InfoPersons, originating from Poland
Ludwik Zamenhof
Born December 15, 1859 in Białystokk Died April 14, 1917 in Warsaw
Known as Ludwik Lejzer or Ludwik Łazarz Zamenhof
The inventor of Esperanto, the most widely spoken
and successful constructed language in the world
He was also an eye doctor and a philologist. His native languages were Polish, Russian and Yiddish. Zamenhof was born to parents of Lithuanian Jewish descent. Białystok's population was made up of three major ethnic groups: Poles, Belarusians, and a large group of Yiddish-speaking Jews. Zamenhof supposed that the main reason for the hate and prejudice between those groups layed 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.
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.
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