The Basis of International Language

The Basis of OCCIDENTAL - INTERLINGUE:

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Occidental - Interlingue does not contain invented words, but has a natural appearance.

So, the first desideratum is naturalness, and this implies that the language must be based on the thousands of international words already in existence.

OCCIDENTAL - INTERLINGUE has incorporated, practically as they stand, the many words that are common property of a number of different languages. It has been calculated that 38% of the words in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German are the same. This yields more than 10,000 words which can be understood at sight by most literate peoples. The early authors of an international language, unable to embody these words in a simple system, either deformed them out of all recognition, or largely rejected them.

But the problem was solved when Professor Edgar de Wahl, a scholar of Reval (Estonia), succeeded in regularising this international vocabulary. His solution, INTERLINGUE, or OCCIDENTAL, combines regularity with naturalness so ingeniously that we feel we are reading and writing an ethnical tongue.

Here are a few of its words:

PRONUNCIATION.

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u = continental, all sounded; y (initial and medial) as in yes; ey (final) as in they; eu as éh-oo.

Consonants: as in English, except c when before e and i = ts: cive = tseevay, helice = heleetsay; g when before e and i = French j or English s in pleasure: plage, giraffe; but elsewhere c and g are hard as in can, go; ss as in pass; s between vowels = z: rose, positiv; z = ds; ch = English sh: chambre.

STRESS.

This falls on the vowel preceding the last consonant: finAle, lIngue, papEr and before the syllabes -um, -bil, -ic, -ul, -im: Ultim, hAbil, cInic, rEgul, cIrcum, Album.

The ending -men is also unstressed: fOrtmen. Exceptions to these rules bear an accent mark: númere, idé, víper.

ARTICLES.

The = li; a, an = un.

ADJECTIVES.

Invariable: Li long, interessant lettres.

PLURAL.

After a vowel -s, after consonants -es (li boas e li leones).

PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

I - me = yo - me
We - us = noi - nos
Thou - thee = tu - te
You = vu - vos
He - him = il - le
She - her = ella - la
It = it
They - them = ili - les
One (indefinite) = on

POSSESIVE:

mi
nor
tui
vor, vostri
su
su
su
lor

THE VERB

Infinitive: by r: ama-r, fini-r, vide-r (amar, finir, vider in usage)

Present tense: the simple root, i.e. remove the -r.: yo ama, il fini, noi vide.

Past tense: add t: yo ama-t, il fini-t, noi vide-t (yo amat, il finit, noi videt)

Compound: yo ha amat, il ha finit, hoi hat videt.

Future: by va and the infinitive: il va amar, il va vider, il va finir.

Conditional: by vell and the infinitive: noi vell visitar, il vell finir

Imperative: the present tense, or ples with infinitive: Fini! Ples finir!

That's it. All you need to know to begin using OCCIDENTAL immediately. We need an internatioal language and OCCIDENTAL - INTERLINGUE satisfies the need.