Interlingue

Interlingue ([interˈliŋɡwe]; ISO 639 language codes ie, ile), known until 1949 as Occidental ([oktsidenˈtaːl]), is a planned international auxiliary language created by Edgar de Wahl, a Baltic German naval officer and teacher from Tallinn, Estonia, and published in 1922. The vocabulary is based on already existing words from various languages and a system of derivation using recognized prefixes and suffixes. The language is thereby naturalistic, at the same time as it is constructed to be regular. Occidental was quite popular in the years up to, during, and shortly after the Second World War, but declined thereafter until the advent of the Internet[2][3].

Not to be confused with Interlingua or Occitan.
Interlingue
Occidental
Interlingue
Created byEdgar de Wahl
Date1922
Setting and usageInternational auxiliary language
Purpose
Early form
Auli
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-1ie
ISO 639-2ile
ISO 639-3ile
ile
Glottologinte1260[1]

Interlingue is devised so that many of its derived word forms reflect the forms common to a number of Western European languages, primarily those in the Romance family,[4][5][6] along with a certain amount of Germanic vocabulary. Many words were formed through application of de Wahl's rule, a set of rules for regular conversion of verb infinitives into derived words including from double-stem verbs of Latin origin (e.g. vider to see and its derivative vision). The result is a language easy to understand at first sight for individuals acquainted with several Western European languages. This readability and simplified grammar along with the regular appearance of the magazine Cosmoglotta made Occidental popular in Europe during the 15 years before World War II.[7]

In The Esperanto Book, Don Harlow says that Occidental had an intentional emphasis on European forms, and that some of its leading followers espoused a Eurocentric philosophy,[8] which may have hindered its spread. Still, Occidental gained adherents in many nations including Asian nations.[9]

Occidental survived World War II, undergoing a name change to Interlingue, but faded into insignificance following the appearance in 1951 of a competing naturalistic project, Interlingua,[10] which attracted among others the notable Occidentalist Ric Berger.[11] The emergence of Interlingua occurred around the same time that Edgar de Wahl, who had opted to remain in Tallinn, was sent to a sanitarium by Soviet authorities and was not permitted to correspond with Occidentalists in Western Europe. His death was confirmed in 1948.[12] The proposal to change the name from Occidental to Interlingue was twofold: to attempt to demonstrate to the Soviet Union the neutrality of the language, and in hopes of a union with Interlingua.

History and activity
The first issue of Kosmoglott (later Cosmoglotta), published in haste after the announcement that the League of Nations was studying the problem of an international language.

Beginnings

The activities of Occidental and its users can be seen through the magazine Cosmoglotta, which began publication in 1922 in Tallinn, Estonia under the name Kosmoglott. The language announced that year was a product of years of personal experimentation by de Wahl under the name Auli (auxiliary language), which he used during the period from 1906 to 1921 and which later on gained the nickname proto-Occidental.[13] During the development of the language de Wahl explained his approach in a letter to an acquaintance the Baron d'Orczy written in Auli: "My direction in the creation of a universal language seems quite regressive to you...I understand that quite well, because I am starting it right from the other end. I do not begin with the alphabet and the grammar and then have to adopt the vocabulary to it, but just the other way around: I take all international material of words, suffixes, endings, grammatical forms etc., and then I work to organize that material, put it in order, compile, interpolate, extrapolate and sift through it."[14] During the development of Occidental through Auli, de Wahl corresponded frequently with the Italian mathematician and creator of Latino sine flexione Giuseppe Peano and gained an appreciation for the international vocabulary in that language, writing that "I believe the "Vocabulario commune" book by Professor Peano to already be a more valuable and scientific work than the entire scholastic literature of Ido on imaginary things evoked by the "fundamento" of Zamenhof."[14]

Participants at an Occidental gathering in Vienna, 1928: Engelbert Pigal, Karl Janotta, A. Deminger, Hanns Hörbiger, Eugen Moess, Franz Houdek, Johann Robert Hörbiger
Meeting of Occidental (Interlingue) language users in Vienna in 1927.

Occidental was announced in 1922 at a stage of near but not total completion.[15][16] De Wahl had not intended to announce the language for another few years but did so then through the publication of Kosmoglott after hearing that the League of Nations had begun an inquiry into the question of an international language[17] and after receiving a favorable reply the year before from Under-Secretary General Nitobe Inazō of the League of Nations which had adopted a resolution on the subject on 15 September 1921.[18] However, the first known publication in Occidental, a booklet "Transcendent algebra" by Jacob Linzbach appeared already in 1921.[19]

Occidental began gathering followers despite a complete lack of grammars and dictionaries[20] due to its readability. Two years later in 1924, de Wahl wrote that he was in correspondence with some 30 people[21] "in good Occidental" despite the lack of learning material. Two Ido societies joined Occidental in the same year, one in Vienna, Austria called IdoSocieto Progreso (renamed as Societé Cosmoglott Progress) and the Societo Progreso in Brno, Czechoslovakia, which changed its name to Federali (Federation del amicos del lingue international)[22]. The first dictionary was published the next year in 1925, the radicarium directiv[23] which was a collection of Occidental root words and their equivalents in 8 languages.

For a number of years Kosmoglott was a forum for various other planned languages, while still mainly written in Occidental. Until 1924 the magazine was also affiliated with the Academia pro Interlingua,[24] which promoted Peano's Latino sine flexione. In 1927 the name was changed to Cosmoglotta as it began to officially promote Occidental in lieu of other languages,[25] and in January of the same year[26] the magazine's editorial and administrative office was moved to Vienna, Austria in the region of Mauer, now part of Liesing. Much of the early success for Occidental in this period came from the office's new central location, along with the efforts of Engelbert Pigal, also from Austria, whose article Li Ovre de Edgar de Wahl (The Work of Edgar de Wahl) led to interest in Occidental from users of the Ido language.[26]

Vienna period, World War II and language standardization
PR postcard with Occidental text created in 1928 in Vienna

Besides the new location in a city much closer to the centre of Europe, the Vienna period was also marked by financial stability for the first time due to the support from a number of backers, particularly Hans Hörbiger, also from Vienna, and G.A. Moore from London, from which "Cosmoglotta was able to live without difficulty and gained a circle of readers despite the economic crisis".[27] This did not last long as Hörbiger and Moore died at "nearly the same time" in 1931, and Cosmoglotta was again forced to rely on revenue from subscriptions, publications and the like.

The growing Occidental movement began a more assertive campaign for the language in the early 1930s,[28] leveraging its at-sight readability by contacting organizations such as embassies, printing houses and the League of Nations using letters in Occidental that were often understood and responded to (in the organization's own working language),[29] usually including the phrasing below: Scrit in lingue international "Occidental" ("Written in the international language Occidental"). A large number of numbered "documents" were produced at this time as well to introduce the concept of an international language and advocate Occidental as the answer to Europe's "tower of Babel".[30] Recordings of spoken Occidental on phonograph (gramophone) records for distribution also began to be made in this period.[31][32]

The years from 1935 to 1939 were particularly active for Cosmoglotta, during which a second edition was produced along with the original Cosmoglotta: Cosmoglotta B (originally called Cosmoglotta-Informationes) which focused on more linguistic issues, reports of Occidental in the news, financial updates and other items of internal interest. In early 1936, not counting the 110 issues of Cosmoglotta and any other journals and bulletins, a total of 80 publications[33][34] existed in and about Occidental. At the same time, the years leading up to the Second World War led to difficulties for Occidental along with other planned languages which were made illegal in Germany[35] along with Austria[36] and Czechoslovakia, forced to disband,[37] kept under Gestapo surveillance,[38] and had their didactic materials destroyed.[39] The interdiction of auxiliary languages in Germany was particularly damaging as this was where most Occidentalists lived at the time.[40] The inability to accept payment for subscriptions was a financial blow as well, a difficulty that continued after the war when Germany was divided into zones of influence and payments were still not permitted. No communication took place between Edgar de Wahl in Tallinn and the Occidental Union in Switzerland from 1939 to October 1947,[41] first due to the war itself and thereafter from intercepted mail between Switzerland and the Soviet Union, which bewildered de Wahl who had sent multiple letters and even a large collection of translated poetry into Occidental which were never delivered. In 1940 no issues of either Cosmoglotta were produced, but in 1941 Cosmoglotta B began publication once again and continued until 1950.[42] An edition of either Cosmoglotta A or B was published every month between January 1937 and September 1939, and then (after the initial shock of the war) every month from September 1941 to June 1951.[42] The opting for Cosmoglotta B during this period was due to only those in neutral Switzerland and Sweden being able to fully devote themselves to the language, who carried on activities in a semi-official form using it.

One of these activities was language standardization. De Wahl had created Occidental with a number of unchangeable features, but believed that others that had more than one permissible form could not be resolved by decree alone and left the ultimate decision to the community by including both possible forms in the first Occidental dictionaries.[43] One example concerned the verb scrir (to write) and a possible other form scripter. De Wahl expressed a preference for scrir, finding scripter to be somewhat heavy, but commented that scripter was certainly permissible, and also surmised that Occidental might take on a similar evolution to natural languages[44] where both forms come into common use, the longer and more Latin-like form having a heavier and more formal character and the shorter a lighter and more everyday tone (cf. English story vs. history).

The decision over etymologic vs. recognizable spellings in words such as attractive (adtractiv, attractiv or atractiv) and oppression (obpression vs. oppression vs. opression) is one[45] example where community usage quickly led to a rejection of the first option and eventually settled on the third. Much of Occidental's vocabulary was solved in this way (e.g. both ac[46] and anc were proposed for the word "also" but ac was hardly if ever used), but not all. With questions still remaining about the official form of some words and a lack of general material destined for the general public,[47] during World War II much time was spent on standardization of the language and course creation, and in August 1943 the decision was made, given the length of the war, to create an interim academy to guide this process.[48] The standardization process had just about begun not long before the war,[49][50] and the Swiss Occidentalists, finding themselves isolated from the rest of the continent, opted to concentrate on didactic materials to have prepared by the time the war reached its end. They found themselves confronted with the decision between two forms that had remained in popular usage, but which could be confusing to a new learner of the language.[51] During this time, the academy maintained that standardization efforts were based on actual usage, stating that "...the standardization of the language has natural limits. "Standardizing" the language does not mean arbitrarily officializing one of the possible solutions and rejecting the others as indesirable and irritating. One only standardizes solutions that have already been sanctioned through practice."[52]

During the war, Occidentalists noticed that the language was frequently permitted to be sent by telegram within and outside of Switzerland (especially to and from Sweden)[53] even without official recognition, surmising that censors were able to read it[54] and may have thought them to be written in Spanish or Romansch,[55] a minor yet official language in Switzerland that at the time lacked a standardized orthography. This allowed a certain amount of communication to take place between the Occidentalists in Switzerland and Sweden. The other centres of Occidental activity in Europe did not fare as well, with the stocks of study materials in Vienna and Tallinn having been destroyed in bombings[56] and numerous Occidentalists sent to concentration camps[57][58] in Germany and Czechoslovakia. Contacts were reestablished shortly after the war by those who had survived it, particularly from those in France, Czechoslovakia, and Great Britain. A few months before the end of World War II in Europe Cosmoglotta had subscribers in 58 cities in Switzerland.[59] Cosmoglotta A began publication again in 1946.

IALA, Interlingua, and name change to Interlingue

The International Auxiliary Language Association, founded in 1924 to study and determine the best planned language for international communication, was at first viewed with suspicion by the Occidental community. The co-founder of the IALA Alice Vanderbilt Morris was an Esperantist, as were many of its staff members,[60] and many Occidentalists including Edgar de Wahl himself believed that it had been set up to eventually recommend Esperanto over other planned languages under a neutral and scientific pretext using its staff of professional linguists to bolster a final recommendation. Relations soon improved, however, as it became clear that the IALA intended to be as impartial as possible by familiarizing itself with all existing planned languages. Ric Berger detailed one visit he made in 1935 to Morris (whose husband was the US ambassador in Brussels) that vastly improved his opinion of the organization:

My personal opinion was not so pessimistic, for, finding myself in Brussels in 1935, I sought out Mrs. Morris and soon obtained an audience with her where my charming host invited me to speak in Occidental. She asked her husband, the American ambassador, to come hear me to confirm what seemed to very much interest them: a language in which all words can be understood without having learned it! ... Mrs. Morris could have used her fortune to simply support Esperanto, which was her right as a convicted Esperantist. But instead of that she...decided to donate her money to a *neutral* linguistic tribunal to solve the problem *scientifically*, even if the judgement goes against her convictions.[61]

As a result, opinions of the IALA and its activities in the Occidental community began to improve and reports on its activities in Cosmoglotta became increasingly positive. After 1945 when the IALA announced it planned to create its own language and showed four possible versions under consideration, Occidentalists were by and large pleased that the IALA had decided to create a language so similar in appearance to Occidental, seeing it as a credible association that gave weight to their argument that an auxiliary language should proceed from study of natural languages instead of attempting to fit them into an artificial system. Ric Berger was particularly positive about the IALA's new language, calling it in 1948 "almost the same language",[62] though not without reservations, doubting whether a project with such a similar outward appearance would be able to "suddenly cause prejudices [against planned languages] to fall and create unity among the partisans of international languages"[63] and fearing that it might simply "disperse the partisans of the natural language with nothing to show for it"[63] after Occidental had created "unity in the naturalistic school" for so long.

While the two languages had a 90% identical vocabulary[64] when word endings and orthographic differences were not taken into account (e.g. filosofie and philosophia would be considered the same word), structurally and derivationally they were very different. Occidental with De Wahl's Rule had either done away with Latin double stem verbs (verbs such as act: ager, act- or send: mitter, miss-) or found a way to work around them, while Interlingua simply accepted them as part and parcel of a naturalistic system. The control languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish-Portuguese) used by Interlingua to form its vocabulary also conflicted with Occidental's Germanic and other words which would be by definition ineligible in a combined language that retained Interlingua's methodology. Occidental words such as mann, strax, old, sestra, clocca, svimmar, trincar, etc. could only be incorporated into Interlingua if it did away with the control languages, the languages on which Interlingua itself was based. Interlingua also allowed optional verbal conjugations (such as so, son and sia[65] as the first-person singular, third-person plural and subjunctive form of esser, the verb 'to be') that Occidental had never even considered and viewed as incompatible with an easy international auxiliary language.

Meanwhile, Cosmoglotta was showing financial strain with inflated printing costs after the end of World War II and the inability to collect payments from certain countries,[66] a marked contrast to the well-funded IALA which had been based in New York since the outbreak of the war.

The beginning of the Cold War in 1947 created a particularly uncomfortable situation for the Occidental-Union, which now possessed a name that by chance coincided with that of an anti-Russian political league,[67] and which the Occidentalists in Switzerland believed to be the reason for the interception of all of de Wahl's letters sent from Tallinn. In early 1948 the Czechoslovak Occidentalists had begun requesting approval for a new name that would allow them to continue their linguistic activities without suspicion, proposing the name Interal (International auxiliari lingue), to which the union responded that the term Interlingue would be more appropriate and that they were free to introduce the language as Interlingue (Occidental), or even remove the mention of Occidental in parentheses if they felt it necessary.[68] The official vote on the name change to Interlingue took place at the plenum of the Occidental Union in 1949 and was passed with 91% support, making the official name Interlingue, with Interlingue (Occidental) also permitted, valid as of the 1st of September 1949.[69]

The year 1951 when Interlingua was announced was consequential in weakening Interlingue-Occidental, which until then had been unchallenged in the field of naturalistic planned auxiliary languages. Vĕra Barandovská-Frank's perception of the situation at the time was as follows (translated from Esperanto):

"In the field of naturalistic planned languages Occidental-Interlingue was until then unchallenged (especially after the death of Otto Jespersen, author of Novial), as all new projects were nearly imitations of it. This applied to Interlingua as well, but it carried with it a dictionary of 27 000 words put together by professional linguists that brought great respect, despite in principle only confirming the path that De Wahl had started. The Senate of the Interlingue-Union and the Interlingue-Academie took up the proposals that (1) the Interlingue-Union become a collective member of the IALA and (2) the Interlingue-Union remain favourable to the future activity of the IALA and morally support it. The first proposition was not accepted, but the second was, giving a practical collaboration and support to Interlingua.
André Martinet, the second-last director of the IALA, made similar observations to those of Matejka. He confessed that his preferred variant of Interlingua was the one closer to Interlingue than the one officialized by Gode. In these circumstances the efforts by Ric Berger to move all users of Interlingue en masse to Interlingua de IALA was a shock. His heresy caused doubt and interruptions in Interlingue circles, especially after he became involved in the publication of "Revista de Interlingua". The former idea of a natural fusion of both languages was shown to be unrealistic, with the new language becoming a rival."[70]

Stagnation and revival

While the migration of so many users to Interlingua had severely weakened the Interlingue movement, the remaining users of the language kept the language alive for a time. Besides Cosmoglotta, now publishing once every second month from 1952 and then once per quarter from 1963, bulletins in Interlingue continued to appear such as Interlingue-Postillon (1958, Germany), Novas de Oriente (1958, Japan), Amicitie european (1959, Switzerland), Teorie e practica (Switzerland-Czechoslovakia, 1967), and Novas in Interlingue (Czechoslovakia, 1971).[70] Interlingue activity reached a low during the 1980s and early 1990s, when Cosmoglotta publication ceased for a number of years. According to Esperantist Don Harlow, "in 1985 Occidental's last periodical, Cosmoglotta, ceased publication, and its editor, Mr. Adrian Pilgrim, is quoted as having described Occidental as a "dead language.""[8] A decade later, a documentary in 1994[71] by Steve Hawley and Steyger on planned languages introduced Interlingue speaker Donald Gasper as "one of the last remaining speakers of the language Occidental" (a description perhaps better suited for former Occidental-Union president Alphonse Matejka who would not pass away until 1999, as Donald Gasper was a new learner of the language).

In the year 1999 the first Yahoo! Group in Occidental was founded,[72] and Cosmoglotta had been publishing intermittently again. An Interlingue Wikipedia was approved in 2004. In recent years official meetings between Interlingue speakers have begun taking place again: a meeting in Ulm on 10 January 2013,[73] another in Munich in 2014 with three participants,[74] and a third in Ulm on 16 August 2015 with five.[75]

The most recent edition of the magazine Cosmoglotta is volume 324, for the period January to December 2018.

Language philosophy
Sticker from 1930 created to emphasize readability at first sight: Li lingue quel vu comprende (The language you understand) and Occidental propaga se self (Occidental promotes itself)

One of the earliest users of the language Esperanto, Edgar de Wahl encountered it for the first time in 1888[76] and remained a fervent supporter of the language for a number of years where he collaborated with Zamenhof on the design of the language and translated one of the first works into Esperanto: "Princidino Mary", published in 1889 originally under the name Princino Mary. He remained an Esperantist until 1894 when the vote to reform Esperanto failed, a vote in which de Wahl was one of just two that voted neither for Esperanto unchanged, nor for the reform proposed by Zamenhof, but for a completely new reform.[77] Occidental would not be announced for a full 28 years after de Wahl had abandoned Esperanto, a period in which he spent working with other language creators (such as Rosenberger's Idiom Neutral) and trying to develop a system that combined both naturality and regularity. De Wahl's method for doing so was twofold: through de Wahl's Rule to reduce the number of irregularities in verbal derivation to a minimum, and a large number of affixes to do the same with word roots in addition to giving the resulting forms a natural appearance. The large number of suffixes can be seen through a glimpse of just those used to form nouns referring to a type of person: -er- (molinero - miller), -or- (redactor - editor), -ari- (millionario - millionaire), -on- (spion, spy), -ard (mentard, liar), -astr- (poetastro, lousy poet), -es (franceso, Frenchman), -essa (reyessa, queen). In de Wahl's opinion it was always preferable to opt for a productive suffix than to be forced to coin new words from completely new radicals later on.[78]

De Wahl published in 1922 a modification of Otto Jespersen's principle that "the best language is that which is easiest for the greatest number of people",[79] stating that the international language should be easiest for the majority of those who need it (lit. who must apply it),[80] or in other words those that need it in international relations.[81] Along with this came a need for an international language to recognize already international vocabulary regardless of the number of people using it, particularly in specialized areas where for example the term Oenethera biennis (a type of plant) should be implemented and not modified beyond recognition even if the entire world population of botanists, those most often knowing and using the word, did not exceed 10,000.[80] This also implied that words belonging to particular cultures should be imported without modifications, which De Wahl believed brought new ideas of value to European culture that had become "sick" after the First World War. He cited the terms karma, ko-tau (kowtow), geisha, and mahdí in 1924 as examples of those that should not be put in a "vocalic corset"[82] through obligatory endings (e.g. karmo, koŭtoŭo, gejŝo, madho in Esperanto) when imported into the international language: "Such words, still not large in number, have seen a large increase in the past century, and in the future will grow in exorbitant proportion when, through international communication, the ideas of stable Oriental cultures will inundate and influence the sick Europe, which is now losing its equilibrium. And the more mutilated the words are, the more mutilated will be the ideas that they represent."[82] In an article on the future development of language, de Wahl wrote in 1927 that due to European dominance in the sciences and other areas Occidental required a form and derivation recognizable to Europeans, but that it should also be fitted with a grammatical structure capable of taking on more analytical, non-derived forms in the future (such as the equivalents of "bake man" for baker or "wise way" for wisdom[83]) if worldwide linguistic trends began to show a preference for them.

On the subject of schematic regularity versus naturalism in an international language, De Wahl believed that there was a fine balance to be maintained between the two, where too much of the former may be convenient for the early learner but abhorrent for a speaker, and vice versa in the latter case: "Exceptions are not made to make study more difficult for foreigners, but to make speaking shorter and more fluid....It is clear that in this language as the most impersonal, abstract and businesslike one of all, regularity will be greater and more expanded than in all other national and tribal languages and idioms. But it will never be able to attain a total schematism...Also here the real solution will be a harmonization of the two contrary principles. It requires the sensitive penetration of the real necessity in the instinct of the international superpopulation."[84]

While primarily Romance in vocabulary, de Wahl opted for a large Germanic substrate which he felt more expressive for technical and material vocabulary (self, ost for east, svimmar for to swim, moss, etc.), with Romance and Greek vocabulary more appropriate in the derivation of international words (femina for woman to form feminin, can for dog to form canin, etc.) as well as mental, corporal and natural conceptions.[85] Minor Romance languages such as Ladin, Provençal (Occitan) and Catalan along with creoles had a large importance in the development of Occidental for de Wahl[86][87], who wrote as far back as 1912 that his language under development was more similar to Provençal than Italian or Spanish[88]. The Swiss magazine Landbote made a similar comment in 1945 in a review of the language, commenting humoristically that "reading through the few examples of Occidental gives us the impression of a half-learned Catalan by a foreigner who doesn't much understand the grammar."[89]

Using internationally recognized prefixes and suffixes did not imply wholesale importing of international words. Just before the beginning of the Second World War de Wahl called criticisms of Occidental as a chaotic unfounded, stating that English and French users in particular had a tendency to see Occidental as a mix of the two: "(Occidental's chaotic appearance) is not the fault of Occidental itself, but rather that of its users and especially the French and English, or those that think that the international language should be a mixture of those two languages...that is a fundamental error, especially if these forms present exceptions and irregularities in Occidental's system."[90] Alphonse Matejka wrote in Cosmoglotta that de Wahl "always claimed a minimum of autonomy for his language and bitterly fought against all propositions that intended to augment the naturality of the language only by blindly imitating the Romance languages, or as de Wahl said crudely in one of his letters to me, "by aping French or English"".[91]

Occidental's erring on the side of regularity led to vocabulary that was still recognizable but different from the international norm, such as ínpossibil in place of impossibil (ín + poss + ibil), scientic (scientific, from scient-ie + -ic), and descrition (description, from descri-r + -tion). This is one of the greatest differences between it and Interlingua, which has a vocabulary taken from so-called 'prototypes' (the most recent common ancestor to its source languages) while Interlingue/Occidental focused on active, on the fly derivation. After the standardization of Occidental in 1947 and the name change to Interlingue in 1949 there was a push towards greater and greater naturalistic forms[92] inspired by the IALA's soon-to-be-published Interlingua, particularly by Ric Berger who advocated replacing the optional -i adjectival ending with -e.[93] After advocating for the change in April 1949 he began implementing it the following month in his own writing and most of the content in Cosmoglotta, in addition to other changes such as nostre (our) and vostre (your) instead of nor and vor. The following April he defended the changes, denying that they were a "concession to the IALA" but instead a simple "concession to the general tendency towards greater naturality found today in the interlinguistic movement", calling critics of the changes victims of "long-lasting habits" and an "optical illusion".[94] Whether these experimental changes would have taken root is not known, as Berger left his position as editor of Cosmoglotta soon after[95] and eventually joined Interlingua, while Cosmoglotta returned to publishing in the 1947 standard that continues to this day.

Symbol

The symbol of Occidental was chosen in 1936 after some deliberation and many other proposed symbols, including stylized letters, a star as in Esperanto and Ido, a setting sun to represent the sun in the west (the Occident), a globe, and more.[96] The tilde, already used by the Occidental-Union, was eventually selected based on five criteria:[97] symbolic character, simplicity, originality, inconfusability, and for being bichromatic (having two colours) as opposed to polychromatic. Beyond the five criteria, the Occidentalists at the time referenced the lack of a fixed meaning for the tilde in the public sphere, and its similarity to a waveform, implying speech.

Alphabet and pronunciation

Interlingue is written with 26 Latin letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. The letters of the alphabet are pronounced as a, be, ce, de, e, ef, ge, ha, i, jot, ka, el, em, en, o, pe, qu, er, es, te, u, ve, duplic ve, ix, ypsilon, and zet.[98]

Pronunciation

The vowels a, e, i, o, and u have a continental pronunciation and are all sounded. The y (initial and medial) are pronounced as in "yes", ey (final) as in "they", and eu as éh-oo.[99]

The consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:[99]

  • c when before e and i = [ts]: cive, helice
  • g when before e and i = [ʒ], French j, or English s in pleasure: plage, giraffe; but elsewhere c and g are hard as in can, go
  • ss = [s] as in pass
  • s between vowels = [z]: rose, positiv
  • z = [dz]
  • zz = [ts]
  • ch = [ʃ], English sh: chambre
  • j = [ʒ], French j, or English s in pleasure
  • t as [t], except when followed by ia, io, iu, or ie and not preceded by an s. Thus the t in nation is pronounced [ts] but in bastion as [t].

Other doubled consonants are pronounced as a single consonant, unless when separated they would be pronounced differently. Ex. grammatica is pronounced as if written gramatica, but occidental and suggestion are pronounced as if written as oc followed by cidental, and sug followed by gestion.

Stress

Words are generally stressed on the vowel before the final consonant: intercalar, parol, forme. Pluralizing a noun does not change the stress: paroles, formes. The endings -bil, -ic, -im, -ul and -um do not change the stress (even when more than one is present in a single word), nor does the adverbial ending -men: rapidmen, duplic, bonissim, singul, possibil, maximum, statisticas. Two vowels together are diphthongized and do not count as two syllables for the purpose of stress: familie, potentie, unless the word is a single consonant or consonant cluster followed by two vowels: die, deo. Compound words are stressed based on the last word in the compound: hodie, substrae. In cases where the accent is irregular, it is indicated by an accent: café, ínpossibil, numeró, númere, felicitá.

The accent mark is also sometimes used to stress a word (In un casu li naves proveni de ún state = In one case the ships originate from one country), or over the particles ú when used as a conjunction, ó when used to mean 'either' (ó A, ó B), and é when used to mean 'both' (é A, é B). e.g. Yo ne save u il es (I don't know where he is), Yo vole trincar e lacte e bir (I want to drink both milk and beer) and O il ne save li loc, o il ne vole venir (Either he does not know the location or he does not want to come) will sometimes be seen written as Yo ne save ú il es, Yo vole trincar é lacte é bir, and Ó il ne save li loc, ó il ne vole venir.

Grammar

Like English, Interlingue has a definite article and an indefinite article. The definite article (the) is li, and the indefinite (a, an) is un. Plural of a noun is made by adding -s after a vowel, or -es after most consonants.[99] To avoid pronunciation and stress changes, words ending in -c, -g, and -m only add an -s: un libre, du libres, un angul, tri angules, li tric, li trics, li plug, li plugs, li album, pluri albums, li tram, du trams.

Personal pronouns

Interlingue has two forms for the personal pronouns: one for the subject form (nominative), and one for the object form (accusative or dative). In short, the personal pronouns in the subject form are:

Singular Plural
first second third first second third
English I you he she it we you they
Occidental yo tu il ella it noi vu ili (illos, ellas)

The variants illa and ella both exist for third person singular feminine.[100] The pronoun expressing politeness is vu,[98] which behaves like second person plural. The indefinite personal pronoun "one" is on in Occidental.[99] If necessary, one can specify the gender of third person plural by using illos (masculine) or ellas (feminine).[98]

In the object form the pronouns are: me, te, le, la, it, nos, vos, and les (with los and las as specific masculine and feminine forms, respectively). In the oblique case, the pronouns are me, te, il (or le), noi (or nos), voi (or vos), and ili (or les), varying by user and situation outside of the forms me and te.[101] The possessive pronouns are mi, tui, su (his/her/its), nor, vor and lor.[98] They may be pluralized: li mi (mine, singular), li mis (mine, plural), li nor (ours, singular), li nores (ours, plural).

Grammatical endings are used to a certain extent, though to a lesser degree than languages such as Esperanto and Ido where parts of speech are marked with obligatory endings. Only a few parts of speech (such as verb infinitives) in Interlingue have entirely obligatory endings, while many others either have endings the usage of which is optional and sometimes recommended. Some grammatical endings are:

  • ar, er, ir: verb infinitive. far (to do), posser (be able), scrir (to write)
  • e: the general substantival (noun) ending used obligatorily to differentiate nouns from other parts or speech, for reasons of pronunciation, or optionally for euphony. Examples of obligatory -e endings: capitale (capital, noun) vs. capital (capital, adjective), contenete (content) vs, contenet (contained), sud (south, adjective) vs. sude (south as an independent noun, as in the north and the south). A final -e is recommended in words ending with -s to avoid confusion with the plural (farse, curse, sense), -ir, -er- and -ar endings to avoid confusion with the verb infinitive (dangere, desire, papere), and other such areas where its addition aids in differentiation or pronunciation.[102] Optional -e endings: can or cane (dog), Pentecost or Pentecoste (Pentecost). The -e and other endings are often omitted for poetic or euphonic reasons.[103]
  • i: the general adjectival ending, similar to -e in usage. Examples of obligatory -i endings: pigri (lazy), acri (sharp) for ease of pronunciation, verdi (green, adjective) to distinguish from verde (green, noun). Examples of optional -i endings: etern vs. eterni (eternal), imens vs. imensi (immense).
  • a: nouns that end in e formed from an -ar verb are often written with the -a ending if one wishes to emphasize the verbal (active) aspect. A me veni un pensa (a thought occurred to me) vs. Penses e paroles (thoughts and words). The a ending also makes nouns feminine: anglese (English person), angleso (Englishman), anglesa (English woman). This does not apply to nouns that on their own indicate the gender (patre, matre).
  • o: indicates the masculine gender in the same way a indicates the feminine.

Correlatives

While correlatives were not designed to match a pre-determined scheme, the majority of them do match the prefixes and suffixes shown in the chart below.

QU- (interrogative/relative) T- (demonstrative) ALQU- (undefined) NEQU- (negative) -CUNC (indeterminate) Ø(collective)
-I (persons, standard demonstrative) qui (who) ti (this) alqui (someone) nequi (nobody) quicunc (whoever) omni (every, all)
-O (things) quo (what) to (that) alquo (something) nequo (nothing) quocunc (whatever) omno (all)
-EL (both persons and things) quel (which) tel (such) alquel (any) nequel quelcunc (whichever) chascun (each, all)
-AL (quality) qual (which, what a) tal (that) alqual (any kind) nequal qualcunc
-AM (way, mode) quam (as) tam (so) alquam (anyhow) nequam quamcunc (however)
-ANT (quantity) quant (how many) tant (so much) alquant (somewhat) nequant quantcunc
-ANDE (time) quande (when) tande (then) alquande nequande (never) quandecunc sempre (always, ever)
-U (place) u (where) ci / ta (here / there) alcu (somewhere) necu (nowhere) ucunc (anywhere) partú (everywhere)

Alcun (some) and necun (no, none) are respectively the adjectives of alquel and nequel

The -qui series has optional accusative forms ending in -em: quem, alquem, nequem

The -al series is adverbialized with the -men ending: qualmen (how) talmen (that way)

The -el and -al series can take the plural ending: queles, quales

Verbs

Verbs in Interlingue have three endings: -ar, -er, and -ir, and are invariable. Conjugation is carried out with a combination of endings and auxiliary verbs. The verb esser (to be) is written es in the present due to its high frequency.

Simple Verb Tenses

Form Interlingue English Notes
Infinitive ar / er / ir amar / decider / scrir to love / to decide / to write
Present a / e / i yo ama / decide / scri I love / decide / write
Past -t yo amat / decidet / scrit I loved / decided / wrote stress thus falls on the last syllable: yo amat
Future va + inf. yo va amar / decider / scrir I will (shall) love / decide / write va on its own is not a verb (to go = ear or vader)
Conditional vell + inf. yo vell amar / decider / scrir I would love / decide / write Also used for hearsay: Un acusation secun quel il vell har esset... - An accusation alleging him to have been...

(lit. an accusation according to which he would have been...)

Imperative a! / e! / i! ama! / decide! / scri! love! / decide! / write! Imperative of esser is esse.

Compound Verb Tenses

Form Interlingue English Notes
Perfect ha + t yo ha amat / decidet / scrit I have loved / decided / written ha on its own is not a verb (to have = haver)
Pluperfect hat + t yo hat amat / decidet / scrit I had loved / decided / written
Future Perfect va har + t yo va har amat / decidet / scrit I will (shall) have loved / decided / written
Perfect Conditional vell har + t yo vell har amat / decidet / scrit I would have loved / decided / written
Future in the past vat + inf. yo vat amar / decider / scrir I was going to love / to decide / to write
Precative ples + inf. ples amar! / decider! / scrir! please love! / please / write!
Hortative lass + inf. lass nos amar! / decider! / scrir! let's love! / decide! / write!
Optative mey + inf. yo mey amar / decider / scrir May I love / decide / write Only the same as English may in the optative mood (as in "May his days be long" or "May the Force be with you", not "I may or may not go").
Present participle -nt amant / decident / scrient loving / deciding / writing -ir verbs become -ient
Gerund (adverbial participle) -nte amante / decidente / scriente (while) loving / deciding / writing -ir verbs become -iente

The present participle is used to qualify nouns: un cat ama, un amant cat (a cat loves, a loving cat) and is often seen in adjectives such as fatigant (tiring, from fatigar, to tire). The gerund is used to indicate another action or state of being going on at the same time: scriente un missage, yo videt que... (writing a message, I saw that...).

Many further combinations of endings and auxiliary verbs are possible. Some examples:

Yo vell har esset amat = I would have been loved

Hante retornat al dom... = Having returned to the house... (ha + gerund)

Other notes on verbs:

The subjunctive does not exist in Interlingue: yo vole que tu ama (I want you to love). Mey is often used to express it when necessary, however, frequently after que: Yo vole que tu mey amar (I want you to love, lit. I want that you may love)[104][105].

Hay is a standalone verb that means there is or there are. Hay du homes in li dom (there are two people in the house). As a standalone verb there is no official infinitive but users of the language often conjugate it as if there were (hayat, etc.) Other ways of expressing there is or there are: esser (esset nequó altri a far = there was nothing else to do), exister (it existe du metodes = there are two ways), trovar se (in li cité trova se tri cavalles = there are three horses in the city), etc.

The passive is formed using the verb esser: yo es amat (I am loved). Se makes the verb refer to itself (reflexive form) which often functions as a shorter way to form the passive: li frontieras esset cludet = li frontieras cludet se (the borders were closed).

The progressive tense (-nt) is not used with the same frequency as in English (what are you doing? = quo tu fa?, not quo tu es fant?). It emphasizes the continuity of the verb and is often used in storytelling (noi esset marchant vers li rivere quande... = we were walking towards the river when...)

The verb star (to stand) may be used to emphasize the completion of a verb: li dom sta constructet (the house stands constructed, i.e. it is completely built)

The verb ear (to go) may be used to emphasize the continuity of a verb: li dom ea constructet (the house is being built).

Adverbs are formed with the ending -men (rapid = quick, rapidmen = quickly). The ending may be omitted when the meaning is clear: tu deve far it rapid(men) = you must do it quick(ly).

The double negative is permitted, and was even recommended by de Wahl[106] for its internationality and precision. De Wahl gave the following phrase as an example: "Yo ha trovat li libre, quem vu ha dat me, in null loc, quem vu ha indicat me" (lit. I found the book you gave me nowhere you indicated me, thus "I didn't find the book anywhere you told me to look"). In this phrase, not permitting a double negative would result in ambiguity up to the word null, the only indication of a negative in the phrase, recommending Yo ne ha trovat li libre...in null loc. An obligatory double negative was never imposed and later Occidentalists found that they rarely used it,[107] but it remained permitted and is seen from time to time.

The infinitive may also used as a mild or impersonal imperative: ne fumar - no smoking; bon comprender: un crímine es totvez un crímine - let's be clear (lit. understand well): a crime is still a crime.

Derivation
An example of derivation from the magazine Cosmoglotta.

The application of de Wahl's rule to verbs and the usage of numerous suffixes and prefixes was created to resolve irregularities that had plagued creators of language projects before Occidental, who were forced to make the choice between regularity and innatural forms, or irregularity and natural forms. The prevailing view was that natural forms needed to be sacrificed for the sake of regularity,[108] while those that opted for naturality were forced to admit numerous irregularities when doing so (Idiom Neutral for example had a list of 81 verbs with special radicals[109] used when forming derivatives). The rules created by Edgar de Wahl to resolve this are:

  1. If, after the removal of -r or -er of the infinitive, the root ends in a vowel, the final -t is added. Crear (to create), crea/t-, crea/t/or, crea/t/ion, crea/t/iv, crea/t/ura.
  2. If the root ends in consonants d or r, they are changed into s: decid/er (to decide), deci/s-, deci/s/ion deci/s/iv. Adherer (to adhere), adhe/s-, adhe/s/ion
  3. In all other cases, with six exceptions, the removal of the ending gives the exact root: duct/er, duct-, duct/ion.

Once these rules were applied, Occidental was left with six exceptions. They are:

  1. ced/er, cess- (concession)
  2. sed/er, sess- (session)
  3. mov/er, mot- (motion)
  4. ten/er, tent- (temptation)
  5. vert/er, vers- (version)
  6. veni/r, vent- (advent)

Suffixes are added either to the verbal root or the present theme of the verb (the infinitive minus -r). An example of the latter is the suffix -ment: move/r, move/ment (not movetment), experi/r, experi/ment (not experitment), and -ntie (English -nce): tolera/r (tolerate), tolera/ntie, existe/r (exist), existe/ntie.

Affixes

The major prefixes and suffixes used in word derivation in Interlingue are added to either the present theme (infinitive minus -r), verbal root (infinitive minus two preceding vowels), or perfect theme (present theme + t or +s for verbs finishing with -d or -r) of verbs, as well as other types of speech. The below is a sample of some of the affixes used.

affix meaning affixed to before affix after affix notes
-abil/-ibil able verbal root posser (to be able) possibil (possible) -abil for -ar verbs, -ibil for -er and -ir verbs
-ada/-ida -ade verbal root promenar (to stroll) promenada (a walk, a promenade) -ada for -ar verbs, -ida for -er and -ir verbs
-ach- pejorative verbal root criticar (criticize) criticachar (complain, whine)
-ar general verb noun, adjective sicc (dry) siccar (to dry) General verb final in most cases for all modern verbs
-ard pejorative noun suffix verbal root furter (steal) furtard (thief)
bel- kinship by marriage noun fratre (brother) belfratre (brother-in-law)
des- cessation various infectar (infect)

avantage (advantage)

 desinfectar (disinfect)

desavantage (disadvantage)
dis- separation, dispersion various membre (member)

semar (sow, seminate)

 dismembrar (dismember)

dissemar (disseminate)
-er- doer of verb verbal root lavar (wash) lavere / lavera / lavero (washer) -a or -o to specify female or male gender
-ette diminutive noun dom (house) domette (cottage)
ex- ex- noun presidente (president) ex-presidente (ex-president)
ho- this noun semane (week) ho-semane (this week)
-illio caressive noun fratre (brother) fratrillio (bro) affixed to male nouns
ín- in-, un-, etc. adjective credibil (believable) íncredibil (unbelievable)
-innia caressive noun matre (mother) matrinnia (mom/mommy) affixed to female nouns
-ion -ion perfect theme crear (create) creation (creation)
-iv -ive perfect theme exploder (explode) explosiv (explosive) perfect theme: explod-er --> explod --> explos
-ment -ment present theme experir (to experience) experiment (experiment)
mi- half noun fratre (brother) mifratre (half-brother)
mis- false (mis-) various comprender (understand) miscomprender (misunderstand)
non- non- noun fumator (smoker) nonfumator (non-smoker)
-ntie -nce present theme tolerar (tolerate)

experir (to experience)

 tolerantie (tolerance)

experientie (experience)

 -ir verbs add an e: ir --> ientie
-or -er, -or perfect theme distribuer (distribute) distributor (distributor)
-ori -ory perfect theme currer (run) cursori (cursory) perfect theme: curr-er --> curr --> curs
per- through, all the way verb forar (pierce) perforar (perforate)
pre- before various historie (history) prehistorie (prehistory)
pro- to the front verb ducter (lead) producter (produce)
re- re- verb venir (come) revenir (return)
step- step- noun matre (mother) stepmatre (stepmother)
-ura -ure perfect theme scrir (write) scritura (scripture)


Ease of learning

As an international auxiliary language, ease of learning through regular derivation and recognizable vocabulary was a key principle in Occidental's creation. The magazine Cosmoglotta often featured letters from new users and former users of other international languages (primarily Esperanto and Ido) attesting to the language's simplicity:[110] letters from new users to demonstrate their quick command of the language,[111][112][113] and attestations from experienced auxiliary language users to share their experiences. Because many users of Occidental had encountered the language after gaining experience in others, objective data on learnability of the language is difficult to find. One experiment to ascertain learning time was carried out however in the years 1956 to 1957 in a Swiss Catholic high school (gymnasium) in Disentis on the time required to learn the language. The experiment showed that the students participating in the study, who had previous experience with French, Latin, and Greek, mastered both written and spoken Interlingue after 30 hours of study.[114]

Example texts

Li material civilisation, li scientie, e mem li arte unifica se plu e plu. Li cultivat europano senti se quasi in hem in omni landes queles have europan civilisation, it es, plu e plu, in li tot munde. Hodie presc omni states guerrea per li sam armes. Sin cessa li medies de intercomunication ameliora se, e in consequentie de to li terra sembla diminuer se. Un Parisano es nu plu proxim a un angleso o a un germano quam il esset ante cent annus a un paisano frances.

Possible pronunciation: [li mateˈrjaːl tsivilizaˈtsjoːn li ˈstsjentsje e ˈmeːm li ˈarte uˈniːfika se ˈpluː e ˈpluː li kultiˈvaːt ewroˈpaːno ˈsenti se ˈkwaːzi in ˈheːm in ˈomni ˈlandes ˌkweːles ˈhaːve ewroˈpaːn tsivilizaˈtsjoːn it ˈes ˈpluː e ˈpluː in li ˈtoːt ˈmunde hoˈdiːe ˈprɛsk ˈomni ˈstaːtes ˈgwɛrea per li ˈsaːm ˈarmes sin ˈtsɛsa li ˈmeːdjes de interkomunikaˈtsjoːn ameˈljoːra se e in konseˈkwentsje de ˈtoː li ˈtɛra ˈsembla dimiˈnweːr se un pariˈzaːno es ˈnuː plu ˈprɔksim a un aŋˈgleːzo o a un ʒerˈmaːno kwam il eˈseːt ˌante ˈtsent ˈanus a un pa.iˈzaːno franˈtseːs]

Translation: "Material civilization, science, and even art unify themselves more and more. The educated European feels himself almost at home in all lands that have European civilization, that is, more and more, in the entire world. Today almost all states war with the same armaments. Without pause the modes of intercommunication improve, and in consequence from that the world seems to decrease. A Parisian is now closer to an Englishman or a German than he was a hundred years before to a French peasant."

Lord's Prayer
Interlingue/Occidental Interlingua Latin (traditional) English (traditional)

Patre nor, qui es in li cieles,
mey tui nómine esser sanctificat,
mey tui regnia venir,
mey tui vole esser fat,
qualmen in li cieles talmen anc sur li terre.
Da nos hodie nor pan omnidial,
e pardona nor débites,
qualmen anc noi pardona nor debitores.
E ne inducte nos in tentation,
ma libera nos de lu mal.
Amen.

Patre nostre, qui es in le celos,
que tu nomine sia sanctificate;
que tu regno veni;
que tu voluntate sia facite
como in le celo, etiam super le terra.
Da nos hodie nostre pan quotidian,
e pardona a nos nostre debitas
como etiam nos los pardona a nostre debitores.
E non induce nos in tentation,
sed libera nos del mal.
Amen.

Pater noster, qui es in cælis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem,
sed libera nos a malo.
Amen.

Our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done.
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts
as we have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

New Year's greeting from Cosmoglotta B published in Switzerland, 1942
OccidentalEnglish
Si noi vell viver ancor in li felici témpor quel precedet li guerre universal, tande anc li present articul vell reflecter li serenitá per quel noi acustomat salutar li comensa de un nov annu. Ma hodie, li pie desir quel noi ordinarimen expresse per un cordial 'Felici nov annu' ha transformat se in sanguant ironie. Noi plu ne posse pronunciar ti paroles sin sentir lor terribil banalitá e absolut vacuitá de sens. Li future es obscurissim e it promesse nos plu mult sufrenties quam radies de espera. Li pace va sequer li guerre quam li die seque li nocte e quam li calma succede al tempeste. Un nov munde va nascer ex li caos e in ti nov munde anc noi interlinguistes va ti-ci vez luder un rol decisiv.If we were to still live in the happy time that preceded the world war, then this article would also reflect the serenity by which we used to greet the beginning of a new year. But today, the pious desire that we ordinarily express via a cordial 'Happy new year' has transformed itself into bloody irony. We can no longer pronounce these words without feeling their terrible banality and absolute lack of meaning. The future is beyond dark and it promises us more suffering than rays of hope. Peace will follow war in the same way the day follows the night and the calm comes after the storm. A new world will be born out of the chaos and in this new world we interlinguists will also this time play a decisive role.

See also

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Interlingue (Occidental)". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Omniglot: Interlingue (Occidental)
  3. Barandovská-Frank, Vĕra. "Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)" (PDF).
  4. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 90: Translation: "Occidental being a neo-Latin language, the influence of the languages French, Italian and Spanish will probably still be greater than that of the Anglo-Saxons."
  5. Cosmoglotta B, 1944, p. 104: Translation: "and what else is Occidental than a simplified Italian, or, to state it more generally, the simplified commonality of all Romance languages?"
  6. Cosmoglotta B, 1944, p. 116: Translation: "Latin is dead, even though it is still used for a few limited purposes. But the mother language Latin still lives in her daughters, the Romance languages - and Occidental is one of them."
  7. Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 2
  8. Harlow, Don. The Esperanto Book, Chapter 3: Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. "Cosmoglotta A, 1937". JAPAN: Kokusaigo-Kenkyusho, Daita 11-784, Setagaya, TOKIO (Pch. Tokio 62 061)
  10. Language, p. 73, at Google Books
  11. Interlingua Institute: A History, p. 21, at Google Books
  12. Cosmoglotta A, October 1948
  13. "Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 8". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  14. "Occidental A, 1946, p. 24".
  15. "Kosmoglott, 1925, p.40". Translation: "I found the most precise sense of "-atu" for example no earlier than 1924...maybe with time I will also find the precise sense of "-il, -esc, -itudo", etc."
  16. "Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 15". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  17. "Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 27".
  18. "Kosmoglott 001, 1922, p. 4".
  19. "Transcendental Algebra". Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  20. "Kosmoglott, 1925, p.7". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  21. "Kosmoglott, 1924, p. 14". Translation: "He asserts that Occidental, despite being easily readable, is very difficult to write and that one could hardly find 10 people in the world able to write it without errors. Well, with me alone there is already three times that number corresponding in good Occidental."
  22. ""Kosmoglot" – la unua interlingvistika societo en Ruslando" (PDF).
  23. Wahl, E. de (1925). Radicarium directiv del lingue international (Occidental) in 8 lingues. Tallinn. OCLC 185538723.
  24. http://cosmoglotta.blogspot.com/2010/12/jan-feb-1924.html
  25. http://cosmoglotta.blogspot.com/2010/12/nr-38-january-february-1927.html
  26. "Cosmoglotta A, 1947, p. 17".
  27. "Cosmoglotta B, 1937, p.79".
  28. "Cosmoglotta A, 1933, p. 20".
  29. "Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 30".
  30. "Cosmoglotta A, 1934, p. 52".
  31. "Cosmoglotta A, 1934, p. 52".
  32. "Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 12".
  33. "Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p. 17".
  34. "Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p. 38".
  35. "Cosmoglotta A, 1948, pg. 5". (Translation) Regrettably, public propagation of Occidental was not possible in Germany from 1935 (the year when artificial languages were banned in Germany) until the end of the war...
  36. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 12. Translation öf the last pre-war Occidental postcard from Austria sent to Switzerland in December 1938: "My sadness from not being able to continue my interlinguistic work continues and has made me almost melancholic. Please do not send me mail in Occidental."
  37. Cosmoglotta B, 1944, p. 109. Translation: "The reality is that Occidental, like the other international languages, is prohibited in Germany, that the Occidental societies have been disbanded there (also in Czechoslovakia and Austria) even before the war, and that only regime change in those countries will make Occidental propagation a possibility again.
  38. "Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 122". English translation: The final exchange of telegrams between us was your telegram in March 1938 where you asked me if I would go to The Hague to participate in the IALA conference, and my quick negative response, not followed by a letter explaining why. You certainly had guessed the cause, but you cannot know what actually happened. Immediately after the coming of Hitler I had the "honour", as president of an international organisation, to be watched by the Gestapo, which interrogated me multiple times and searched through my house, confiscating a large part of my correspondence and my interlinguistic material."
  39. "Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 33. Translation: "I myself lost in 1936 my entire rich Occidental-Interlingue possessions through home raids by the infamous Gestapo...How thankful you must be to your governments which have avoided such catastrophes that our land (Germany) has suffered, one after another, for 35 years now."".
  40. "Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 32".
  41. "ÖNB-ANNO - Cosmoglotta (Serie B)". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  42. "Plan de aparition de KOSMOGLOTT 1922-1926 e COSMOGLOTTA 1927-1972 (Austrian National Library)".
  43. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 3: Translation: "For some hundreds of international words there are two forms between which it is not easy to know which one is better. E. de Wahl wisely wrote both in the first dictionaries, with the intention to let practice make the decision."
  44. Societé Kosmoglott (May 1925). Kosmoglott - Cosmoglotta n027-028 (maj 1925).
  45. Cosmoglotta B, 1944, p. 66
  46. "Kosmoglott, 1926, p. 52".
  47. "Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 81".
  48. Cosmoglotta B, 1943, p. 85: English translation: "Because the president and secretary of the Academy are located in countries in a state of war, the leading Occidentalists of the neutral countries, Switzerland and Sweden, believe it necessary to set up an INTERIM ACADEMY which will function until the other will be able to resume its work. The decisions of this interim academy will be conditional, i.e.: must be validated by the regular Academy after the war, and due to that it will deliver to it all documents justifying its decisions, with detailed reasons."
  49. "Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 82".
  50. "Cosmoglotta B, 1939, p. 1".
  51. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 49
  52. Cosmoglotta B, 1944, p. 67: "...li standardisation del lingue have su natural límites. "Standardisar li lingue ne significa arbitrarimen oficialisar un del solutiones possibil e rejecter li altris quam índesirabil e genant. On standardisa solmen solutiones queles ja ha esset sanctionat per li practica."
  53. "Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p.8. English translation: "At the assembly of the Swiss Association for Occidental in Bienne it was noted with satisfaction that despite the war the cooperation at least with the Swedish worldlanguage friends was always able to be maintained, in that the letters and telegrams written in Occidental passed by the censors without problem."". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  54. Cosmoglotta B, 1943, p. 6
  55. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 15
  56. "Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p.9". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  57. "Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 119. English translation: "When I arrived in Prague after my escape from the concentration of Leitmeritz, I had literally nothing except a ragged prison uniform, the so-called "pyjama" of the prison camps...Soon after I arrived in Prague I published an ad to search friends of the international language..."". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  58. "Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 83. English translation: "The letters from France are starting to arrive in Switzerland. Especially appreciated are those from Mr. Lerond, a teacher in Bréville tra Donville (Manche) and from Mr. René Chabaud, who happily returned safe and sound from a prison camp in Germany."". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  59. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 24
  60. "Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 84".
  61. "Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 85".
  62. "Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 34".
  63. "Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 29".
  64. Barandovská-Frank, Vĕra. "Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)" (PDF). Alphonse Matejka konstatis, ke la publikigita vortprovizo de Interlingua en 90% kongruas kun tiu de Interlingue, se oni ne rigardas ortografion (historian kaj simpligitan) kaj uzon de finaj vokaloj.
  65. "Interlingua-English Dictionary S".
  66. "Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 12". Translation: "Unfortunately, in 1947 we were not able to publish more than two printed editions: the enormous increase of printing costs and the difficulties transferring the credits accumulated in certain countries were the reasons why we had to be prudent about expenses...even though printing costs have increased by 5 times compared to before the war, the subscription fees have remained the same. Regretfully we have been forced to increase the subscription price this year to 8 Swiss francs..."
  67. "Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 99". Translation: "One should not forget that the name Occidental had been selected in 1922, when it had absolutely no political significance. And today, by strange chance the title of the Occidental-Union coincides with that of a political league opposed to the Russians. It is possible that in Tallinn they considered de Wahl a person requiring police surveillance. How to protest and explain the misunderstanding from so far away?"
  68. "Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 7".
  69. "Cosmoglotta A, 1949, p. 112". English translation: "91% of the voters have adopted the proposition of the Senate of the Occidental Union, i.e. the new name: INTERLINGUE. The usage of the name INTERLINGUE, or if one wishes INTERLINGUE (Occ.) is valid from 1.9.1949."
  70. Barandovská-Frank, Vĕra. "Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)" (PDF).
  71. hawley, steve (2010-06-01), Language Lessons 1994, retrieved 2019-01-30
  72. "IE-Munde - Jurnal e information pri Interlingue (Occidental)". www.ie-munde.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  73. "Litt incontra in Ulm". IE-MUNDE (Revúe in Interlingue-Occidental) Numeró 7 - Octobre 2013.
  74. "IE-Munde - Jurnal e information pri Interlingue (Occidental)". www.ie-munde.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  75. "TRIESIM MINI-INCONTRA DE INTERLINGUE". IE-MUNDE (Revúe in Interlingue-Occidental) Numeró 11 – Octobre 2015.
  76. "Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 18".
  77. "Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 19".
  78. "Kosmoglott, 1923, p. 9". Translation: "But I do not understand why the word "celibatario" does not fit Ido. If you have the root "celibat" you derive words such as "legatario, millionario" etc. in the same way. Someone who like M. de B[eaufront] does not understand the sense of the suffix in "secundari" may learn the word as a whole, as it is done in Ido, but I think it is better to have a perhaps somewhat fluctuating suffix than to learn 100 new root words, where I never know if the inventors in one case have preferred an international word or in another a "logical" new formation that I could never even imagine."
  79. Dyer, Luther H. (1923). The Problem of an International Auxiliary Language and its Solution in Ido. http://interlanguages.net/101_121.htm. pp. 106–107.CS1 maint: location (link)
  80. "Kosmoglott, 1922, p. 19".
  81. "Cosmoglotta B, 1941, p. 15".
  82. "Kosmoglott, 1924, p. 2".
  83. "Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 87".
  84. "Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p.95".
  85. "Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 19".
  86. "Helvetia, August 1929".
  87. "Helvetia, August 1929".
  88. "Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 7".
  89. "Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 32".
  90. Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 38
  91. "ÖNB-ANNO - Cosmoglotta (Serie B)". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  92. Cosmoglotta April 1950, p. 5
  93. "Cosmoglotta A, 1949, p. 38".
  94. "Cosmoglotta A, 1950, p. 38".
  95. Cosmoglotta October 1950, p. 1
  96. "Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p.3".
  97. "Cosmoglotta B 1936, p. 11".
  98. Grammatica de Interlingue in English, F. Haas 1956. Read 31 October 2013.
  99. The Basis of International language. Read 1 November 2013.
  100. H. Jacob on Occidental (1947). Read 3 November 2013.
  101. Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 45
  102. Occidental B, 1947, p. 24
  103. Poem in Cosmoglotta 289 (summer 2000) with unwritten endings in parenthesis: Quo es li vive? On mori lent, li fin silent...Un promenad(a) in verdi parc(o). Nu flores resta sur li sarc(o)...Quo es li vive? Un rubi ros(e), mysterios(i), quel lentmen perdi su color(e). Quo resta? Solmen li dolor(e)...Quo es li vive? Tristess(e)? Chagrin(e)? Li mort(e) - - e fin(e)? Partú triumfa li amor(e), quam ombre fugi li dolor(e)! Quo es li vive? Tam bell, tam brev(i)... Un dulci rev(e) - Un gay canzon quam sol(e) aurin. Yo va amar it til li fin(e)!!
  104. http://www.panix.com/~bartlett/Haas.html
  105. "Cosmoglotta, 1939, p. 55". Johan comandat Petro que il mey ducter a il su cavall
  106. "Kosmoglott, 1923, p. 23".
  107. "Cosmoglotta B, 1941, p. 26".
  108. Couturat, Louis; Leau, Léopold (1903). Histoire de la langue universelle. Robarts - University of Toronto. Paris Hachette. Translation: "In short, one finds oneself forced into this paradox: the international words are not regular, and the regular words are not international; the prevailing opinion was that it was necessary to sacrifice regularity to internationality in the formation of words."
  109. "Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 45".
  110. "Cosmoglotta A, 1937, p. 23".
  111. "Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 80".
  112. "Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p.38".
  113. "Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p.107".
  114. Barandovská-Frank, Vĕra. "Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)" (PDF). Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. En svisa katolika gimnazio en Disentis (Grizono) okazis en la jaroj 1956-1957 eksperimento pri lerntempo-longeco bezonata por Interlingue. La lernantoj, kiuj havis antaŭkonojn de la lingvoj franca, latina kaj greka, regis Interlingue skribe kaj parole post 30 instruhoroj.

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