View source for Interlingue

{{distinguish|Interlingua|ApI Interlingua|Occitan}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Interlingue
| nativename       = ''Interlingue''
| image            = Unde yelb.svg
| imagesize        = 180
| imagealt         = Tilde de Occidental
| altname          = Occidental
| creator          = [[Edgar de Wahl]]
| created          = 1922
| setting          = [[International auxiliary language]]
| family           = [[constructed language]] based on [[Indo-European languages]]
| script           = [[Latin script]]
| ancestor         = Auli
| iso1             = ie
| iso2             = ile
| iso3             = ile
| linglist         = ile
| glotto           = inte1260
| glottorefname    = Interlingue (Occidental)
| notice           = IPA
| familycolor      = 
}}

'''Interlingue''' ({{IPA-art|interˈliŋɡwe|}}; [[ISO 639]] language codes ''ie'', ''ile''), known until 1949 as '''Occidental''' ({{IPA-art|oktsidenˈtaːl|}}), is an [[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 devised so that many of its derived word forms reflect the forms common to a number of [[Western Europe]]an languages, primarily those in the [[Romance languages|Romance]] family,<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=90&size=45 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."</ref><ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=104&size=45 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?"</ref><ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=116&size=45 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."</ref> along with a certain amount of Germanic vocabulary. Many words are formed using [[de Wahl's rule]], a set of rules for regular conversion of all but six verb infinitives into derived words including from [[Latin]] double-stem verbs (e.g. ''vi'''d'''er'' to see and its derivative ''vi'''s'''ion''). The result is a naturalistic and mostly regular language that is easy to understand at first sight for individuals acquainted with certain Western European languages. This readability and simplified grammar along with the regular appearance of the magazine Cosmoglotta made Occidental popular in Europe during the years up to and shortly following [[World War II]].<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&page=2&size=45 Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 2]</ref>

Occidental survived World War II, but the community had been out of touch with the language's creator since 1939.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 100|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=101&size=45}}</ref> Having refused<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 98|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=99&size=45}}</ref> to leave Tallinn [[Heim ins Reich|for Germany]], his house was destroyed in the 1943 [[Bombing of Tallinn in World War II|air raids on the city]] and he took refuge in a psychiatric hospital.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|quote="Post la okupo de Tallinn per sovetia armeo estis deportita kaj malaperinta la edzino de De Wahl, lia domo komplete forbruliĝis dum bombardado, detruiĝis lia riĉa biblioteko kaj manuskriptoj. Post la alveno de naziaj trupoj De Wahl rifuzis translokiĝon al Germanio kaj estis enkarcerigita. Por savi lin, liaj amikoj lasis proklami lin mense malsana. En la jaro 1944, 77-jaraĝa, li eniris sanatorion Seewald apud Tallinn kaj restis tie ankaŭ post la milito, ne havante propran loĝejon"}}</ref> There his correspondences were nearly entirely intercepted until his death in 1948,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Occidental A, 1948, p. 98|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=99&size=45}}</ref> leaving him largely unaware of the developments in the language. The name change from Occidental to ''Interlingue'' took place the following year. 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,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 7|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1948&page=7&size=45|quote="Li recent evenimentes politic e li division del munde in du sectores de influentie (occidental e oriental) ha mettet nor propagatores de quelc landes in delicat situation. It ha devenit desfacil nu parlar pri un lingue de quel li nómine in cert landes evoca suspectiones in li circul politic. Pro to nor Centrale ha recivet ti-ci mensus, precipue de Tchecoslovacia, propositiones usar vice li nómine de Occidental ti de Interal (=INTER/national Auxiliari lingue)."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|quote="La postmilita divido de Eŭropo en orientan kaj okcidentan sektoron sentigis la nomon “Occidental” propagando por kapitalisma okcidento, tial venis proponoj ŝanĝi la nomon."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Pigal|first=Engelbert|title=Interlingue (Occidental), die Weltsprache|publisher=Gesellschaft Cosmoglotta|year=1950|location=Vienna, Austria|pages=4|oclc=67940249|quote=Schließlich wurde aus Gründen der Neutralität mit 1. September 1949 der Name der Sprache in Interlingue geändert.}}</ref> and for a possible union or closer collaboration with [[Interlingua]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|quote="...la simileco inter ambaŭ interlingvoj estas tiom granda, ke certe eblos iu racia sintezo inter ili, konkludis Matejka en 1951...La senato de Interlingue-Union kaj la Interlingue-Academie pritraktis la proponojn, ke (1) Interlingue Union iĝu kolektiva membro de IALA kaj (2) Interlingue-Union restu favora al estonta aktiveco de IALA kaj morale subtenu ĝin. La unua propono ne estis akceptita, sed jes la dua, do praktike kunlaboro kaj subteno de Interlingua."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta, summer 2000|url=http://cosmoglotta.narod.ru/Cg289/cg289.htm|quote=Proque yo esperat que noi vell posser un vez fusionar con Interlingua, ti-ci nov nómine devet facilisar li transition por nor membres, evitante talmen, coram li publica, un nov radical changeament de nómine. Yo dunc proposit, in februar 1948, in Cosmoglotta, remplazzar li nómine Occidental per Interlingue malgré li oposition del presidente del Academie.}}</ref> a competing naturalistic project that was nearing publication. A significant number of users were lost following Interlingua's appearance in 1951,<ref name="Interlingua">{{Google books|id=OgHXBP3SoBsC|page=73|title=Language}}</ref><ref>{{Google books|id=V-pUYFcH2PwC|page=21|title=Interlingua Institute: A History}}</ref> beginning period of decline until the advent of the Internet.<ref>[https://omniglot.com/writing/occidental.htm Omniglot: Interlingue (Occidental)]</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite web|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Interlingua" />

In ''The Esperanto Book'', American Esperantist [[Don Harlow]] wrote that Occidental had an intentional emphasis on European forms, and that some of its leading followers espoused a [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] philosophy,<ref name="harlow2000">Harlow, Don. ''The Esperanto Book'', Chapter 3: {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204044938/http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/EBook/chap03.html |date=2012-02-04 }}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 33|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=39&size=45}}</ref> which may have hindered its spread. Still, the opposite view<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 64|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=68&size=45|quote=Yo confesse que yo vide poc in li Europan cultura del ultim 1900 annus quel es tam remarcabilmen preciosi. To quo es max visibil es tyrannie, oppression, guerres e nigri superstition.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1949, p.108|url=http://cosmoglotta.pbworks.com/w/page/131845221/Cosmoglotta%20A%20149%20%28oct%201949%29|quote=In ti témpor yo esset in Sydney, e pro que yo havet grand interesse por li indigenes e volet converter mi blanc fratres a un bon opinion pri ili, yo scrit in li presse pri ti heroic action e comparat li brutalitá del blanc rasse con li conciliantie e self-sacrificie del negros.}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> was also common in the community and Occidental gained adherents in many nations including Asian nations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1937&size=45&page=114|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1937|quote=JAPAN: Kokusaigo-Kenkyusho, Daita 11-784, Setagaya, TOKIO (Pch. Tokio 62 061)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1958, p. 66, 77|url=https://github.com/occidental-lang/occidental-lang.github.io/blob/master/resources/Cosmoglotta_V_1958.pdf}}</ref>

==History and activity==
[[File:First issue of Cosmoglotta, 1922.jpg|alt=|thumb|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 the language and its users can be seen through the magazine Cosmoglotta, which began publication in 1922 in Tallinn, Estonia under the name Kosmoglott. The language that de Wahl announced that year was a product of years of personal experimentation under the name Auli (auxiliary language), which he used from 1906 to 1921 and which later on gained the nickname proto-Occidental.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=8|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 8|website=anno.onb.ac.at|access-date=2018-12-18}}</ref> 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.''"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&size=45&page=25|title=Occidental A, 1946, p. 24}}</ref> De Wahl also corresponded frequently with the Italian mathematician and creator of [[Latino sine flexione]] [[Giuseppe Peano]] and gained an appreciation for its selection of international vocabulary, 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 [[L. L. Zamenhof|Zamenhof]].''"<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Occidental-Union, Wien 1928.jpg|thumb|right|Participants at an Occidental gathering in Vienna, 1928: Engelbert Pigal, Karl Janotta, A. Deminger, Hanns Hörbiger, Eugen Moess, Franz Houdek, Johann Robert Hörbiger]]
[[File:Occidentalists in Vienna, 1927.jpg|thumb|right|Meeting of Occidental (Interlingue) language users in Vienna in 1927.]]Upon its announcement in 1922, Occidental was at a stage of near but not total completion.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1925&page=40&size=45|title=Kosmoglott, 1925, p.40|quote=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."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&page=15&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 15|website=anno.onb.ac.at|access-date=2018-12-28}}</ref> De Wahl had not intended to announce the language for another few years but did so through the publication of Kosmoglott after hearing that the [[League of Nations]] had begun an inquiry into the question of an international language<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&size=45&page=27|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 27}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&page=4&size=45|title=Kosmoglott 001, 1922, p. 4}}</ref> The first known publication in Occidental, a booklet entitled "Transcendent algebra" by [[Jacob Linzbach]], appeared shortly before the first issue of Kosmoglott in 1921.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://keyboardfire.com/s/transalg/|title= Transcendental Algebra|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190822222146/http://keyboardfire.com/s/transalg/|access-date= 2019-11-30|archive-date= 2019-08-22}}</ref>

Occidental began gathering followers despite a complete lack of grammars and dictionaries<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=7|title=Kosmoglott, 1925, p.7|website=anno.onb.ac.at|access-date=2018-12-28}}</ref> due to its readability. Two years later in 1924, de Wahl wrote that he was in correspondence with some 30 people<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1924&size=45&teil=0101&page=14|title=Kosmoglott, 1924, p. 14|quote=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."}}</ref> "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'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jki.amu.edu.pl/files/JKI%20-%2014%20-%2009%20-%20Kuznecov[1].pdf|title="Kosmoglot" – la unua interlingvistika societo en Ruslando}}</ref> The first dictionary was published the next year in 1925, the ''radicarium directiv''<ref>{{Cite book|oclc=185538723|title=Radicarium directiv del lingue international (Occidental) in 8 lingues.|last=Wahl|first=E. de|date=1925|location=Tallinn}}</ref> which was a collection of Occidental root words and their equivalents in 8 languages.

Kosmoglott was also 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'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kosmoglott, 1924, p. 1|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1924&page=1&size=45}}</ref> which promoted Peano's Latino sine flexione. The name was changed to Cosmoglotta in 1927 as it began to officially promote Occidental in lieu of other languages,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta, 1927, p. 1|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=7&size=45}}</ref> and in January of the same year<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1947&size=45&page=17|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1947, p. 17}}</ref> the magazine's editorial and administrative office was moved to Vienna, Austria in the region of [[Mauer, Vienna|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]].<ref name=":1" /> By early 1930, the language was largely based in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and most recently in France where it began to be used two years before.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Helvetia, January 1930|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e&datum=1930&page=9&size=45|quote="...Occ. esset unesimli propagat per Germanes, Austrianes, Svedes, Tchecoslovacos e solmen ante du annus ha penetrat in Francia."}}</ref>

=== Vienna period, World War II and language standardization ===
[[File:Postkarte Lingue international Occidental.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2.5|PR postcard with Occidental text created in 1928 in Vienna]]
Besides an advantageous new location in a city closer to the centre of Europe, the Vienna period was also marked by financial stability for the first time. Two notable backers were [[Hanns Hörbiger|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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1937&page=80&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1937, p.79}}</ref> This did not last long as Hörbiger and Moore both died in 1931, and Cosmoglotta was again forced to rely on revenue from subscriptions, publications and the like.

The growing movement began a more assertive campaign for the language in the early 1930s<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1933&size=45&page=22|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1933, p. 20.}}</ref> in which it leveraged its at-sight readability by contacting organizations such as companies, embassies, printing houses and the League of Nations using letters entirely in Occidental that were often understood and responded to,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&size=45&page=30|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1931, p. 92|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1931&size=45&page=95|quote=Un commercial firma in Tchecoslovacia scri spontanmen al redaction: "Mi firma...opera in Italia solmen per li medium de Occidental, e to in omni romanic states. To es un miraculos fact. Vu posse scrir a omni romano in Occidental e il va comprender vor idées."}}</ref> often including the footer ''Scrit in lingue international "Occidental"'' ("Written in the international language Occidental")''.'' A large number of numbered "documents"<ref>[[:ie:Liste de documentes del Sviss Association por Occidental]]</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1934&page=52&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1934, p. 52}}</ref> Recordings of spoken Occidental on phonograph (gramophone) records for distribution also began to be made in this period.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1934&size=45&page=67|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1934, p. 52.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&size=45&page=12|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 12}}</ref>

The years from 1935 to 1939 were particularly active for Cosmoglotta, during which a second edition of the journal was published. Originally entitled ''Cosmoglotta-Informationes'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B (Cosmoglotta-Informationes), 1935, p. 1|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&page=1&size=45}}</ref> it soon began using the name Cosmoglotta B and focused on items of more internal interest such as linguistic issues, reports of Occidental in the news, and financial updates. In early 1936, not counting the 110 issues of Cosmoglotta and any other journals and bulletins, a total of 80 publications<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&size=45&page=17|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p. 17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&size=45&page=38|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p. 38}}</ref> existed in and about Occidental.

Meanwhile, the years leading up to the Second World War led to difficulties for Occidental [[Esperanto#Official repression|and other planned languages]] which were made illegal in Germany,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&size=45&page=5|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, pg. 5|quote=(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...}}</ref> Austria<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=12&size=45 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."</ref> and Czechoslovakia, forced to disband,<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=109&size=45 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.</ref> kept under [[Gestapo]] surveillance,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&size=45&page=122|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 122|quote=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."}}</ref> and had their didactic materials destroyed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 33.|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1948&size=45&page=33|quote=Translation: "I myself lost my entire rich Occidental-Interlingue possessions in 1936 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."}}</ref> The interdiction of auxiliary languages in Germany was particularly damaging as this was where most Occidentalists lived at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&size=45&page=32|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 32}}</ref> The inability to accept payment for subscriptions was a financial blow, and a difficulty that continued after the war<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p. 11|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1946&page=11&size=45}}</ref> along with Germany's division into zones of influence, not all of which allowed payments.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 107|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&size=45&page=99}}</ref> No communication took place between Edgar de Wahl in Tallinn and the Occidental Union in Switzerland from 1939 to October 1947,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 100|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&size=45&page=92|access-date=2019-01-02|website=anno.onb.ac.at}}</ref> first due to the war itself and thereafter from intercepted mail between Switzerland and the Soviet Union. Unaware of this, de Wahl was bewildered at the lack of response to his continued letters and even a large collection of translated poetry into Occidental which were never delivered; the only letter of his received in Switzerland was one that arrived in 1947 asking the Occidental Union "why it never responded to any letters from Tallinn".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 99|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=100&size=45}}</ref> Meanwhile, de Wahl's house and his entire library had been destroyed during the bombardment of Tallinn and de Wahl himself was incarcerated for a time after refusing to [[Heim ins Reich|leave Estonia for Germany]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|quote="Post la okupo de Tallinn per sovetia armeo estis deportita kaj malaperinta la edzino de De Wahl, lia domo komplete forbruliĝis dum bombardado, detruiĝis lia riĉa biblioteko kaj manuskriptoj. Post la alveno de naziaj trupoj De Wahl rifuzis translokiĝon al Germanio kaj estis enkarcerigita. Por savi lin, liaj amikoj lasis proklami lin mense malsana. En la jaro 1944, 77-jaraĝa, li eniris sanatorion Seewald apud Tallinn kaj restis tie ankaŭ post la milito, ne havante propran loĝejon"}}</ref>

The outbreak of war in 1939 put a halt to publications of both Cosmoglottas extending into 1940, but in 1941 Cosmoglotta B began publication once again and continued until 1950.<ref name=":3" /> 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.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&page=73&size=45|title=Plan de aparition de KOSMOGLOTT 1922-1926 e COSMOGLOTTA 1927-1972 (Austrian National Library)}}</ref> During the wartime period, only those in neutral Switzerland and Sweden were able to fully devote themselves to the language, carrying on activities in a semi-official form.

One of these activities was language standardization. De Wahl had created Occidental with a number of unchangeable features, but believed that its following of the "laws of life" gave it a firm enough base that it could follow a "natural evolution"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kosmoglott, 1922, p. 65|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&page=65&size=45}}</ref> with a flexibility which would "allow time and practice to take care of modifications that would prove to be necessary".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 95|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=103&size=45}}</ref> As a result, some words had more than one permissible form and could not be resolved by decree alone, thus leaving the ultimate decision to the community by including both possible forms in the first Occidental dictionaries.<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=3&size=45 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."</ref> One example concerned the verb ''scrir'' (to write) and a possible other form ''scripter'', as both created internationally recognizable derivations: ''scritura'' and ''scritor'' from ''scrir'', or ''scriptura'' and ''scriptor'' from ''scripter.'' De Wahl expressed a preference for ''scrir'', finding ''scripter'' to be somewhat heavy, but commented that the latter was certainly permissible and that Occidental might take on a similar evolution to natural languages in which both forms come into common use, with the longer and more Latin-like form having a heavier and more formal character and the shorter a lighter and more everyday tone (such as English ''story'' vs. ''history'').<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1925&page=14&size=45|title=Kosmoglott, 1925, p. 14|date=May 1925}}</ref>

Orthography was another area in which several possibilities existed, namely etymologic orthography ('''ad'''tractiv, '''ob'''pression), historic orthography ('''att'''ractiv, '''opp'''ression), or simplified orthography ('''at'''ractiv, '''op'''ression).<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=66&size=45 Cosmoglotta B, 1944, p. 66]</ref> The first option was hardly if ever used, and simplified orthography eventually became the standard by 1939.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schmidt|first=Dr. Thomas|title=GROSSES MODERNES WÖRTERBUCH INTERLINGUE (OCCIDENTAL) - DEUTSCH|year=2020|location=Berlin|pages=2|quote=Von seiner Entstehung bis zum Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkrieges 1939 wurde die Rechtschreibung der Sprache deutlich vereinfacht. Diese sogenannte „simplificat ortografie“ löste die alte „historic ortografie“ ab.}}</ref> Much of the standardization of the language took place in this way through community preference (e.g. both '''ac'''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1926&page=52&size=45|title=Kosmoglott, 1926, p. 52}}</ref> and '''anc''' were proposed for the word "also" but the community quickly settled on '''anc'''), 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,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 82|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1938&size=45&page=71}}</ref> much time during World War II was spent on language standardization and course creation, and in August 1943 the decision was made, given the length of the war, to create an interim academy to officialize this process.<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1943&page=85&size=45 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."</ref> This process had just about begun not long before the war,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1938&size=45&page=71|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 82}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1939&page=1&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1939, p. 1}}</ref> 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. While doing so, they frequently found themselves confronted with the decision between two "theoretically equally good" forms that had remained in popular usage, but whose presence could be confusing to a new learner of the language.<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=49 Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 49]</ref> 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."<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=67&size=45 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."</ref>

During the war, Occidentalists noticed that the language was often permitted to be sent by telegram within and outside of Switzerland (especially to and from Sweden)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p.8.|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1946&page=8&size=45|access-date=2018-12-22|website=anno.onb.ac.at|quote=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."}}</ref> even without official recognition, surmising that censors were able to understand it<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1943&page=6&size=45 Cosmoglotta B, 1943, p. 6]</ref> and may have thought them to be written in Spanish or [[Romansch language|Romansch]],<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=15&size=45 Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 15]</ref> 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<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1946&page=9&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p.9|website=anno.onb.ac.at|access-date=2018-12-22}}</ref> and numerous Occidentalists sent to concentration camps<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 119.|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=119&size=45|access-date=2018-12-22|website=anno.onb.ac.at|quote=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..."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 83.|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=83&size=45|access-date=2018-12-22|website=anno.onb.ac.at|quote=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."}}</ref> 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. Cosmoglotta had subscribers in 58 cities in Switzerland<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=24&size=45 Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 24]</ref> a few months before the end of World War II in Europe, and Cosmoglotta A began publication again in 1946.

=== IALA, Interlingua, and name change to Interlingue ===
The International Auxiliary Language Association, founded in 1924<ref>{{Cite book|last=Esterhill|first=Frank J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V-pUYFcH2PwC|title=Interlingua Institute: A History|publisher=Interlingua Institute|year=2000|isbn=9780917848025|pages=ix}}</ref> 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,<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=84&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 84}}</ref> and many Occidentalists including Edgar de Wahl himself<ref name=":7" /> believed that its leadership under Esperantist [[William Edward Collinson]] (known among readers of Cosmoglotta for an article of his entitled "Some weak points of Occidental"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1937, p. 1|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1937&page=2&size=45}}</ref>) meant that it had been set up with a staff of professional linguists under a neutral and scientific pretext to bolster a final recommendation for Esperanto. 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]], a prominent Occidentalist who later joined Interlingua in the 1950s, detailed one such visit he made in 1935 to Morris ([[Dave Hennen Morris|whose husband]] was the US ambassador in Brussels) that vastly improved his opinion of the organization: <blockquote>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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=85&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 85}}</ref></blockquote>As a result, opinions in the Occidental community of the IALA and its activities began to improve and reports on its activities in Cosmoglotta became increasingly positive. In 1945, the IALA announced that it planned to create its own language and showed four possible versions under consideration, all of which were naturalistic<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 84|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=85&size=45}}</ref> as opposed to schematic. Occidentalists were by and large pleased that the IALA had decided to create a language so similar in nature 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 in describing the situation as a victory for the natural school (''"Li naturalitá esset victoriosi!")''<ref name=":8" /> and calling IALA's new language "almost the same language" in 1948,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&size=45&page=35|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 34}}</ref> though was not without reservations, doubting whether a project with such a similar aspect and structure would be able to "suddenly cause prejudices [against planned languages] to fall and create unity among the partisans of international languages"<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1948&page=29&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 29}}</ref> and fearing that it might simply "disperse the partisans of the natural language with nothing to show for it"<ref name=":2" /> after Occidental had created "unity in the naturalistic school" for so long.

While the two languages had a 90% identical vocabulary<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|quote=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.}}</ref> without orthographic differences taken into account (e.g. with ''filosofie'' and ''philosophia'' considered the same word), structurally and derivationally they were very different. De Wahl's Rule in Occidental had mostly done away with Latin double stem verbs (verbs such as act: ''ager'', ''act''- or send: ''mitter'', ''miss''-), while Interlingua simply accepted them as part and parcel of a naturalistic system.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gode|first=Alexander|title=A grammar of Interlingua: Appendix 1 (Double-Stem Verbs)|url=https://adoneilson.com/int/gi/append/double.html}}</ref> The ''control languages'' (Italian, Spanish and/or Portuguese, French, English) used by Interlingua to form its vocabulary for the most part require an eligible word to be found in three source languages (the "rule of three"),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Le tres principios principal del standardization international in interlingua|url=https://www.interlingua.com/historia/publicationes/standardisation.htm}}</ref> which would conflict with Occidental's Germanic substrate and various other words which would be by definition ineligible in a unified language that retained Interlingua's methodology. Accepting Occidental words such as ''mann, strax, old'' and ''sestra (''Interlingua'': viro, immediatemente, vetere, soror)'' into Interlingua could only be done by doing away with the control languages, the very core of Interlingua's methodology for determining its vocabulary. Interlingua also allowed optional irregular verbal conjugations (such as ''so,'' ''son'' and ''sia''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bowks.net/worldlang/aux/b_IED_s.html|title=Interlingua-English Dictionary S|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213083124/http://www.bowks.net/worldlang/aux/b_IED_s.html|archive-date=2007-12-13}}</ref> 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.

All of this took place in a time when Occidental, based in Europe, was still recovering from the war. Cosmoglotta continued to report into 1946 on those who had survived the war and who had not, those who were ready to participate again and those who were still out of touch.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 120|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=119&size=45}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p. 4|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1946&page=4&size=45}}</ref> The magazine was showing financial strain with inflated printing costs after the end of World War II and the inability to collect payments from certain countries,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1948&size=45&page=12|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 12|quote=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..."}}</ref> a marked contrast to the well-funded<ref name="harlow2000" /> IALA which was based in New York.

Another difficulty for the post-war Occidentalists was political. The beginning of the [[Cold War]] created a particularly uncomfortable situation for the Occidental-Union, which now possessed a name that by unfortunate chance coincided with that of an anti-Russian political league, and which the Occidentalists in Switzerland believed to be the reason for the interception of all of de Wahl's letters sent from Tallinn.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 99|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=100&size=45|quote=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?"}}</ref> 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 ('''Inter'''national '''a'''uxiliari '''l'''ingue), 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1948&page=7&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 7}}</ref> Ric Berger began advocating for a change of name from Occidental to Interlingue in 1948.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biographias: Ric(hard) Berger|url=https://www.interlingua.com/historia/biographias/berger.htm|quote=Postea, de 1934 a 1950, ille esseva co-redactor del magazin del Occidental-Union, "Cosmoglotta", e esseva le interprenditor in 1948 quando occidental - presentate per le estoniano Edgar de Wahl - cambiava nomine a interlingue.}}</ref> 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 1 September 1949.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/48608370/Cosmoglotta-October-1949|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1949, p. 112|quote=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."}}</ref>

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. [[Věra Barandovská-Frank|Vĕra Barandovská-Frank]]'s perception of the situation at the time was as follows (translated from Esperanto): <blockquote>"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.

<br />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."<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|page=18}}</ref></blockquote>Don Harlow's summary of the year 1951 for Occidental<ref name="harlow2000" /> is also similar to that of Barandovská-Frank's:<blockquote>Interlingua had a ready-made constituency. Almost thirty years had passed since the creation of Occidental, whose strength in the "naturalistic" world had prevented other "naturalistic" projects from developing their own movements. But Occidental's star had waned since the war. Now, like a bolt from the blue, came this heaven-sent gift: a new constructed language even more "naturalistic" than Occidental. In spite of attempts by diehard supporters of Occidental to stave off the inevitable — for instance, by such tactics as renaming their language '''Interlingue''' — most remaining Occidentalists made the short pilgrimage to the shrine of Interlingua.</blockquote>

=== Stagnation and revival ===
[[File:Cosmoglotta_325.jpg|thumb|Issue 325 of Cosmoglotta for the period January to December 2019.]]
While the migration of so many users to Interlingua had severely weakened the Interlingue movement, the following drop in activity was gradual and took place over decades. Cosmoglotta B stopped publishing after 1950, and frequency of publication for Cosmoglotta A began to gradually drop: once every second month from 1952, and then once per quarter from 1963.<ref name=":3" /> Other bulletins in Interlingue continued to appear during this time such as ''Cive del Munde'' (Switzerland), ''Voce de Praha'' (Czechoslovakia), ''Sved Interlinguist'' (Sweden), ''International Memorandum'' (UK), ''Interlinguistic Novas'' (France), ''Jurnale Scolari International'' (France), ''Buletine Pedagogic International'' (Francia), ''Super li Frontieras'' (France), ''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).<ref name=":4" /> Barandovská-Frank believed that the ebb in interest in Occidental-Interlingue occurred in concert with the aging of the generation that was first drawn to it from other planned languages (translated from Esperanto):<blockquote>Most of those interested in Interlingue belonged to the generation that became acquainted in turn with [[Volapük]], Esperanto and Ido, later on finding the most aesthetic (essentially naturalistic) solution in Occidental-Interlingue. Many subsequently moved to IALA's Interlingua, which however did not prove to be much more successful despite the impression its scientific origin made, and those who remained loyal to Occidental-Interlingue did not succeed in imparting their enthusiasm to a new generation.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote>Activity in Interlingue eventually reached a low during the 1980s and early 1990s, when Cosmoglotta publication ceased for a number of years. This can be seen in the frequency of Cosmoglotta: while issue 269 was published in 1972 after publishing once per season between 1963,<ref name=":3" /> issue 289 was not reached until summer 2000<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, Summer 2000|url=http://cosmoglotta.narod.ru/Cg289/cg289.htm}}</ref> for an average of less than one issue per year. 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.'"<ref name="harlow2000" /> A decade later, a documentary in 1994<ref>{{Citation|last=hawley|first=steve|title=Language Lessons 1994|date=2010-06-01|url=https://vimeo.com/12197673|access-date=2019-01-30}}</ref> by Steve Hawley and Steyger on planned languages introduced Interlingue speaker Donald Gasper as "one of the last remaining speakers of the language Occidental".

As was the case for other planned languages, it was the arrival of the internet that allowed the language to revive. In the year 1999 the first Yahoo! Group in Occidental was founded,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ie-munde.com/historie.html|title=IE-Munde - Jurnal e information pri Interlingue (Occidental)|website=www.ie-munde.com|access-date=2019-01-30}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Litt incontra in Ulm.|journal=IE-MUNDE (Revúe in Interlingue-Occidental) Numeró 7 - Octobre 2013}}</ref> another in Munich in 2014 with three participants,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ie-munde.com/incontra-de-interlingue-7-im-de-april-2014-in-muenchen.html|title=IE-Munde - Jurnal e information pri Interlingue (Occidental)|website=www.ie-munde.com|access-date=2019-01-30}}</ref> and a third in Ulm on 16 August 2015 with five.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=TRIESIM MINI-INCONTRA DE INTERLINGUE|journal=IE-MUNDE (Revúe in Interlingue-Occidental) Numeró 11 – Octobre 2015}}</ref>

The most recent edition of the magazine Cosmoglotta is volume 325, for the period January to December 2019.

== Language philosophy ==
[[File:Werbemarke für die Plansprache Occidental (Interlingue).jpg|thumb|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)]]
Edgar de Wahl was first introduced to planned languages through Volapük by Waldemar Rosenberger, a coworker of de Wahl's father.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 18|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=18&size=45}}</ref> De Wahl ended up becoming one of the earliest users of the language Esperanto, which he encountered for the first time in 1888 during his period as a Volapükist and for which he was in the process of composing a dictionary of marine terms.<ref name=":9" /> He quickly became a fervent supporter of Esperanto for a number of years where he collaborated with Zamenhof on some parts of the design of the language<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 56|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=62&size=45}}</ref> and translated one of the first works into Esperanto: "Princidino Mary",<ref>{{Citation|last=Lermontov|first=Mikhail|title=Esperanto: Princidino Mary|date=1896|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EO_Mi%C4%A5ail_Lermontov_-_Princidino_Mary.pdf|access-date=2020-12-20}}</ref> published in 1889 originally under the name Princino Mary. He remained an Esperantist until 1894 when the vote to [[Reformed Esperanto|reform Esperanto]] failed. In this vote, 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=19&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 19}}</ref> 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 and trying to develop a system that combined both naturalism and regularity. Some of the language creators he worked with were [[Waldemar Rosenberger]] ([[Idiom Neutral]]), Julius Lott (Mundolingue), and [[Antoni Grabowski]] (Modern Latin for a time, before returning to Esperanto).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 18|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=19&size=45}}</ref> The method sought after by these "partisans of naturalism" was the decomposition of existing words into their parts to obtain the international roots within them, such as naturalisation to nat-ur-al-is-ation, which would then be used in other words to keep root words to a minimum while maintaining a natural appearance: '''preci'''e (price), '''preci'''osi (precious), a'''preci'''ar (to appreciate), a'''preci'''ation (appreciation), a'''preci'''abil (appreciable), des'''preci'''ar (to depreciate), des'''preci'''ation (depreciation).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 19|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=20&size=45}}</ref> This decomposition of existing words gave rise to a large number of affixes. For example, just those used to form nouns referring to a type of person are as follows: ''-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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1923&page=9&size=45|title=Kosmoglott, 1923, p. 9|quote=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."}}</ref> In addition to this, de Wahl's rule developed later allowed for regular derivation from double-stem Latin verbs.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|quote=Male al la “Regul De Wahl”, kiu ebligas en Interlingue regulajn derivaĵojn, Interlingua konservas plurajn radikojn, ekz. ag/act (agente/actor), frang/fract (frangibil/fraction), ung/unct (unguento/unction), tiel ke sen lingvistikaj antaŭscioj pri infinitiva kaj supina formoj oni ne povas diveni la ĝustan rezulton.}}</ref>

The [[Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language]], a body of academics formed to study the problem of an international language and which recommended Esperanto with reforms (leading to the language known as Ido) occurred in 1907 before Occidental was ready to be announced. Given this, de Wahl chose to send a memorandum of principles on which to base an international language, a memorandum which arrived after the committee had already adjourned<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1946, p. 22|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=23&size=45}}</ref> and which was only noted in passing by Louis Couturat, who was already familiar with de Wahl and his collaborators. The principles stated in the memorandum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1937, p. 73|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1937&page=74&size=45}}</ref> are listed in a request for the committee to declare:<blockquote>1. that none of the existing systems are satisfactory;

2. that the international language to construct should be based on international material;

3. that it should have a precise system of formation of words which, by its own rules, obtains words which are truly international;

4 that it should have a natural grammar that produces no unnatural forms;

5. that it should have an international ortography.</blockquote>

De Wahl published in 1922 a modification of [[Otto Jespersen]]'s famously cited principle that "That international language is best which in every point offers the greatest facility to the greatest number",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jespersen|first=Otto|title=An International Language|year=1929|location=https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=6wDU-1Dih_QC&source=gbs_navlinks_s|pages=52}}</ref> stating that the international language should be easiest for the majority of those who need it (lit. ''who must apply it''),<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&size=45&page=19|title=Kosmoglott, 1922, p. 19}}</ref> or in other words those that need it in international relations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1941&size=45&page=15|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1941, p. 15}}</ref> De Wahl believed that number of speakers did not always need to be taken into account, particularly in specialized areas such as botony where for example the term [[Oenothera biennis|Oenethera biennis]] (a type of plant) should be implemented unchanged in an international language even if the entire world population of botanists, those most often familiar with and likely to use the word, did not exceed 10,000.<ref name=":5" /> 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 [[World War I|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"<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|title=Kosmoglott, 1924, p. 2|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1924&page=2&size=45|quote=Tal paroles nu ancor ne tro numerosi, ja in li secul passat ha augmentat in grand quantitá, e in futur va crescer in exorbitant proportion, quande, per li international comunication, li idées del stabil oriental cultures va inundar e influer li maladi Europa, quel just nu perdi su equilibrie.}}</ref> 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."<ref name=":6" /> 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''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=94|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 86}}</ref>) if worldwide linguistic trends began to show a preference for them.

De Wahl believed that there was a fine balance to be maintained between schematic regularity versus naturalism in an international language, where too much of the former may be convenient for the early learner but abhorrent for a speaker, and vice versa: "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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=103|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p.95}}</ref>

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''' (east), '''svimmar''' (to swim), '''moss''', etc.), with Romance and Greek vocabulary more appropriate in the derivation of international words ('''fémina''' for woman to form '''feminin''', '''can''' for dog to form '''canin''' (canine), etc.) as well as mental, corporal and natural conceptions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=25|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 19}}</ref> Minor Romance languages such as [[Ladin language|Ladin]], Provençal ([[Occitan]]) and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] along with [[creole language|creoles]] had a large importance in the development of Occidental for de Wahl,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e&datum=1929&page=83&size=45|title=Helvetia, August 1929}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e&datum=1929&page=99&size=45|title=Helvetia, August 1929}}</ref> who wrote as far back as 1912 that his language under development was more similar to Provençal than Italian or Spanish.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=8&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 7}}</ref> The Swiss magazine [[Der 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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=33|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 32}}</ref>

De Wahl took pains to stress that Occidental's natural appearance did not imply wholesale importing of national expressions and usage, and warned that doing so would lead to chaos. One of his articles on this subject was directed toward English and French users who he believed incorrectly saw 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."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 38|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=38}}</ref> 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 naturalism 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'".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&size=45&page=90 |title=ÖNB-ANNO - Cosmoglotta (Serie B)|website=anno.onb.ac.at |access-date=2019-01-02}}</ref>

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'<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mulaik|first=Stanley, Ph.D.|title=Standardization of Grammatical Particles|url=https://rudhar.com/lingtics/intrlnga/StanleyMulaik/Prototypes%20of%20Particles%20Interlingua.pdf}}</ref> (the most recent common ancestor to its source languages) while Interlingue/Occidental focused on active, on the fly derivation. Vocabulary was deemed technically permissible even if it did not match forms in other living languages, with these derived words described as "forms that living languages would have been able to produce using their own means".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Matejka|first=Alphonse|title=Autonomie e Regularitá in li Lingue International|url=https://occidental-lang.com/resources/Autonomie_e_Regularita_in_li_Lingue_International.pdf|quote=We do not hesitate to form words like “ludette, plorada, substantival, plumallia, tassade, sucrage, glotton, stridore, hesitatori, successosi, flexura” etc. etc. without asking ourselves whether these words are international or not. Even when they are in fact not international, they nevertheless never have the artificial appearance that characterizes most of the derived words in Esperanto and Ido. They always represent forms that living languages would have been able to produce using their own means.}}</ref> 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<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/document/48621983/Cosmoglotta-April-1950 Cosmoglotta April 1950, p. 5]</ref> inspired by the IALA's soon-to-be-published Interlingua, particularly by Ric Berger who advocated replacing the optional -i adjectival ending with -e.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/48607233/Cosmoglotta-April-1949|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1949, p. 38}}</ref> 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 naturalism found today in the interlinguistic movement", calling critics of the changes victims of "long-lasting habits" and an "optical illusion".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/48621983/Cosmoglotta-April-1950|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1950, p. 38 }}</ref> Whether these experimental changes would have taken root is not known, as Berger left his position as editor of Cosmoglotta soon after<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/doc/48627844/Cosmoglotta-October-1950 Cosmoglotta October 1950, p. 1]</ref> and eventually joined Interlingua, while the language returned to the 1947 standard that continues to this day.

=== Vocabulary Examples ===
Though seemingly favourable to the Romance language family, Edgar de Wahl did not see Occidental as a Romance language and did not tolerate any nationalism or chauvinism in the choice of words for the language. His opinion on justice in the choice of vocabulary was that: "However many special, new, significant words each [culture] has respectively added to the common human culture, that much they receive."<ref>{{Cite web|last=de Wahl|first=Edgar|date=February 1929|title=International o Romanic (Cosmoglotta A, 1929, pp. 27 - 33)|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=31&size=45|access-date=2020-09-09|quote="Lasciate ogni nazionalismo, voi ch’entrate" in li sant dominia del interhoman comprension.}}</ref> Below are examples he provided of source languages and what they are particularly known for around the world (why they are included in Occidental).
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Category / Reasoning
!Origin
!Words
|-
|Examples of the non-Romance substrate in the language
|Anglo-Germanic
|storc, mann, self, yelb, svimmar, helm, svin, moss, segle, ost, west, nord, strax, sparro, fox, spat, spruzzar, scum, stal, stall, stamp, strec, stripp, stropp, strump, stupp, watch, winch, vrec, yufte, rasp, scote, pretti, litti, plug, spad, mis-, milz, mast, stir, bote, steve, tacle, strand
|-
|Science and philosophy
|Greek
|teorema, trigonometrie, teosofie, pleuritis, biologie, astronomie
|-
|Life, physics, society, politics, law
|Latin
|pedale, manuscrit, cap, cordial, influentie, civil, social, comission, comunisme, republica, construction, conductor, privat, stabil
|-
|Music and economy
|Italian
|presto, andante, staccato, maestro, virtuos, violoncello; tratte, bilancie, giro-conto, agio, bankrott
|-
|High society, modern army organization
|French
|politesse, hotel, menú, manchette, jabot, maitresse, couplet, courtoisie, dinear, frac, robe; general, colonel, corporal, sargeant
|-
|Navigation 
|Scandinavian, Dutch, English
|log, fregatte, luv, bote, mast, tacle, steve, stir, stropp, kil, reff; top, clamp, brigg, clippes, winch, watch, foc
|-
|Sport 
|English
|champion, start, ténnis, hockey, jockey, turf, set, game
|-
|Unchained authoritarianism
|Russian
|tsar, ukas, knut, bolchevic, pogrom
|-
|Inquisition, showy chivalric pride
|Spanish
|autodafé, hidalgo, Don Quijote, toreador, matador, mantille
|-
|Technology and industry
|Germanic
|scruv, muff, vind, spul, falun, flint-glass, warf, staple
|-
| rowspan="13" |Cultural flowerings or names of things, plants and animals of certain lands
|Hebrews
|sabat, cherub, delta, camel, ámen, elefant, jubilar, mammon, seraf, manna, hosanna, golem, kósher
|-
|Arabs
|alcohol, magazin, balsam, arsenale, admirale, tara, café, safran, koran, kadi, minaret, alcove, alcali, alchimie, algebra
|-
|Turks
|sultan, fez, pasha, yatagan, bashibuzuk, bashlyk
|-
|Persian
|bakshish, bazar, págode, divan, turban, serai, shah, vezir
|-
|Hindus
|nirvana, karma, calicó, rum, punch, raja, bayadera, batic
|-
|Malaysians
|orang-utan, maki, tabú
|-
|Japanese
|geisha, samurai, harakiri, kimono, bushido, micado, riksha
|-
|Chinese
|té, mandarine, kotau, silk, bonze, caolin, dshonke
|-
|Mongols
|dalai-lama
|-
|American Indians
|wigwam, mocassine, cocain, tabac, cigar, chocolate, cacáo, cannibale, colibrí, orcan, hamac, creol
|-
|Black Americans
|jazz
|-
|Black Africans
|tse-tse, quagga, zebra
|-
|Australians
|cangurú, bumerang, moa, barramuda
|}

=== Symbol ===
The symbol of Occidental and its dimensions<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p. 12|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&page=12&size=45}}</ref> were chosen in 1936 after some deliberation and many other proposed symbols that included 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&page=3&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p.3}}</ref> The tilde, already used by the Occidental-Union, was eventually selected based on five criteria:<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&size=45&page=11|title=Cosmoglotta B 1936, p. 11}}</ref> 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 advantages of the lack of a fixed meaning for the tilde in the public sphere, and its similarity to a waveform, implying speech.<ref name=":11" />

==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''.<ref name=pbgrammar>[http://interlingue.pbworks.com/w/page/4887780/Grammatica%20de%20Interlingue%20%28English%29#alfabet Grammatica de Interlingue in English], F. Haas 1956. Read 31 October 2013.</ref> Accents are written on the five vowels to indicate irregular stress, with the grave accent (á é í ó ú) preferred, but others (è, ê, etc.) permitted.<ref name="pbgrammar" />

===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.<ref name=pbbasis>[http://interlingue.pbworks.com/w/page/4888206/The%20Basis%20of%20International%20Language The Basis of International language]. Read 1 November 2013.</ref>

Rough equivalents for the vowels are as follows:<ref name="pbgrammar" />

* '''a''' as in French, German, Spanish or Italian, or English f'''a'''ther.
* '''e''' open or closed, as German, Spanish or Italian, or English b'''e'''d and y'''e'''s.
* '''i''' as French, German, Spanish and Italian, or English mach'''i'''ne.
* '''o''' open or closed as in French, German, Spanish and Italian, or English d'''oo'''r, h'''o'''t.
* '''u''' as in German, Spanish and Italian, or English r'''u'''le, p'''u'''ll. '''U''' after q is a short, almost consonantal (w).
* '''y''' is a consonant after a vowel or beginning a word before a vowel, otherwise is pronounced as '''i'''.

Interlingue has non-obligatory vowel length, based on a few rules of thumb that include the following:<ref name="pbgrammar" />

* Accented vowels tend to be long: e in id'''é''', o in son'''o'''ri, a in dram'''a'''tic.
* Vowels before a final c, ch or x, other consonant clusters and vowels in short grammatical particles tend to be short: a in m'''a'''nn, '''o''' in storc, i in '''i'''n and '''i'''t.

The consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:<ref name=pbbasis />
*'''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:<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1929, p. 165|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=169&size=45}}</ref> intercal'''ar''', par'''ol''', '''for'''me. Pluralizing a noun does not change the stress: par'''ol'''es, '''for'''mes. 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: ra'''pid'''men, '''dup'''lic, bon'''iss'''im, '''sin'''gul, poss'''i'''bil, '''max'''imum, sta'''tis'''ticas. Two vowels together are diphthongized and do not count as two syllables for the purpose of stress: fa'''mil'''ie, po'''ten'''tie, unless the word is a single consonant or consonant cluster followed by two vowels: d'''i'''e, d'''e'''o. Compound words are stressed based on the last word in the compound: hod'''i'''e, substr'''a'''e. In cases where the accent is irregular, it is indicated by an accent: caf'''é''', '''í'''npossibil, numer'''ó''', n'''ú'''mere, felicit'''á'''.

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). Examples: '''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 [[Article (grammar)#Definite article|definite article]] and an [[Article (grammar)#Indefinite article|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.<ref name=pbbasis /> To avoid pronunciation and stress changes, words ending in -c, -g, and -m only add an -s: un libre, du libre'''s''', un angul, tri angul'''es''', li tric, li tric'''s''', li plug, li plug'''s''', li album, pluri album'''s''', li tram, du tram'''s'''.

The ending of the definite article can be modified to '''lo''' (masculine), '''la''' (feminine), '''lu''' (neuter), '''lis''' (plural), '''los''' (masculine plural), e '''las''' (feminine plural).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 96|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=104&size=45}}</ref> Of these, the forms '''lu''' and '''lis''' are most common: '''lu''' in the same sense as Spanish ''lo'' and English ''that which'', as in '''Ne li aprension de un lingue es lu essential, ma su usation''' (''that which'' is essential is not the learning of a language, but using it), and '''lis''' to pluralize words that are difficult to pluralize on their own: '''lis s''' (the s's).

===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]]).

{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!
! colspan="2" |first
! colspan="2" |second
! colspan="2" |third 
(neutral)
! colspan="2" |third
(fem.)
! colspan="2" |third
(masculine)
|-
!
!
!ie
!en
!ie
!en
!ie
!en
!ie
!en
!ie
!en
|-
| rowspan="3" |'''Singular'''
|'''Subject'''
|yo
|I
|tu
|thee
|it
|it
|ella
|she
|il
|he
|-
|'''Object'''
|me
|me
|te
|thou
|it
|it
|la
|her
|le
|him
|-
|'''Possessive'''
|mi
|my
|tui
|thy
|su
|its
|su
|her
|su
|his
|-
| rowspan="3" |'''Plural'''
|'''Subject'''
|noi
|we
|vu
|you
|ili
|they
|ellas
|they
|illos
|they
|-
|'''Object'''
|nos
|us
|vos
|you
|les
|them
|las
|them
|los
|them
|-
|'''Possessive'''
|nor
|our
|vor
|your
|lor
|their
|lor
|their
|lor
|their
|}
The pronoun expressing politeness is ''vu'',<ref name=pbgrammar /> which is also the second person plural. The indefinite personal pronoun "one" is ''on''.<ref name=pbbasis /> If necessary, one can specify the gender of third person plural by using ''illos'' (masculine) or e''llas'' (feminine).<ref name=pbgrammar />

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 for pronouns except '''me''' and '''te'''.<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&size=45&page=79 Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 45]</ref> The '''possessive pronouns''' are '''mi, tui, su''' (his/her/its), '''nor, vor''' and '''lor'''.<ref name=pbgrammar /> They may be pluralized: '''li mi''' (mine, singular), '''li mis''' (mine, plural), '''li nor''' (ours, singular), '''li nores''' (ours, plural).

Grammatical endings are used, though to a far lesser extent than more schematic planned languages such as [[Esperanto]] and [[Ido language|Ido]] in which [[parts of speech]] are marked with obligatory endings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Sixteen Rules of Esperanto Grammar|url=http://literaturo.org/HARLOW-Don/Esperanto/rules.html#nouns|quote=NOUNS have the ending -o. To form the plural, add the ending -j...ADJECTIVES end in -a.}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":12" /> Some grammatical endings are:

*'''ar, er, ir''': verb infinitive. f'''ar''' (to do), poss'''er''' (be able), scr'''ir''' (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: capital'''e''' (capital, noun) vs. capital (capital, adjective), contenet'''e''' (content) vs, contenet (contained), sud (south, adjective) vs. sud'''e''' (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 (curs'''e''', sens'''e'''), -ir, -er- and -ar endings to avoid confusion with the verb infinitive (danger'''e''', desir'''e''', paper'''e'''), and other such areas where its addition aids in differentiation or pronunciation.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1947, p. 27|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&page=25&size=45}}</ref> Optional -e endings: can or can'''e''' (dog), Pentecost or Pentecost'''e''' (Pentecost). The -e and other endings are often omitted for poetic or euphonic reasons.<ref>[http://cosmoglotta.narod.ru/Cg289/cg289.htm 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)!!</ref>
*'''i''': the general adjectival ending, similar to -e in usage. Examples of obligatory -i endings: pigr'''i''' (lazy) and acr'''i''' (sharp) to enable pronunciation, verd'''i''' (green, adjective) to distinguish from verd'''e''' (green, noun). Examples of optional -i endings: etern vs. etern'''i''' (eternal), imens vs. imens'''i''' (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 pens'''a''' (a thought occurs to me) vs. Pens'''e'''s e paroles (thoughts and words). The '''a''' ending also makes nouns feminine: angles'''e''' (English person), angles'''o''' (Englishman), angles'''a''' (English woman). This does not apply to nouns that on their own indicate the gender (patre, matre).<ref name=":13" />
*'''o''': indicates the masculine gender in the same way '''a''' indicates the feminine.

=== Correlatives ===
While correlatives were not made to match a pre-determined scheme (such as the correlatives in Esperanto<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wikibooks: Esperanto/Appendix/Table of correlatives|url=https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Esperanto/Appendix/Table_of_correlatives&oldid=3241754}}</ref>), the majority do match the prefixes and suffixes in the chart below.<br />
{| class="wikitable"
!
!QU- 
(interrogative/relative)
!T- 
(demonstrative)
!ALQU- 
(undefined)
!NEQU- 
(negative)
!-CUNC 
(indeterminate)
!'''Ø'''
(collective)
|-
| -I 
(persons, standard demonstrative)
|qui 
(who)
|ti 
(this/that)
|alqui 
(someone)
|nequi 
(nobody)
|quicunc 
(whoever)
|omni 
(every, all)
|-
| -O 
(things)
|quo 
(what)
|to 
(that: general 
demonstrative

as in "'''that''' is true")
|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)
|}
Notes on the correlatives:<ref>{{Cite web|title=Occidental Course in 10 Lessons|url=https://occidental-lang.com/resources/OccidentalCourseIn10Lessons-EnglishTranslation.pdf}}</ref>

'''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).

Correlatives can take the plural ending: '''queles''', '''quales, tis, omnis''', etc.

'''Ci''' (here) and '''ta''' (there) can be affixed to '''ti''' and '''to''' to indicate proximity or distance: '''ti libre''' (this book), '''ti-ci''' libre (this book here), '''ti-ta''' libre (that book there), '''tis''' (these), '''tis-ci''' (these here), '''tis-ta''' (those there), '''to-ci''' (this here), '''to-ta''' (that there).

Many derivatives are formed from the correlatives: '''qualitá''' from '''qual''' + '''itá''', '''quantitá''' from '''quant''' + -'''itá''', '''omnipotent''' from '''omni + potent.'''

=== Verbs ===
Verbs in Interlingue have three endings: -'''ar''', -'''er''', and -'''ir'''. Conjugation is performed with a combination of endings and auxiliary verbs. The verb '''esser''' (to be) is exceptional in being written '''es''' in the present  tense, though the '''esse''' form is seen in the imperative.<ref name=":13" />
{| class="wikitable"
|+
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 am'''at'''
|-
|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'''.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+
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 mood|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'').<ref name=":13">{{Cite web|title=Grammatica de Interlingue in Interlingue|url=http://www.panix.com/~bartlett/Haas.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1939&page=55&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta, 1939, p. 55|quote="Johan comandat Petro que il mey ducter a il su cavall"}}</ref>

'''Hay''' is a standalone verb signifying ''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.).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1946, p. 85|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1946&size=45&page=81}}</ref> 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)<ref name="pbgrammar" /> 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).<ref name="pbgrammar" />

The verb '''ear''' (to go) may be used to emphasize the continuity of a verb: '''li dom ea constructet''' (the house is being built).<ref name="pbgrammar" />

The [[double negative]] is permitted, and was even recommended by de Wahl<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1923&size=45&page=23|title=Kosmoglott, 1923, p. 23}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1941&page=26|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1941, p. 26}}</ref> but it remained permitted and is seen occasionally.

The infinitive may also used as a mild or impersonal imperative:<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A 1939, p. 40|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1939&page=40&size=45}}</ref> '''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.

=== Adverbs ===
Interlingue has '''primary adverbs''' and '''derived adverbs'''. Primary adverbs are not generated from other parts of speech and are thus not formed using any special endings: ''tre'' (very), ''sempre'' (always), etc.

Derived adverbs are formed by adding the suffix -'''men''' to an adjective ('''rapid''' = quick, '''rapidmen''' = quickly), cognate with French ''-ment'', Italian ''-mente'', and others. The ending ''-men'' was inspired by [[Provençal dialect|Provençal]] and spoken French (which does not pronounce the t in ''-ment'') and chosen over ''-mente'' to avoid clashing with the noun ending ''-ment'' and other nouns in the language derived from the past tense in -t.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1950, p. 2|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/48609059/Cosmoglotta-January-1950}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1948, p. 116|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1948&page=117&size=45}}</ref> The ending may be omitted when the meaning is clear: '''tu deve far it rapid(men)''' = you must do it quick(ly).

It is possible to group the most common adverbs as below, but the number of adverbs is nearly limitless when all possible derived adverbs are included.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Genre
!Common Adverbs
|-
|Manner (How?)
|qualmen, quam, talmen, tam, alquam, nequam, solmen, apen, tot, totalmen, totmen, ne totmen, totmen ne
|-
|Quantity (How much?)
|quant, tant, sat, suficent, nequant, alquant, tre, tro, circa, mult, poc, un poc, quelcvez, multvez, sovente, 
plu, adplu, sempre, sempre plu, sempre plu mult, sempre plu mult ancor, min, plu o min, maxim, admaxim 
|-
|Location (Where? To / from where?)
|u, ci, ta, alcú, necú, partú, ucunc, supra, infra, circum, éxter, extra, intra, ínter, detra, levul, dextri, proxim, lontan.
|-
|Time (When?)
|quande, unquande, alquande, nequande, quandecunc, alor, tande, ínterim, nu, strax, subitmen, just, justmen, bentost, tost, 
tard, temporan, solmen, ne ante, sovente, sempre, ne plu, antey, poy, depoy, desde, in ante, ja, ancor, ne ancor, adplu 
|-
|Affirmation/ Negation / Doubt (Really?)
|yes, no, ne, ne plu, si, ya, fórsan, sin dúbite.
|}

=== Derivation ===
[[File:Occidental derivation.png|thumb|An example of derivation from the magazine Cosmoglotta.]]
[[File:De_Wahl's_Rule.png|thumb|Flowchart demonstrating derivation of nouns from verbs using de Wahl's rule.]]
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 before its application was that natural forms needed to be sacrificed for the sake of regularity, while those that opted for naturalism were forced to admit numerous irregularities when doing so ([[Idiom Neutral]] for example had a list of 81 verbs with special radicals<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1948&size=45&page=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1948, p. 45}}</ref> used when forming derivatives), a paradox summed up by [[Louis Couturat]] in 1903 as follows:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/histoiredelalang00coutuoft/page/472/mode/2up|title=Histoire de la langue universelle|last1=Couturat|first1=Louis|last2=Leau|first2=Léopold|date=1903|publisher=Paris Hachette|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|quote=Translation: "En somme, on se trouvait acculé à cette antinomie : les mots internationaux ne sont pas réguliers, et les mots réguliers ne sont pas internationaux; l'opinion dominante était qu'il fallait sacrifier la régularité à l'internationalité dans la formation des mots. Julius Lott concluait qu'on ne peut pas éviter les irrégularités des langues naturelles, et VON Wahl, qu'on ne peut pas donner à la L. I. plus de simplicité et de régularité que n'en comportent nos langues."}}</ref>

<blockquote>In short, one finds oneself confronted by the antinomy that the words that are international are not regular, and the words that are regular are not international; the prevailing opinion [of naturalists such as Julius Lott and Edgar de Wahl] was that regularity should be sacrificed for internationality in the formation of words.</blockquote>.

The rules created by Edgar de Wahl to resolve this were first described in 1909<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/latinosineflexio/-1909-13-discussiones-api#1909:21|title=Abstracti Verbal-Substantives – Edgar de Wahl (Discussiones de Academia pro Interlingua, Nov. 1909: 21-5)}}</ref> in the ''Discussiones'' of Peano's Academia pro Interlingua and are as follows:

#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.
#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
#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:

#ced/er, cess- (concession)
#sed/er, sess- (session)
#mov/er, mot- (motion)
#ten/er, tent- (temptation)
#vert/er, vers- (version)
#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.

{| class="wikitable"
|+
!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)
|
|}<br />

== 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:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1937&page=23&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1937, p. 23}}</ref> letters from new users to demonstrate their quick command of the language,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1938&size=45&page=69|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 80}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&page=38&size=45|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1936, p.38}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=58&page=115|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p.107}}</ref> and attestations from experienced auxiliary language users to share their experiences. Because many users of the language had encountered it after first learning Esperanto, data on learnability of the language for those without experience in other international auxiliary languages is difficult to find. However, one experiment to ascertain learning time was carried out 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|title=Latinidaj planlingvoj (AIS-kurso, 1 studunuo)|last=Barandovská-Frank|first=Vĕra|website=Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań|quote=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.}}</ref>

== Literature ==
The main literary texts in Occidental appeared in Cosmoglotta. There were also some works, both original and translated, published in Interlingue. Other texts appeared in the magazine Helvetia but these were less common. ''Micri chrestomathie''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Micri Chrestomathie|oclc=997463987}}</ref> is an example of a translated work, featuring a compilation of texts by Jaroslav Podobský, H. Pášma and Jan Kajš published in 1933.

Some original texts published as separated books are:
* ''Krasina, raconta del subterrania del Moravian carst'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Krasina : Raconta del subterrania del Moravian Carst|oclc=493973352}}</ref> published in 1938 by Jan Amos Kajš.
* ''Li astres del Verne'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Li Astres del Verne : Poesie|oclc=494042722}}</ref> a collection of original poetry by Jaroslav Podobský, published both in 1935 and 1947.

==Example texts==
{{quotation|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: {{IPA-art|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."

{|class="wikitable"
|+[[Lord's Prayer]]
|-
|'''Interlingue/Occidental'''
|'''Interlingua'''
|'''Latin (traditional)'''
|'''English (traditional)'''
|-
|
Patre nor, qui es in li cieles,<br>
mey tui nómine esser sanctificat,<br>
mey tui regnia venir,<br>
mey tui vole esser fat,<br>
qualmen in li cieles talmen anc sur li terre.<br>
Da nos hodie nor pan omnidial,<br>
e pardona nor débites,<br>
qualmen anc noi pardona nor debitores.<br>
E ne inducte nos in tentation,<br>
ma libera nos de lu mal.<br>
Amen.
|
Patre nostre, qui es in le celos,<br>
que tu nomine sia sanctificate;<br>
que tu regno veni;<br>
que tu voluntate sia facite<br>
como in le celo, etiam super le terra.<br>
Da nos hodie nostre pan quotidian,<br>
e pardona a nos nostre debitas<br>
como etiam nos los pardona a nostre debitores.<br>
E non induce nos in tentation,<br>
sed libera nos del mal.<br>
Amen.<br>
|
Pater noster, qui es in cælis,<br>
sanctificetur nomen tuum.<br>
Adveniat regnum tuum.<br>
Fiat voluntas tua,<br>
sicut in cælo, et in terra.<br>
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,<br>
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,<br>
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.<br>
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem,<br>
sed libera nos a malo.<br>
Amen.
|
Our father, who art in heaven,<br>
hallowed be thy name;<br>
thy kingdom come,<br>
thy will be done.<br>
on earth, as it is in heaven.<br>
Give us this day our daily bread;<br>
and forgive us our debts<br>
as we have forgiven our debtors.<br>
And lead us not into temptation,<br>
but deliver us from evil.<br>
Amen.
|-
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+1942 New Year's greeting printed in Cosmoglotta B (Switzerland)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1942 p. 1|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1942&page=1&size=45}}</ref>
! Occidental !! English
|-
| 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. || Were we to still be living 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 with a cordial 'Happy new year' has been transformed 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, just as 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 this time we interlinguists will also play a decisive role.
|}

==See also==
* [[:ie:Liste del Interlinguistes e Occidentalistes|List of interlingue-ists and Occidentalists]] (Interlingue)
* [[:ie:Liste de jurnales e bulletines in Occidental|List of journals and bulletins in Occidental]] (Interlingue)
* ''[[Li Europan lingues]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{InterWiki|code=ie}}
{{Wikibooks|Salute, Jonathan! The Occidental Language by the Direct Method}}
* [http://www.ie-munde.com/interlingue-union.html Official Website of the Interlingue-Union]
* [https://occidental-lang.com The Occidental Language]

===Grammar, dictionaries and tools===
* [http://interlingue.pbworks.com/w/page/4887780/Grammatica-de-Interlingue-%28English%29 Grammar of Interlingue in English] by Dr. F Haas
* [http://interlingue.pbworks.com/f/Kemp_e_Pope.pdf An English-Interlingue Dictionary] by Kemp and Pope, also available as a [http://interlingue.narod.ru/vocabulariums.htm text file].
* [https://occidental-lang.com/resources/OccidentalCourseIn10Lessons-EnglishTranslation.pdf Occidental in 10 lessons by A.Z. Ramstedt (pdf) - English translation of original German course]
* [https://glosbe.com/ie/en Interlingue - English online dictionary with translation memories]
* [[b:ie:Resume de gramatica de Interlingue (Occidental)|Resume de gramatica de Interlingue (Occidental) in Interlingue]] 
* [http://interlingue.narod.ru/ interlingue.narod.ru], information and word lists (''vocabularium'') in English and Russian.
* [http://dicta.bplaced.net/radicarium_directiv.html Radicarium directiv del Lingue International (Occidental) in 8 lingues (1925)] by Edgar von Wahl. Note: uses old spelling.
* [https://occidental-lang.com/interlingue-for-beginners/ Interlingue for Beginners (1966)] by Wilfred E. Reeve
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/interlingue-spell-checker/ Interlingue spell checker for Firefox]

=== Texts ===
* [http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g Cosmoglotta A] and [http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m Cosmoglotta B] at the [[Austrian National Library]]
* Helvetia (bulletin for the Swiss Association for Occidental): [http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e6z 1928], [http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e 1929 - 1933] (Austrian National Library)
* [http://cosmoglotta.blogspot.com/ Scanned Kosmoglott (1922 - 1926) and Cosmoglotta (1927 - 1950) back issues]
* [http://cosmoglotta.pbworks.com/ Cosmoglotta and Helvetia back issues digitized, with modern orthography]
* [http://cosmoglotta.narod.ru/ Cosmoglotta issues from 2000 to 2004]
* [https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,Occidental&tab=default_tab&search_scope=ONB_gesamtbestand&vid=ONB&facet=lang,include,ile&mode=basic&offset=0 Books in Occidental / Interlingue at the Austrian National Library]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Occidental Language}}
[[Category:Interlingue| ]]
[[Category:Auxlangs]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Constructed languages introduced in the 1920s]]
[[Category:1922 introductions]]