Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international language. The name derives from Doktoro Esperanto (Dr. Hopeful), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the language in 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy-to-learn and flexible language as a universal second language to foster international understanding.
Although Esperanto is not official in any country or at the United Nations, it has, since its publication, enjoyed continuous usage by a small but growing community. Today Esperanto is employed in world travel, correspondence, cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction and radio broadcasting. There are even a thousand or so native Esperanto speakers.
Wikipedia in Esperanto (Vikipedio) achieved the milestone of 100,000 articles on June 15, 2008, a remarkable feat for a planned-language Wikipedia version.
