Occidental Lecion (Anglés)

LECION 1

“Errar es homan, pardonar es divin.”

§1. Occidental-Ie es scrit per 26 lítteres latin: — a b c d e f g h i j k 1 m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Li alfabet es pronunciat: ah, 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, zet.

§2. All the consonants used in this lesson are pronounced as in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

§3. Li vocales es sempre clarmen pronunciat quam seque:

a quam in F (francesí), o G (german), o H (hispan), o (italian), o A (anglesi): father, vase, batte, batter.

e apert o cludet, [opened or closed], quam GHI, A: bed, yes, F: è o é. pens, mensu, pelle, venir.

i quam FGHI, A: machine. nive, six, minute.

o apert o cludet, quam FGHI, A: door, hot. modic, póndere, Aorta, ponderar.

u quam GHI, A: rule, pull, F: ou; pos q tre curt, presc consonantic (w). brun, mutt, sudar, guar.

y pos un vocal, a in li comensa de un parol anc avan un vocal, es consonantic, altriloc vocalic. y vocalic es pronunciat quam Occidental-Ie i: physica.

Note for English speakers: The long “e” sound should be clear and pure and more clipped than in “bale“. The long “o” sound should also be clipped; it should be pronounced as in the Scots “no“. The short “i” should be rather like the long sound only shorter.

§4. All unstressed vowels are short. All stressed vowels are long unless they are followed by two consonants when they are short. If however the second of these two consonants is an “1” or an “r” the vowel is long.

§5. In the following examples long vowels are printed in capitals

gruppe/ abstract/ mann / facte/ blU/ epOca /
democrAt / gAs / tAble / f Ibre / cObra

The final vowels in gruppe, facte, epoca etc. must all be sounded as there are no silent letters in Occidental-Ie, except as mentioned in §6 below.

§6. Double consonants are sounded as single ones, except in certain cases with regard to “c“, “g” and “s” noted later on (2/9,3/3 ). They are used partly to show that the preceding vowel is short and also in certain widely known words where single consonants would appear strange. They are also used to distinguish in writing similar words: -

Occ cannon Eng. cannon (military)
canon canon (religion)

Vowels preceding double consonants are always short.

§7. A few short monosyllables in constant use have short vowels in spite of the preceding rules owing to the rapidity with which they are pronounced.

Such are:- con (with) / es (is) / de (of) / in (in) / sub (under) / per (by means of)

§8. The stress falls on the vowel before the last consonant. In the following examples the stress is indicated by the use of capitals: -

histOrie / argumEnt / lIbre / naturAl

§9. The plural “-s” “or”-es“, the adverbial ending “-men” and the final syllables “-ic“, “-bil“, “-im” , “-ul” and “-um” are however unstressed:-

dAmas (ladies) / admirAbil / acadEmic / vocabulArium / crItico (a critic)

§10. In cases where the stress departs from these rules, it is indicated by an accent:-

idé (idea) / moné (money) / púer (boy)

§11. The definite article is li (the) and the indefinite un (a,an).

§12. You will find it useful if, as you work through this course you begin to make your own dictionary. You will want an OCC-English and an English-OCCsection. As so many words in OCC are identical or similar to English ones you will only need to enter unfamiliar words in the first section. In the second section (a separate book is probably better) you should enter as many words as you come across, even though the words may be the same. For the OCC-English section you might have separate pages for each letter and first vowel; that is to say you would begin with A/A, A/E, A/I, A/O, A/U and so on. Thus under M/A you would put mann, matre, marito etc.; under P/E you would put prestre etc. For the more bulky English-OCC a useful method is to take a good English dictionary and work out how many pages of it correspond to one page in your notebook. Each page in your notebook could then be headed up with the first and last words of the section in the English dictionary.

§13. Vocabulary.

Easily identifiable words will not be given in the vocabularies nor words mentioned in the numbered paragraphs.

ama loves, love
bebé baby
bell beautiful
bon good
dama lady
e and
es is, are
fémina woman
filia daughter
filio son
fratre brother
grand big
hom human being
infante child
litt little
ma but
mal bad
mann man
marita wife
marito husband
matre mother
oncle uncle
patre father
prestre priest
puella girl
senior (Sr.) Mr., gentleman
seniora (Sra.) Mrs., lady
sestra sister
tanta aunt
tre very
yun young

§14. Notes on Vocabulary.

Hom means “human being“, man or woman; to indicate sex use mann or fémina; grand means “big” not “grand“.

§15. It will already be noted that many words in OCC are either identical or very close to English words. This fact will become even more apparent as you progress and it makes for ease in learning. In many cases where the OCC root is not used as an independent word in English with the same meaning it appears in related words.

Here are a few OCC roots you have learnt with their English “cousins” in brackets:-

fémina (feminine)/ púer (puerile) /bell (belle) /patre (patrimony) /filio (affiliated)

§16. Molly e Mickey:

Molly es un puella e li sestra de Mickey.
Mickey es un litt púer.
Molly es li filia de Sra. Dixon e Mickey es li filio de Sra. Dixon.
Li patre es Sr. Dixon.
Li matre es un bell dama.
Li infantes es yun.

§17. Reading Exercise:

Li puella es bon ma li púer es mal.
Li bebé es tre litt.
Li patre ama li bon infante.
Li grand fratre ama li litt sestra.
Li tanta es li sestra de li patre.
Li filia ama li matre e li patre.
Li prestre es tre bon.
Li puella es yun e tre bell.
Li libre es admirabil.
Li senior ama li bell dama.
Un bebé e un infante es yun.
Li fémina es con un grand mann.

§18. Continue making other sentences of a similar kind until you. are quite quick at choosing the right words.

British Interlingue Association

SUPPLEMENT al LECIONES:

Edgar de Wahl, un professor de matematica e fysica in Reval (Estonia), esset un erudit, qui conosse 12 lingues de Europa, e festat su 60-ésim anniversarie li 11 august 1927.

Unésimli adept de Volapük, il adheret a Esperanto pos su apparition in 1887 e indicat a Zamenhof quelc erras in su lingue, p. ex. li temporal correlatives “tian, kian, chian“, queles collidet con li accusativ del demonstratives “tia, kia, chia“; e Zamenhof strax mutat “tian, …” in “tiam, kiam, chiam”.

Pos Zamenhof e Grabowski (ambi morit) de Wahl esset li 3-ésim autor de un librete in Esperanto. Ergo, on posse dir que de Wahl esset li max ancian Fsperantist vivent in su tempor.

In 1894 Zamenhof proposit a su adeptes important reformas simil a Ido, reformas repulset per 157 voces contra 107. Remarcabil es, que sr de Beaufront e sr Ahlberg votat contra omni change.

Tande E. de Wahl abandonat Esperanto, tro artificial por il, e il comensat laborar vers li direction naturalistic, sempre correspondent con altri mundlinguistes, precipue con Lott, de qui li final systema “Mundolingue” debi mult ameliorationes a de Wahl.

In 1906 E. de Wahl publicat un project “Auli” (Auxiliari Lingue International), quel ja havet li aspect de Occidental ma ne su regules de derivation, quel esset decovrit solmen plu tard e poc a poc.

Quande in 1907 li Delegation apertet concurs inter li projectes de L. I. por adoption del max bon, E. W. mult auxiliat li ingeniero Rosenberger a ameliorar Idiom Neutral quel esset presentat sub li nómine de “Neutral reformed” al Delegation, quel finalmen selectet Esperanto, “pro su grand diffusion“.

E. W. self misset al Comité del Delegation un memorandum quel indicat li ver principies del L. I.: naturalitá e regularitá, suppression del formes inventet.

Pos li publication de Ido, E. de Wahl strax indicat li defectes de principies e de detailes. On correctet solmen un poc de ili secun su criticas, precipue li prefixe mal- esset viceat per des-.

On vide de que li 3 cardinal lingues international: Esperanto, Idiom Neutral e Ido debi important ameliorationes a sr de Wahl de qui li principies sempre plu triumfat.

Finalmen, in 1922, vidente que li question del L. I. devenit important til attraer li attention del Liga de Nationes, E. de Wall decidet presentar li resultate de su 30 annus de cosmoglottic investigation in un systema complet sub li nómine de Occidental.

Sin capitale, sin dictionarium, sin grammatica, li propagation esset restrictet in comensa che quelc circules de Idistes progressistic, per li micri jurnal “Kosmoglott“. Mersí a su sol qualitás intrinsec, li lingue ganat adherentes e in 1927 un gruppe de ingenieros viennes, organisatores del unésim congress de Ido in 1921, qui per li organ “Cosmog1otta” comensat un systematic propagande e desarmat poc a poc li prejudicies del progressistic mundlinguistes. Ric. Berger.