Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

Time limit: 3 minutes 
Esperanto 
Esperanto is an artificial language designed to serve internationally as an auxiliary 
means of communication among speakers of different languages. Esperanto, the 
creation of Ludwig Zamenhof, a Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist, was first presented in 
1887. An international movement to promote its use has continued to flourish and has 
members in more than 80 countries. 
Esperanto is used internationally across language boundaries by about one million 
people, particularly in specialized fields. It is used in personal contacts, on radio 
broadcasts, and in a number of publications as well as in translations of both modern 
works and classics. Its popularity has spread from Europe – both East and West – to 
such countries a s Brazil and Japan. It is in China, however, that Esperanto has had its 
greatest impact. It is taught in universities and used in many translations (often in 
scientific or technological works). El Popola Cinio, a monthly magazine in Esperanto 
from the people’s Republic of China, is read worldwide. Radio Beijing’s Esperanto 
program is the most popular program in Esperanto in the world. 
Esperanto’s vocabulary is drawn primarily from Latin, the Romance languages, English 
and German. Spelling is completely regular. A simple and consistent set of endings 
indicates grammatical functions of words. Thus, for example, every noun ends in -o, 
every adjective in -a, and the initiative of every verb in -i. 
Questions: 
1. Who created Esperanto? … 
2. When was Esperanto created? … 
3. How many people use Esperanto? … 
4. Name TWO countries where Esperanto is used. … 
5. In which country is Esperanto taught at universities? … 
6. Does Esperanto vocabulary come from eastern or western languages? … 
7. What kinds of words end in -a in Esperanto? … 

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