L. L. Zamenhof

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L. L. Zamenhof

Dr. Ludovic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer) Zamenhof (December 15, 1859–April 14, 1917) was an ophthalmologist, philologist, and the initiator of Esperanto, the most widely spoken planned language to date. His native languages were Russian and Yiddish, but he also spoke Polish and German fluently. Later he learned French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English, and he also had an interest in Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian.

Zamenhof was born on December 15, 1859 in the town of Białystok (in what is now Poland but was then part of the Russian Empire) to a Russian father and Jewish mother. The town's population was made up of three major ethnic groups: Poles, Belorusians, and a large group of Yiddish-speaking Jews. Zamenhof was saddened and frustrated by the many quarrels between these groups. He supposed that the main reason for the hate and prejudice lay in mutual misunderstanding, caused by the lack of one common language that would play the role of a neutral communication tool between people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.

As a student at secondary school in Warsaw, Zamenhof made attempts to create some kind of international language with a grammar that was very rich, but also very complex. When he studied English (along with German, French, Latin and Greek), he decided that the international language must have a relatively simple grammar with a wide use of suffixes to make new forms of the words.

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By 1878, his project Lingwe uniwersala was almost finished. However Zamenhof was too young then to publish his work. Soon after graduation from school he began to study medicine, first in Moscow, and later in Warsaw. In 1885, Zamenhof graduated from a university and began his practice as an ophthalmologist. While healing people he continued to work on his project of the international language.

For two years he tried to raise funds to publish a booklet describing the language until he received the financial help from his future wife's father. In 1887, the book titled as "Lingvo internacia. Antaŭparolo kaj plena lernolibro" (International Language. Foreword And Complete Textbook) was published under the pseudonym "Doktoro Esperanto" (Doctor Hopeful), from which the name of the language derives. For Zamenhof this language wasn't merely a communication tool, but a means of spreading his ideas on the peaceful coexistence of different peoples and cultures. Among the many works he translated into Esperanto is the Old Testament.

Dr. Zamenhof and his wife Klara raised three children: a son, Adam, and two daughters, Sofia and Lidia. All three perished in the Holocaust.

Lidia Zamenhof in particular took a keen interest in Esperanto, and as an adult became a teacher of the language, traveling 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 Bahá’í faith. As one of its social principles, the Bahá’í faith teaches that an auxilliary world language must be selected by the representatives of all the world's nations.

Dr. Zamenhof died in Warsaw on April 14, 1917, and is buried in the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in that city. He is considered a god by the Oomoto religion.

1 Homaranismo
2 Name discrepancy
3 Namesakes
4 References
5 External links

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Homaranismo

Dr. Zamenhof also published a religious philosophy he called Homaranismo (humanitarianism), based on the principles and teachings of Hillel the Elder. This may have been part of what later attracted Lidia to the Bahá’í faith.

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Name discrepancy

Zamenhof's parents gave him the Hebrew name Eliezer (Lazarus), which for legal reasons appeared on his birth certificate in its Russian form Lejzer. He would have also been known by his patronymic Markovich. His family name was written Samenhof at the time; the form Zamenhof did not appear until after the publication of Esperanto.

While at university, Zamenhof chose the gentile name Ludwik (Ludovic) in honor of Francis LODWICK (LODOWYCK), who in 1652 had published an early conlang proposal. When his brother Leon became a doctor and started signing his name "Dr L. Zamenhof", Ludovic reclaimed his birth name Lazarus and from 1901 signed his name "Dr L. L. Zamenhof". The two L's do not seem to have specifically represented either name, and the order Ludovic Lazarus is a modern convention.

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Namesakes

The minor planet (1462) Zamenhof is named in his honor. It was discovered on February 6, 1938 by Yrjö Väisälä.

Hundreds of city streets worldwide have been named after Zamenhof, especially in France, Poland, Spain (mostly in Catalonia), and Brazil. There are Zamenhof Streets in central Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. (The Jerusalem street signs, which identify him as Esperanto's creator and give his birth and death dates, currently misrepresent his name as "A. Zamenhof.")

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