Esperanto lexicographers

Esperanto lexicographersare individuals or groups, whether enthusiastic amateurs or trained linguists, who have produced single-language or bilingualdictionaries of Esperanto.

More than 130Esperantists,working singly or collectively, have published such dictionaries; several of these authors are listed in the "Esperanto lexicographers"category.

In the specific case of Esperanto, most dictionary authors historically were and today still are non-specialists in the field oflexicography.A notable exception isErich-Dieter Krause,a German professor ofIndonesian,who wrote comprehensive dictionaries, bothGerman–Esperanto(2007) and Esperanto-German (1999).

Though most Esperanto dictionary compilers have been men, notable female Esperanto lexicographers includeAdriana J. Middelkoop,who wroteDutch–Esperantoand Esperanto–Dutch dictionaries (1971) andIlona Koutny,chief editor of aHungarian–Esperantodictionary, 1996).

Because compiling a dictionary demands great linguistic expertise and may be the labour of many years, most dictionary writers were only able to accomplish the feat in their elder years; however, theAustrianEugen Wüsterwrote the core of his encyclopedic Esperanto–German dictionary, published in 1923, as an early-20s university student. The GermanEckhard Bick,having emigrated to Denmark, published hisDanishdictionary at 32.

The professions of Esperanto lexicographers vary widely; one may find teachers (Atanas D. Atanasov,Paul Bennemann,Émile Grosjean-Maupin,Boris Kolker,etc.), theologians likeJan Filip,literary professionals such asGaston Waringhien,translators (Fernando de Diego) or journalists (Joseph Rhodes, Razen Manandhar), but also many technicians and engineers (Rüdiger Eichholz,Ottó Haszpra,etc.) BothAndré AlbaultandL.L. Zamenhofwereophthalmologists,whileMontagu C. Butlerwas a musician.

Sometimes, too, a collective has compiled a dictionary. An example is the editorial committee of theJapanese Esperanto Institute,under the guidance ofKonisi GakuandGotoo Hitosi.Founded in 1990, the committee eventually published itsEsperanto–Japanesedictionary in 2006.