L. L. Zamenhof given name Lazarus
Biography
Early years
Zamenhof was born on 15 December 1859, the son of Mark and Rozalia Zamenhof (née Sofer), in the multi-ethnic city of Belostok (now Białystok in Poland). At that time, the city was in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire. His parents were of Litvak Jewish descent. He appears to have been natively bilingual in Yiddish and Russian. His father was a teacher of German and French. From him, Zamenhof learned both languages, as well as Hebrew. He also spoke some major languages of Białystok, such as Polish and Belarusian. Polish became the native language of his children in Warsaw. In school, he studied the classical languages Latin, Greek, and Aramaic. He later learned some English, though in his own words not very well. He had an interest in Lithuanian and Italian and learned Volapük when it came out in 1880. By that time, his international language project was already well developed.In addition to the Jewish Yiddish-speaking minority, the population of Białystok included Roman Catholic Poles and Eastern Orthodox Russians (mainly government officials), with smaller groups of Belarusians, Germans and other ethnic groups. Zamenhof was saddened and frustrated by the many quarrels among these groups. He supposed that the main reason for the hate and prejudice lay in the mutual misunderstanding caused by the lack of a common language. If such a language existed, Zamenhof postulated, it could play the role of a neutral communication tool between people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.
As a student at secondary school in Warsaw, Zamenhof attempted to create an international language with a grammar that was rich, but complex. When he later studied English, he decided that the international language must have a simpler grammar. Apart from his parents' native languages Russian and Yiddish and his adopted language Polish, his projects were also aided by his mastery of German, a good passive understanding of Latin, Hebrew and French, and a basic knowledge of Greek, English and Italian.By 1878, his project Lingwe uniwersala was finished. However, Zamenhof was too young then to publish his work. Soon after graduation he began to study medicine, first in Moscow, and later in Warsaw. In 1885, Zamenhof graduated from university and began his practice as a doctor in Veisiejai. After 1886, he worked as an ophthalmologist in Płock and Vienna. While healing people there, he continued to work on his project of an international language.
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