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

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

The Unua Libro (First Book) was the first publication to describe the international language Esperanto (then called Lingvo Internacia, "international language"). It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887 in Warsaw, by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. Over the next few years 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 is hoping".

The first English edition, entitled "Dr Esperanto's International Tongue", was translated by Julian Steinhaus. When Richard H. Geoghegan pointed out that Steinhaus's translation was in very poor English throughout, Zamenhof destroyed his remaining copies and engaged Geoghegan to produce a fresh translation.

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").

[edit] See also

• Dua Libro

[edit] External links

• Online HTML reprint of Dr. Esperanto's International Language: Introduction and Complete Grammar (English translation of "Unua Libro" by R. H. Geoghegan, 1889) http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.html

• LibriVox free audiobook of Dr. Esperanto's International Language: Introduction and Complete Grammar (English translation of "Unua Libro" by R. H. Geoghegan, 1889), mp3 or ogg files, read by Nicholas James Bridgewater http://librivox.org/dr-esperantos-international-language-introduction-and-complete-grammar-by-ll-zamenhof/

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.