Proto-Esperanto

thumb | right Proto-Esperanto () is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhof's language project, prior to the publication of in 1887.

==The Neo-Jewish language of ca. 1879== The precursors to the Esperanto alphabet can be found in Zamenhof's proposal for the use of Latin script in his Litvish-based unified Yiddish project (, "Neo-Jewish language"). The consonant letters are equivalent to those of modern Esperanto, apart from lacking a letter for . The diacritic, however, is an acute: ć, h́, ś, ź (the last for Esperanto ĵ ). The vowel letters are the same apart from there being no ŭ. Their values are similar to Esperanto in the Litvish reading, with the addition of oŭ, though Poylish reading is divergent. There was in addition a letter ě for the schwa, which only appeared before the consonants l and n and was replaced by e in some circumstances. The circumflex is used, but indicates that a letter is not pronounced: e.g. is pronounced . The following is a sample, with Litvish and Poylish readings: