Association of Britain (EAB), which began to provide lessons and promote the language locally. There is a road named after Zamenhof in the city: Zamenhof Grove.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As Zamenhof was born on 15 December 1859, the Esperanto Society of New York gathers every December to celebrate Zamenhofa Tago (Zamenhof Day in Esperanto).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Partial bibliographyEdit
Original worksEdit
- Unua Libro, 1887 (First Book)
- Dua Libro, 1888 (Second Book)
- Hilelismo – propono pri solvo de la hebrea demando Template:Webarchive, 1901 (Hillelism: A Project in Response to the Jewish Question)
- Esenco kaj estonteco de la ideo de lingvo internacia Template:Webarchive, 1903 (Essence and Future of the Idea of an International Language)
- Fundamenta Krestomatio de la Lingvo Esperanto Template:Webarchive, 1903 (Basic Anthology of the Esperanto Language)
- Fundamento de Esperanto, 1905 (Foundation of Esperanto)
- Declaration of Boulogne, 1905
- Homaranismo Template:Webarchive, 1913 (Humanitism)
PeriodicalsEdit
- La Esperantisto, 1889–1895 (The Esperantist)
- Lingvo Internacia, 1895–1914 (International Language)
- La Revuo, 1906–1914 (The Review)
PoemsEdit
- "Al la fratoj" ("To the Brothers")<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- "Ho, mia kor'" ("Oh, My Heart")
- "La Espero" ("The Hope")
- "La vojo" ("The Way")<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- "Mia penso" ("My Thought")<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
TranslationsEdit
- Hamleto, Reĝido de Danujo Template:Webarchive, 1894 (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by William Shakespeare)
- La batalo de l' vivo Template:Webarchive (The Battle of Life, by Charles Dickens)
- La revizoro, 1907 (The Government Inspector, by Nikolai Gogol)
- La Predikanto, 1907 (translation of Ecclesiastes)
- La Psalmaro, 1908 (translation of the book of Psalms)
- La rabistoj Template:Webarchive, 1908 (The Robbers, by Friedrich Schiller)
- Ifigenio en Taŭrido Template:Webarchive, 1908 (Iphigenia in Tauris, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
- La Rabeno de Baĥaraĥ, 1909 ("The Rabbi of Bacharach", by Heinrich Heine)
- La Gimnazio, 1909 ("The High School", by Scholem Aleichem)
- Marta Template:Webarchive, 1910 (Marta, by Eliza Orzeszkowa)
- Genezo, 1911 (translation of the Book of Genesis)
- Eliro, 1912 (translation of the Book of Exodus)
- Levidoj, 1912 (translation of the Book of Leviticus)
- Nombroj, 1914 (translation of the Book of Numbers)
- Readmono, 1914 (translation of the Book of Deuteronomy)
- Malnova Testamento (parts of the Old Testament)