The universal language that never became universal still survives

Esperanto is the world’s best-known constructed language, created in the late 19th century by Polish Jewish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof.

He designed it as an easy-to-learn second language that could allow people from different countries to communicate without giving one national language greater status than another.

The project never became the universal means of communication its early supporters imagined, but it did not disappear. Nearly 140 years after Zamenhof published its foundations in 1887, Esperanto still has speakers, organizations, publications, courses and international events.

More than 1,000 participants from over 60 countries gathered in Brno, Czechia, for the 110th World Esperanto Congress in 2025. Harper’s Magazine reported a program of lectures, cultural activities and meetings involving professional and special-interest associations.

Today, Esperanto is sustained less by official institutions than by people who choose to use it for education, correspondence, travel and face-to-face exchange.

A community works in Esperanto

The Universal Esperanto Association, founded in 1908, says it has members in 120 countries. It promotes the language, organizes international activities and draws attention to inequality between language communities.

Esperanto’s regular structure can reduce some difficulties for beginners. Nouns, adjectives and adverbs have consistent endings, while verbs follow predictable patterns. New terms can be created by combining roots with prefixes and suffixes.

The Akademio de Esperanto helps maintain that consistency by preserving the language’s basic principles and overseeing its development.

Automatic translation can move information between languages. Esperanto communities require a different commitment as participants voluntarily learn the same language before joining the conversation.

Travel gives it purpose

Pasporta Servo turns that shared knowledge into a hospitality network. Established in 1974, it connects Esperanto-speaking travellers with hosts who offer accommodation without charging for lodging.

The organization says hosts are available in more than 100 countries. Both visitors and hosts must know Esperanto, making conversation and cultural exchange central to the service.

Online courses, videos and discussion groups have also made the community easier to enter. People no longer need a nearby club before beginning their studies or contacting experienced speakers abroad.

Survival took new forms

During the early 20th century, Esperanto gained support among pacifists, socialist organizers, anarchists and other internationalist groups in Europe and beyond. Many saw it as a way for workers and activists in different countries to communicate without relying on the language of a dominant state.

That political association brought consequences. Esperanto speakers were persecuted in Stalin’s Soviet Union because their international contacts were treated with suspicion. Nazi Germany banned Esperanto organizations and teaching, while some speakers were also targeted in Spain during and shortly after the civil war because of the language’s links to anarchism and anti-nationalism.

The movement never persuaded governments to adopt Esperanto on a broad scale. Instead, it survived through organizations such as the Universal Esperanto Association, annual international congresses, Esperanto-language publications and Pasporta Servo, the hospitality network that connects speakers with hosts in more than 100 countries.

Its success is therefore visible in specific institutions and habits rather than in official policy. Esperanto remains in use because speakers continue to teach it, publish in it, travel through it and meet one another through a network built over generations.

Sources: Harper’s Magazine, Universal Esperanto Association, Akademio de Esperanto, Pasporta Servo

This article is made and published by Kenneth Glad, who may have used AI in the preparation