MONOCULTURE – Universal Languages
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Esperanto is the mostly widely used artificial language in the world. In 1887, Ludwik Zamenhof (1859-1917), the inventor of Esperanto, published a small book in Russian entitled Международный язык / Lingvo Internacia (commonly referred to as Unua Libro). Declining the principle of authorship, he modestly signed the book as Dr. Esperanto, meaning “one who hopes”. The hope was to create a language that would promote a peaceful coexistence between people of different cultures. Esperanto gained popularity with many Esperantist groups popping up around the world. Despite repression throughout the 20th century by authoritarian regimes, the development of the Esperantist community has continued into the present day. Jarlibro is the oldest continuous publication of the Universal Esperanto Association. La Nova Epoko (The New Epoch) was an international literary and social magazine of general left-wing orientation, founded in 1922 by four Soviet Esperantists. The initiator of Esperanto, Ludwik Zamenhof was the first to translate the entire Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh or Old Testament) into Esperanto. The New Testament was translated later by a team of Esperanto speaking British clergy and scholars from the British and Foreign Bible Society, and completed in 1912. The translations of both Testaments were then harmonised and printed in 1926 as La Sankta Biblio (The Holy Bible) often called La Londona Biblio (London Bible).
