Unua Libro

Unua Libro por Rusoj (first edition, 1887, in Russian)

Unua Libro por Angloj (first edition in English, 1888)

The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language, Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, "inter-national language"). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887 in Warsaw, and over the next couple years later editions were published in Russian, Hebrew, Polish, French, German, and English. This booklet included the Lord's Prayer, some Bible verses, a letter, poetry, the sixteen rules of grammar and 900 roots of vocabulary. Zamenhof declared, "an international language, like a national one, is common property." Zamenhof signed the work as "Doktoro Esperanto" and the title Esperanto stuck as the name of the language which, in Esperanto, means "one who hopes".

In 1905, Zamenhof re-published the sixteen rules of grammar, in combination with a "universal dictionary" and a collection of exercises, in a work entitled Fundamento de Esperanto ("Foundation of Esperanto"). At the first Esperanto World Congress at Boulogne in the same year, a declaration was issued, including the following:

On the basis of Zamenhof's declaration that an international language is "common property", comparisons are sometimes drawn between Esperanto and what would today be called an Open source project. However, the context of declaration of the language as being "common property" was that Zamenhof was abrogating his personal rights and privileges as its creator; the language itself remained subject to substantial controls on its modification.

External links

These reprints of the Unua Libro have no ISBN.
* Meždunarodnyj jazyk: Predislovie i polnyj učebnik Moscow: Moskva Gazeto, 1992. Facsimile reprint of the Unua Libro in Russian.
* Ludovikologia dokumentaro I Tokyo: Ludovikito, 1991. Facsimile reprints of the Unua Libro in Russian, Polish, French, German, English and Swedish, with the earliest Esperanto dictionaries for those languages.