Comparison between Esperanto and Ido

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Part of a series on
Esperanto
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History Zamenhof Proto-Esperanto Unua Libro Dua Libro La Esperantisto Fundamento de Esperanto Declaration of Boulogne Montevideo Resolution Manifesto of Rauma Manifesto of Prague Modern evolution of Esperanto
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Related topics Auxiliary language Constructed language Ido Homaranismo Linguistic discrimination
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Ido
Language Grammar Phonology Union vs. Esperanto vs. Interlingua vs. Novial
History Beaufront Couturat Jespersen Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language
Related Auxiliary language Constructed language Esperanto Esperantido Adjuvilo
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Esperanto and Ido are constructed international auxiliary languages, with Ido being an Esperantido derived from Esperanto and Reformed Esperanto. The number of speakers is estimated at 100 thousand to 2 million for Esperanto, whereas Ido is much fewer at 100 to 1 thousand.

Esperanto was developed by L. L. Zamenhof, who published it in 1887 under the pseudonym Dr Esperanto. It immediately became popular, but soon the members of the movements were making suggestions as to how they thought it might be improved. Zamenhof responded by making a list of possible changes to Esperanto and in 1894 put them before the Esperanto community. If accepted they would create what Dr Zamenhof called a "Reformed Esperanto". This proposed reformed Esperanto is sometimes referred to as Esperanto 1894. However, when the Esperanto community was invited to vote on whether to adopt the proposals, they rejected the proposals by a large majority.

Ido was created around a quarter of a century after Esperanto. The name Ido means "offspring" in Esperanto and was so named by its creators because it was a development of Esperanto. The creation of Ido led to a schism between those who believed that Esperanto should be left as it was and those who believed that it had what they perceived as inherent flaws which made it not quite good enough to be the world's international auxiliary language. Those who opposed change maintained that it was endless tinkering that had led, in their opinion, to the decline of Volapük, a once popular constructed language that had predated Esperanto's publication by a few years. They also cited the rejection of Zamenhof's 1894 reform proposals.

The languages of Esperanto and Ido remain close, and largely mutually intelligible, like two dialects of the same language. Just as dialects of a language are quite often sources of new words for that language through literature, so Ido has contributed many neologisms to Esperanto (especially in poetic substitutes for long words using the mal- prefix).