Around 1,300 Esperanto aficionados met in Nitra,western Slovakia, on Sunday for the World Esperanto Congress.

The World Esperanto Congress is held every year in a different country. It is the first time to be organised in Slovakia, confirmed the preparatory committee chairman Peter Balaz on Sunday.

Although Slovakia is a country with a very small percentage of Esperanto speakers, Slovak Esperanto speakers are among the most active.

"Many Slovak Esperanto speakers are internationally known people who operate in various institutions and in various posts. They include editors of foreign media, writers, travellers delivering lectures all over the world," stressed Balaz.

Balaz noted that Esperanto's vocabulary contains tens of thousands of words, and the explanatory dictionary in Esperanto includes around 50,000 words.

"The advantage of the language is that people don't have to memorise every single word thanks to an interesting grammar principle. It's enough to know a word-forming root, and new words are created with the use of prefixes and suffixes. Fifty more words can thus be created from one word. It's enough to know 3,000 words for ordinary communication in Esperanto," said Balaz.

The history of Esperanto dates back to the 19th century. It's used by a community of around two million people worldwide. Endit

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