Zamenhof-Esperanto object

L. L. Zamenhof bust in the Esperantopark in Vienna

Zamenhof street in Warsaw

A stone in Sopot commemorating Esperanto congresses of 1927 and 1959

Hotel Esperanto Kongress- / Kulturzentrum in Fulda (built in 2005)

Hungarian postage stamp commemorating the 14th International Esperanto Congress of Railway Men (Budapest, 1962)

A Zamenhof-Esperanto object (in Esperanto Zamenhof/Esperanto-Objekto, abbreviation ZEO) is a monument or a place linked to L. L. Zamenhof, the artificial language Esperanto he created in 1887, or the community of Esperanto speakers which has been using the language since.

Types of objects

Zamenhof-Esperanto objects are streets, memorials, other public spaces such as squares, parks or bridges. Zamenhof or Esperanto sometimes appear also in the names of buildings and companies such as hospitals, hotels or translation agencies. There have also been vehicles, such as zeppelins, ships and trains named after Zamenhof or Esperanto, and some species, rivers, islands, asteroids and other natural discoveries bear such names too. Even postage stamps or a computer virus commemorating Zamenhof or Esperanto are considered ZEOs.

History of Zamenhof-Esperanto objects and their registration

The first Zamenhof-Esperanto object ever was a ship called Esperanto, which was constructed and launched in Spain in 1896, nine years after the language's birth. The 1934 Encyclopedia of Esperanto gives a list of approximately 54 towns and cities in which Esperanto or Zamenhof have been honored in this way. In 1997, a German Esperantist, Hugo Röllinger, published a book titled Monumente pri Esperanto – ilustrita dokumentaro pri 1044 Zamenhof/Esperanto-objektoj en 54 landoj ("Monumentally about Esperanto – an illustrated documentary of 1044 Zamenhof-Esperanto objects in 54 countries") and until his death in 2001 he listed a total of 1260 such objects.^[1] It is he who coined the acronym ZEO. Currently, Robert Kamiński of Poland is the person charged with the registration of ZEOs by the World Esperanto Association.^[2]

Notable ZEOs

The highest number of ZEOs per country is situated in Brazil. In Poland, the birthplace of Esperanto, there are more than a hundred of them.

• The earliest object
  • Esperanto ship in Spain, constructed and launched in 1896
• The tallest object
  • The 12 meters high Zamenhof monument in Sabadell (Spain) dating from 1989
• The longest object
  • The 4 kilometers long Esperanto street in São Sebastião do Cai (Brazil)
• The northernmost objects
  • A commemorating Esperanto monument in Narvik (Norway) at 68°25' N
  • Esperanto Creek in Alaska (United States) at 63°27' N
  • Cape Esperanto (Svalbard) at 78°37' N
• The southernmost objects
  • Esperanto tree in Tasmania (Australia) at 42° S
  • Zamenhof monument and Esperanto street in Mar del Plata (Argentina)
  • Zamenhof street in Port Elizabeth (South Africa)
  • Esperanto Island in Antarctica at 62°25'43" S
• The most remote objects
  • Asteroids 1462 Zamenhof and 1421 Esperanto
  • Inscription in Esperanto on the discs carried by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft on their journey out of the Solar System

See also

• Esperanto culture

References

1. Gazetaraj Komunikoj N-ro 140 (2001-11-22): Raymond Boré daŭrigas la laboron de Röllinger
2. Universala Esperanto-Asocio: Komisionoj kaj komisiitoj

External links

• List of ZEOs recorded in Röllinger's 1997 book
• List and images of postal stamps on the topic of Esperanto
• Information about ships named after Esperanto and Zamenhof