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=== Beginnings === [[Edgar de Wahl]] announced the creation of Occidental in 1922 with the first issue of the magazine ''Cosmoglotta'', published in [[Tallinn]], [[Estonia]] under the name ''Kosmoglott''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kosmoglott, 1922, p. 1|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&page=1&size=45|url-status=live|access-date=24 July 2021|archive-date=26 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626092436/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&page=1&size=45}}</ref> Occidental was a product of years of personal experimentation under the name Auli ([[International auxiliary language|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=18 December 2018|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022348/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=8|url-status=live}}</ref> De Wahl, originally a proponent of [[Volapük]] and then [[Esperanto]], began creating Occidental after the failed [[Reformed Esperanto|vote to reform Esperanto in 1894]].<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|url-status=live|access-date=20 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413203629/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=19&size=45}}</ref> De Wahl corresponded with other language creators, among them the Italian mathematician [[Giuseppe Peano]] (creator of [[Latino sine flexione]]), from whom he gained an appreciation for its selection of international vocabulary, and [[Waldemar Rosenberger]], the creator of [[Idiom Neutral]].<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|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415023325/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=18&size=45|archive-date=15 April 2021|access-date=30 January 2019}}</ref> [[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 nearly complete.<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."|access-date=19 February 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415015947/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1925&page=40&size=45|url-status=live}}</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=28 December 2018|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415021222/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&page=15&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> De Wahl had not intended to announce the language for a few years, but decided to accelerate its release after hearing that the [[League of Nations]] (LON) 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|access-date=6 January 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415021220/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&size=45&page=27|url-status=live}}</ref><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|access-date=2 August 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022050/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&page=4&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> The first known publication in Occidental, a booklet entitled ''Transcendent Algebra'' by [[Jacob Linzbach]], appeared shortly before ''Kosmoglott'' debuted.<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= 30 November 2019|archive-date= 22 August 2019}}</ref> Occidental began gathering followers due to its readability, 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=28 December 2018|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413204017/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=7&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> Two years later in 1924, de Wahl wrote that he was corresponding with about 30 people "in good Occidental" despite the lack of learning material,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kosmoglott, 1924, p. 14|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1924&size=45&teil=0101&page=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."|access-date=7 February 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022346/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1924&size=45&teil=0101&page=14|url-status=live}}</ref> and users of other languages began to join Occidental.<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|access-date=11 August 2020|archive-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922171623/http://jki.amu.edu.pl/files/JKI%20-%2014%20-%2009%20-%20Kuznecov%5B1%5D.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The first dictionary, the ''Radicarium Directiv,'' a collection of Occidental root words and their equivalents in eight languages, was published the following year.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wahl|first=E. de|title=Radicarium directiv del lingue international (Occidental) in 8 lingues.|date=1925|location=Tallinn|oclc=185538723}}</ref> ''Kosmoglott'' was also a forum for various other planned languages, while still mainly written in Occidental. The name was changed to ''Cosmoglotta'' in 1927 as it began to officially promote Occidental in lieu of other languages, and that January the magazine's editorial and administrative office was moved to the Vienna neighborhood of [[Mauer, Vienna|Mauer]], now part of [[Liesing]].<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|access-date=15 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413204017/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=7&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1947, p. 17|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1947&size=45&page=17|access-date=18 January 2019|archive-date=14 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214174909/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1947&size=45&page=17|url-status=live}}</ref> 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 [[Ido language|Ido]].<ref name=":1" /> Use in France began in 1928, and by the beginning of the next decade the Occidental community was established in [[Germany]], Austria, [[Sweden]], Czechoslovakia and [[Switzerland]].<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."|access-date=4 September 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022218/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e&datum=1930&page=9&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref>
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