Dr. Esperanto’s International Language, Introduction and Complete Grammar

L. L. Zamenhof (1859 - 1917)
Translated by Richard Geoghegan (1866 - 1943)

In July 1887, Esperanto made its debut as a 40-page pamphlet from Warsaw, published in Russian, Polish, French and German: all written by a Polish eye-doctor under the pen-name of Dr. Esperanto (“one who hopes”). Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917) had a gift for languages, and a calling to help foster world amity: by a neutral “Internacia Lingvo” that anyone anywhere could readily use as a second language: neither forsaking a mother tongue, nor imposing it. In 1889 Zamenhof published an English translation by Richard H. Geoghegan, a young Irish linguist. All five are respectively considered the “First Book”. This classic sets forth Esperanto pretty much as we know it today (except that we no longer use internal apostrophes for composite words). Its original repertoire of 900 root words has grown tenfold in the past century, but you can still almost make do with the vocabulary herein. -- Summary by Gene Keyes

Genre(s): Language learning

Language: Esperanto

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Section 00 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:10:52
Play 01 Section 01 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:05:02
Play 02 Section 02 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:14:08
Play 03 Section 03 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:08:31
Play 04 Section 04 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:12:27
Play 05 Section 05 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:04:09
Play 06 Section 06 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:09:00
Play 07 Section 07 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:04:15
Play 08 Section 08 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:22:17
Play 09 Section 09 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:09:22
Play 10 Section 10 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:23:37
Play 11 Section 11 Nicholas James Bridgewater
00:13:33