Ludwig Zamenhof was a Polish-Jewish physician and oculist, who created the most important of the international artificial languages, Esperanto.
Background
Ludwig Zamenhof was born on December 15, 1859 in Ulica Zielona ("Green Street") in the town of Bialystok, which was then situated in the Russian Empire (now part of Poland). He was given the Hebrew name Eliezer, or Leyzer in Yiddish, which later mutated into Lazar or Lazarus and eventually to Ludovic or Ludwig. Zamenhof is the Esperanto version of his original surname. His parents were Mark Zamenhof and Rozalia Zamenhof. His father was a teacher of German and French and he also taught geography. He spoke Russian with his son, which was also the language Ludoviko studied in. His mother, a housewife, spoke with Ludoviko in Yiddish. From his childhood Ludoviko showed a love for languages. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a Russian writer, wrote several verses and even a 5-act tragedy. Later, when he was an adult, in one of his letters, he wrote that he fluently spoke three languages (Russian, Polish and German); he fluently read French, but spoke badly. During his life he learned around eight other languages.
The environment in which Zamenhof was born and grew up, can not be called easy. The town was international, containing diverse ethnicities, and according to the memories of Zamenhof, relation between the inhabitants were often far from friendly. Bialystok’s population consisted of Poles, Jews, Germans and Russians. The young Zamenhof often went to the market place where he saw the different ethnicities attacking each other. All of this affected the young Zamenhof and as a child he thought that the main reason for the hostile relations between nationalities was a lack of a common language. The dream of one human language strongly possessed him and from that time never left him.
Education
In 1865, Ludoviko started studying in a four year elementary school and in 1869 he started studying in secondary school, where he began studying foreign languages. He was always a diligent student and the teachers said he was very capable. In 1873, the family moved to Warsaw, where Ludovik's father started to teach German in secondary school.
According to the memories of Zamenhof, the worst thing was that in Warsaw he didn't see people, he only saw Russians, Poles, Jews etc., and everyone was hostile to the other and only thought of their own nationality. Ludoviko also quickly learned that he was Jewish because the politics of the Russian Empire were not favourable towards Jews.
There in Warsaw, he saw the large anti-semitism that later pushed him to join the Zionist movement, although from his earliest childhood he always prioritised the "human" and by his words he gave his whole life to that one idea and dream about the unity of humanity. Due to this, he quickly left the Zionist movement but always sympathised with the difficult life of his people.
Quite early, he concluded that the common language, about which he constantly thought, had to be neutral and couldn't belong to any nationality. This was because he saw the tension between different nationalities and understood, that no national language would be accepted by everyone as a common language. In a Warsaw secondary school in 1873, he came into contact with ancient languages and, loyal to his dream, he began to think about reviving one of these languages for modern use. However later he came to the firm conviction that none of the existing languages were suitable for his aim, so a new artificial language was required. Since then he not only dreamed about a common neutral language, but also began to work on its creation.
When in 5th class of secondary school, Ludoviko Zamenhof came into contact with English grammar, which is very simple compared with Greek or Latin. This amazed him and convinced him that there was no need for excessive grammatical rules in his language. In his head was then a rough idea of his language. He began to throw away unnecessary rules and soon he had the smallest grammar he needed, which didn't fill more than a few pages. This delighted Ludoviko and with a new energy he continued his explorations, but the problem of a massive vocabulary troubled him.
One day, the shop sign "guard room" and "sweet shop" caught his attention. This is what will solve the problem: suffixes! Light fell on the terrible problem of a massive vocabulary and it began to melt away. Even basic words (ex. "mother", "knife" and others) were easily remembered with the help of suffixes. Working on the dictionary, the author quickly realised that current languages already contained a massive number of ready words that were already international and known to many people. They were really a treasure for his future language and he succeeded in using this treasure. He used Latin and Germanic roots as the source of his vocabulary, choosing the simplest and most international of them.
In 1878 the language was almost ready and the 19 year old Ludoviko named it "Lingwe uniwersala". Several of his classmates began to learn this language. Ludoviko celebrated in his parents home the birth of the universal language with these friends, although there was still a large difference between "Lingwe uniwersala" and Esperanto. That was the first period of the language.
The following year in 1879, Ludoviko traveled to Moscow to begin studying in university. He decided to study medicine. It was clear that Ludoviko had an interest in languages but his father thought that linguistics and literature were hopeless professions and that medicine was a better prospect. He told Ludoviko that linguistics could not support a family. Ludoviko was forced to follow his fathers wishes and started studying medicine. There is a legend that his father burnt the notebook with Lingwe uniwersala when Ludoviko was in Moscow. He wanted his son to only focus on his studies to become a good doctor.
In 1881, Ludoviko had to return to Warsaw, where he continued his medical studies. This was linked to the financial situation of his father. He could no longer send the money for food and rent. Ludoviko had siblings who also had to study and also needed money.
In 1881, returning home and finding out about the burning of the notebook with Lingwe uniwersala, he began to focus again on the international language, because he could still remember all the details. At first he was unhappy about the destruction of the notebook but later he realised that the first version of the language was flawed. Some features that seemed suitable in theory were unsuitable in practice. He began to translate a lot, avoiding word-for-word translation, to this or that language and tried to think directly in the neutral language. Afterwards he noticed that the language had formed its own spirit and its own life. It had its own method of expression, not dependent on any other influence. He named this variant of the language "Lingvo internacia". During his last year of medical study in 1884, the international language took the form of the current Esperanto.
In 1885, Ludwik traveled to a medical practice in Lithuania, where he lived with his sister and brother-in-law. There he began to search for a publisher for the language but only to succeed two years later. It was around the same time that he also began to specialise in eye medicine, as he had come to the conclusion that that area was one of the calmest and most peaceful. He soon returned to Warsaw.
Career
During the winter of 1886-1887 Ludwik, living in Warsaw, came into contact with Klara Zilbernik, who had been living with her sister. They fell in love. Klara's father was a soap maker and he gave money to Ludwik to publish the book. Zamenhof decided to use the pseudonym Doctor Esperanto. He thought that it would be difficult for a doctor dependent on the public, if they saw him engaged in irrelevant fantasies. Later, Zamenhof wrote that he felt that he risked the entire future well-being and welfare of his family.
That's how the year 1887 became very important for Ludwik: on the 26th of July Esperanto was born and He married Klara on the 9th of August, who remained loyal to her husband her whole life.
On the 26th of July, the First Book appeared, the first textbook of the international language now named Esperanto. The 26th of July is celebrated as the birthday of Esperanto. The original name in Russian of the work is Международный языкъ. Предисловіе и полный учебникъ. ("International Language. Introduction and full textbook"). The original edition was only in Russian, but before the end of 1887 the book also appeared in Polish, German and French, as well as a second edition in Russian. The first English edition appeared in 1888, badly translated, and it is said that Zamenhof himself stopped its sale until Richard H. Geoghegan, an Irishman living in Britain, re-translated the book.
The new language project was accepted with great enthusiasm. In spite of the partial success of the previous artificial language Volapuk, which appeared in 1879, Esperanto pretty quickly found followers around the whole world. It quickly showed that it was more suitable for international communication as it was easy, logical and beautiful. For Zamenhof, it was a great joy to feel himself surrounded by passionate like minded people. He saw that the language was used and became a living thing. Ludoviko began to receive letters with questions, advice, approval and many were already writing in Esperanto.
After the initial success, a "Second Book" appeared in 1888 ("Dua Libro de l’ Lingvo Internacia"), which was released to describe the International Language and was the first book written entirely in Esperanto. On the 1st of September 1889 appeared "La Esperantisto", in Nuremberg (Germany), the first periodical in Esperanto. In many towns over diverse parts of the world (at first, of course, mostly in Europe) the first Esperanto groups took root. An international movement was being created.
In 1889, Zamenhof, due to a lack of money, had to leave his family and move to the town of Kerson (now in the southern part of Ukraine). Unfortunately, he didn't succeed in finding work. In May 1890, he moved again to Warsaw where he was joined by Klara and their two children, Adam and Sophie (they had been staying with Klara's father in Kaunas, modern Lithuania). After half a year, the family was finally reunited. But money problems troubled Ludoviko for a long time more.
Esperanto became more and more popular, and Zamenhof began correspondence with many of the new Esperantists across many countries. This correspondence required a lot of time and money. His financial situation continued to get worse, so Ludoviko again had to move, this time to Grodno. His family later joined him and they lived there until 1898, when the whole family returned to Warsaw for the last time.
Zamenhof didn't work solely on the language. Understandably, he frequently communicated, read and wrote a lot in Esperanto, wrote books and articles, but he also succeeded in finding time to improve his scientific knowledge. For example, in 1897, he returned to university in Warsaw to perfect his knowledge of optometry.
In Warsaw, he lived in a poor street in the Jewish Quarter, where he stayed until the First World War. He worked as an eye doctor and his prices were low compared with other doctors in the city. Zamenhof often accept patients for free if he saw that they didn't have the money and were living in poverty. He became very popular because many people could only afford to go to him. Zamenhof was forced to work all day and he dedicated his nights to Esperanto. That was how he lived until he died, very modestly, without much money.
From 1898 onwards, a lot of work appeared in Esperanto, which spread in many countries. The result of this spreading was the World Congress. In 1905, in the French town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the first World Congress took place and 688 people from 20 countries participated, including the creator of the language. It took place between the 5th and 12th of August and Zamenhof presented a long speech. For him, this was one of the most beautiful moments in his life and he was very emotional. He now had the proof that Esperanto could be fluently spoken and easily understood by different nationalities. In total, Zamenhof took part in nine congresses, the tenth was canceled due to the outbreak of the First World War. His wife Klara always accompanied her husband, so she also participated in every congress.
While the popularity of the language was growing, almost from the beginning of its existence emerged various proposals to reform Esperanto. In the beginning Zamenhof democratically listened to all of them and reported them meticulously in the magazine La Esperantisto. Soon after, however, when more and more proposals appeared, the creator of the language realized that many of the proposals were contradictory with one another. Also he already had experience and understood clearly, that something that looks fine in theory, can in practice be the opposite. Furthermore, some proposals satisfying one part of the Esperantists, could be rejected by others.
Zamenhof refused to change Esperanto, a decision which was supported by most Esperantists. He never claimed rights to the language, on the contrary, he wrote that he had never wanted to be the creator of the language but the initiator. His opinion was that he created the foundation but the rest was to be created by both society and life, just like it goes with all other living languages. He believed that Esperanto must live, grow and progress according to the same rules as all the other living languages. Because of that, an untouchable and important document, "Fundamento de Esperanto" which no-one had the right to change, was accepted in 1905. However ideas and propositions for changes within the language remained, which lead to a split within the Esperanto movement and Ido had appeared. For Zamenhof this had been a painful blow but for his natural humbleness and love for peace, he kept on trying to play down the problems and never showed any hostility towards his opponents. Not even towards the one who had betrayed him the most, Louis de Beaufront (Creator of the reformed Esperanto now knows as "Ido"), he wanted to help until the very end and wrote him a surprisingly charitable letter.
The first world war became a huge battle for Zamenhof, for the one, who considered humanity as "one big family". He did succeed in taking part in the eleventh Universala Kongreso in the Uniuted States of America, just like other European Esperantists. It was due to the war that travel to the States was impossible. His health had deteriorated and doctor Zamenhof could no longer work the whole day. His son Adam, took it upon himself to take much of his father's workload. In August the German army occupied Warsaw. The familio of Zamenhof was divided and Ludwik didn't even have the option of keeping in touch with his relatives (e.g. his own daughter), who had lived outside Warsaw.
Zemnhof died on the 14th of April 1917. He worked hard for the movement and for the language until the very end of his life.
Views
The creator of the international language, Ludwik Zamenhof, considered Esperanto the first step towards peace among the entire world's population. He himself asserted that the whole of Esperanto affair is but a part of a universal idea, which he first named Hilelism and afterwards Humanitarianism. The goal of the project was the unification of mankind and because of that it was necessary to first create a human neutral population, whose members would be only divided by geographically and politically but not by their language and religion.
In 1901, April, Zamenhof proposed a project which would solve the Jewish question. The project received the name Hilelism. Having resigned of the zionist measure in 1886 already, Zamenhof remained loyal to his original ethnicity, whose fate in Eastern Europe seemed more and more hopeless. The most encompassing idea of Hilelism is found within the sentence "What is not liked by you, do not do onto others". Everyone themselves has to consider but a part of the whole. However the idea did not find many supporters. In fact it was not liked by many, and many were critical of it for its great idealism.
Having met opposition against Hilelism, Zamenhof momentarily retracted only to reappear with the same project several years later. The Russo-japanese war which started in 1904 and later the first Russian revolution had shown Zamenhof that an international language was only the beginning, which empowered one to effectively communicate and clarify one's opinion. An international language was a great measure for solving many problems. But the war and the revolution prompted Zamenhof to take the next, the second step towards attaining peace among all people. It convinced Zamenhof that he must return to the idea Hilelism, understanding, that it requires a great reform. And so he decided to propose Hilelism not only for the Jews.
In January "Ruslanda Esperantisto" (1906) he anonymously unveiled his doctrine under the title "Dogmas of Hilelism" with parallel Russian and Esperanto texts. Zamenhof quickly understood, that the name of the doctrine was too Jewish and that the foreword too Russian, and so a brochure with the name "Homaranismo" appeared in March in Peterborough. He brought one's attention, in the new foreword, that Hilelism concerned only one group of people, while Humanitarianism concerns all people of all religions. It contained new teaching of relationships regarding the home, people and humanity. The core set of beliefs was declared in twenty two paragraphs. If Zionism came from the romantic paradigm, seeking that one would speak about a jew with the same respect as one would about a Frenchman, a German, a Russian etc, Zamenhof pleaded that one would completely forget about the fact that things such as a Jew, a Russian or a German even exist. He called for us to understand ourselves not as a part of a religion, language or a race but simply as human beings.
Here are the first four dogmas, the most principal and general:
1. I am a human and I exist solely for purely human ideals; I view all sorts of ideals and targeted nationalisms as nothing but group egotism and hate towards people, which sooner or later must disappear and their disappearance I must be a catalyst to, to the best of my ability.
2. I believe, that all populations are equal and I evaluate all people only by their personal value and deeds but not according to descent. For this I regard all persecutions carried out against others based on the fact that they were born to a different race, with a different language or religion as barbarism.
3. I believe that every country does not belong to one or another race, but more justly to all its inhabitants, regardless of language or religion; I view the shuffling of interests of the land and the interests of one or the other race, language or religion as leftovers from barbaric times, when the fist and sword right was solely accepted.
4. I believe that in one's own family one has indisputable, complete and natural right speak whichever language and dialect they may desire, and adhere to whichever religion they themselves choose, but in communications with people of different descent one should, when possible, use a neutral language and live according to also religion neutral principles. All striving of one person to impose one's language or religion onto others I view as a barbaric act.
Zamenhof intended to launch the project Humanitarianism in the Geneva congress (1906) and found the first Humanitarianism community. However someone convinced him not to read the second part of the speech, in which he identified the internal idea of Esperanto with Humanitarianism. Zamenhof conceded. He began to understand that esperantists, although euphoric in Bullion, were not ready to accept humanitarianism and "reuniting the people", even his closest esperantist acquaintances strived to persuade him not to link Esperanto with a religious doctrine. So during some time he refrained from mentioning humanitarianism to the public and preferred to speak about one cloud "internal idea", in some way a replacement of humanitarianism. In 1912 Zamenhof defined the internal idea like this: “The internal idea of Esperanto, which has absolutely no intention of compelling every individual esperantist, but which fully governs and must always govern in esperanto congresses, is: on neutral language foundation remove the walls between people and get them used to seeing the one beside them as their brother or sister. All, that is built on this internal idea of Esperanto, is only a personal matter which may be based on that idea but must never be viewed as identical to it.”
Zamenhof, born and educated in the multinational Russia, did not realize, linguistic diversity hardly existed in Germany, France and many other western-European countries, and that religion no longer possessed the same role as before. For having paid too much attention to language and religion, he paid hardly any attention to political, economical and psychological factors. According to him, the cause for inter-racial division and hate isn't political, economical, geographical, anatomical, logical or based on descent. The main cause is the difference of languages and religion and so the "inter-racial division and hate will completely disappear for the humankind only then, when all of humanity will have one language and one religion."
Having shown that by Esperanto one could eradicate linguistic division, Zamenhof presented the solution to the religious division. In 1913 he proposed to organize a Congress for a human-neutral religion in Paris linked with the 10th Universala Kongreso of Esperanto (1914). His idea was unusual: He wanted to speak not to those, who believed that their religion was the only true religion given to them by God, but to open-minded people, whom have left behind the religion of their fathers. Of the four thesis of his Declaration, three more or less followed the religious dogma of the humanitarianism and the fourth thesis was organizational.
By the end of 1914 Zamenhof wrote his call to diplomats "After the great war" and sent it to several Esperanto editorial offices, so that they would publish it in Esperanto and also in national languages. He foresaw, that after the war the diplomats would redraw the European map and he proposed to found United States of Europe. Understanding that this plan could never come to fruition, he at least demanded that they would proclaim and guarantee in all European countries the principle: "Each country, morally and materially, fully and equally belongs to all its children."
Zamenhof did not stop working on his Humanitarianism project, and two months before his passing, he finished its last version. It also consisted of a foreword and declaration. The foreword contained clear distinction between the idea of Esperanto and Humanitarianism and completely redesigned clarification of the doctrine: “Under the name "Humanitarianism" (...) I want to speak about the striving to "humanity", to the removal of inter-racial hate and injustice and to that sort of way of life, which bit by bit could guide us not theoretically, but practically to the spiritual unification of mankind.”
It's remarkable, that's it's no longer about "the people will once become merged into a single neutral civilization", which foresees the first edition of humanitarianism. It's all about striving for "a spiritual unification of mankind".
Several weeks before death he began to write his last essay "About God and about the deathless", which he himself considered very important, although he foresaw that his sudden conversion into the belief shall cause much criticism. It remained the last (and unfinished) of his idealistic works. In it, Zamenhof wrote that he "meditated and read various scientific and philosophic works", but one shall forever be left in the dark about which works he meant.
Quotations:
“For a language to be international, it is not enough to name it so.”
“I do not wish to be the creator of the language, I just want to be the initiator.”
“We are often instigated to think too much due to the insufficient nature of the language.”
“International language, similarly to every national, is a social property and the author therefore gives up all personal rights related to it.”
“Patriotism I view the service for the good of all those who share my home, of whichever origin, lanuage, religion or social status they may possess. Acts especially for the interests of one person or the hate towards others shall never be named patriotism.”
“Remember, that the sole remedy for attaining peace, is: Remove once and for all the main cause of wars, the barbaric remains of the most antique before-civilization times, the rule of one race over others.”
“Because right at the beginning of my tale I must report, that I am a Hebrew and all my ideals, their birth and maturing and obstinacy, the whole history of my constant fights internal and external - all are without exception linked with my Hebrew origins.”
“But just like I, at the moment of speaking, am not of any nationality, but simply a human, I feel like the same way about me not belonging to any nation or partial religion, but I am but a man.”
“In the case, that you simply must speak about my person, You can name me "the son of Poland" (because none can defy that the earth in which lie both my parents, and upon which I constantly work as well as intend on doing so till my last breath, is my home, although I am not a nationalist), but do not name me a "Pole", so that one does not say, that I - for accepting honors - put on a mask of people, to which I did not belong.”
“And now, for the first time the dream of centuries starts to turn into reality. To a small town of the french coast, many people from diverse countries and nationalities have come, and they meet each other not mute and deaf but one understands the other, they speak to each other like brothers, like members of one nation. Often people of different nationalities meet and understand one another; but what a huge difference it is between their mutual understanding and our! (...) Strong and weak nations do not exist in our meetings, privileged and unprivileged, none are humiliated, none are agitated; we all feel like members of one nation, like members of one family, and for the first time in the history of mankind, us memebers of various nations stand one next to another not as foreigners, not as competitors, but as brothers, who without forcing our languages onto others, understand each other mutually, without suspecting one or the other for the darkness which separates them, love one another and shake hands not hypocritically, like one of a nation would to another of a different one, but sincerely like a human with a human. We very well realize the whole importance of today's day, because today, between these welcoming walls of Bullion-by-the-sea, it is not the French and the English, not the Russian and the Polish that have met but people with people. Blessed be the day, and great as well as glorious may be its continuation.”
“Water helps not a cooked fish.” (Al fiŝ’ kuirita jam akvo ne helpos).
“A reprimand helps not an idiot, only a stick.”(Al malsaĝulo ne helpas admono, nur bastono).
“Even a small drop, constantly hitting, buries through a granite mountain.” (Eĉ guto malgranda, konstante frapante, traboras la monton granitan).
“The more property, the more right.” (Ju pli da havo, des pli da parvo).
“Learn young, to be wise old.” (Lernu juna, por esti saĝa maljuna).
“Don't judge things according to their appearance.” (Ne juĝu pri afero laŭ ĝia ekstero).
“An empty bag doesn't directly grab itself.” (Sako malplena sin rekte ne tenas).
“One swallow does not bring the spring.” (Unu hirundo printempon ne alportas).