page_title: Interlingue
section_title: Language philosophy
hierarchical_section_title: Interlingue / Language philosophy
caption_attribution_description: English: Werbemarke für die Plansprache Occidental (Interlingue). "Die Sprache, die du verstehst - Occidental spricht für sich selbst"
context_page_description: Interlingue, known until 1949 as Occidental, 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.
  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, along with a certain amount of Germanic vocabulary. Many words are formed through application of de Wahl's rule, a set of rules for regular conversion of verb infinitives into derived words including from Latin double-stem verbs. The result is a language easy to understand at first sight for individuals acquainted with several Western European languages.
context_section_description: One of the earliest users of the language Esperanto, Edgar de Wahl encountered it for the first time in 1888 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. 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.
  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", stating that the international language should be easiest for the majority of those who need it (lit. who must apply it), or in other words those that need it in international relations. 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. 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" 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." 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) 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 m
caption: 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)
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