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Esperanto and the Search for a Global Language (Encore)

Everything Everywhere Daily

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The History of Esperanto

Esperanto was invented in 1878 by a Russian doctor named Dachtoro Zemanhoff. He kept working on the language for years as he went to medical school and began an ophthalmology practice. The first international Esperanto conference was held in France in 1905, with 688 speakers from 20 countries attending. It was soon after this conference that the only real official adoption of Esperanto ever took place between Germany and Belgium. In the 1920s, Iran actually suggested that Esperanto be adopted as the official language of the United Nations, but it was vetoed by France who didn't want French lose its primacy.

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