{"id":"l-l-zamenhof","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/l-l-zamenhof","language":"en","name":"L. L. Zamenhof","name_en":"L. L. Zamenhof","name_ne":null,"description":"Polish-Jewish physician and inventor of Esperanto (1859-1917)","headline":"Polish-Jewish physician and inventor of Esperanto (1859-1917)","also_known_as":[],"summary":"L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 1859 – 14 April 1917) was the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language.","summary_more":["Zamenhof published Esperanto in 1887, although his initial ideas date back as far as 1873. He grew up fascinated by the idea of a world without war and believed that this could happen with the help of a new international auxiliary language (IAL). The language was intended as a tool to gather people together through neutral, fair, equitable communication. He successfully formed a community which has survived to this day, despite the World Wars of the 20th century and various attempts to reform the language or create more modern IALs (Esperanto itself had displaced another similarly-motivated language, Volapük). Additionally, Esperanto has developed like other languages: through the interaction and creativity of its users.","In light of his achievements, and his support of intercultural dialogue, UNESCO selected Zamenhof as one of its eminent personalities of 2017, on the 100th anniversary of his death. According to Esperanto communities, as of 2019 there are approximately 2 million people speaking Esperanto, including approximately 1,000 native speakers, although evidence to that has been heavily disputed, and the last major effort to improve the estimate occurred in 2004."],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"15 December 1859","date":"1859-12-15"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Białystok","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q761"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P19"}},{"key":"died","label":"Died","values":[{"text":"14 April 1917","date":"1917-04-14"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P570"}},{"key":"deathplace","label":"Place of death","values":[{"text":"Warsaw","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q270"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P20"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Russian Empire","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34266"},{"text":"Kingdom of Poland","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q696908"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"linguist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14467526"},{"text":"ophthalmologist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12013238"},{"text":"inventor","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q205375"},{"text":"poet","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49757"},{"text":"translator","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q333634"},{"text":"Esperantist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q860918"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"Medical faculty of Moscow University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28064984"},{"text":"Imperial University of Warsaw","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28667128"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P69"}},{"key":"spouse","label":"Spouse","values":[{"text":"Klara Zamenhof","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11739625","start":"1887-08-09"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P26"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Knight of the Legion of Honour","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10855271","date":"1905"},{"text":"Honorary President of the World Esperanto Association","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3911041","start":"1907","end":"1917"},{"text":"Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17366245","date":"1909"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758"],"faq":[{"q":"When was L. L. Zamenhof born?","a":"L. L. Zamenhof was born on 15 December 1859 in Białystok."},{"q":"Where did L. L. Zamenhof study?","a":"L. L. Zamenhof was educated at Medical faculty of Moscow University, Imperial University of Warsaw."}],"related":[{"name":"Alfred Nobel","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-nobel"},{"name":"André-Marie Ampère","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andre-marie-ampere"},{"name":"Antoine de Saint-Exupéry","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/antoine-de-saint-exupery"},{"name":"Archimedes","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/archimedes"},{"name":"Christiaan Huygens","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/christiaan-huygens"},{"name":"James Clerk Maxwell","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/james-clerk-maxwell"},{"name":"James Watt","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/james-watt"},{"name":"Johannes Kepler","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/johannes-kepler"},{"name":"Leonhard Euler","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/leonhard-euler"},{"name":"Michael Faraday","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/michael-faraday"},{"name":"Richard Stallman","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/richard-stallman"},{"name":"Sergei Eisenstein","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/sergei-eisenstein"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/l-l-zamenhof-6c07d63b1a.jpg","width":500,"height":662,"license":"Public domain","credit":"Unknown author Unknown author","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zamenhof_portreto.jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): L. L. Zamenhof","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q11758","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11758","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Zamenhof portreto.jpg by Unknown author Unknown author (Public domain)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zamenhof_portreto.jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article L. L. Zamenhof, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Zamenhof portreto.jpg — Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain.","cite":"\"L. L. Zamenhof\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/l-l-zamenhof. Retrieved 6 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T14:28:19Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/l-l-zamenhof","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/l-l-zamenhof","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/l-l-zamenhof?lang=ne"}}