Editing Interlingue (section)

== Language philosophy ==
[[File:Werbemarke für die Plansprache Occidental (Interlingue).jpg|thumb|Sticker from 1930 created to emphasize readability at first sight: {{lang|ie|Li lingue quel vu comprende}} (The language you understand) and {{lang|ie|Occidental propaga se self}} (Occidental promotes itself)]]
De Wahl was first introduced to planned languages through [[Volapük]], an international auxiliary language released in 1879. De Wahl later became one of the earliest users of [[Esperanto]] ({{lang|eo|la lingvo internacia}}), 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 in which he collaborated with Zamenhof on some parts of the language's design<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|access-date=20 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413204208/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&page=62&size=45|url-status=live}}</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=20 December 2020|archive-date=22 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922200524/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EO_Mi%C4%A5ail_Lermontov_-_Princidino_Mary.pdf|url-status=live}}</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; he 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|access-date=30 January 2019|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|url-status=live}}</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 trying to develop a system that combined naturalism and regularity, a combination that became a frequently referenced selling point in the promotion of Occidental.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1929, p. 101|quote=Inter omni projectes, Occidental es li sol quel in altissim gradu ha penat satisfar li amalgamation del du quasi contradictori postulates: regularitá e naturalitá.|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=105&size=45|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511090145/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=105&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1938, p. 64|quote=Do secun li principies fundamental de Occidental: «junter quant possibil regularitá e naturalitá», just li form «radica» es li sol rect e apt por ti parol.|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1938&page=53&size=45|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511090144/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1938&page=53&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1929, p. 76|quote=Nu, si li europan popules va un die introducter un tal radical ortografic reforma in su lingues quam li turcos, it va esser natural que anc li lingue international va secuer ti reforma, ma til tande, noi pensa, noi have ancor sufficent témpor e prefere ne chocar li publica e destructer li etymologie, do li regularitá e naturalitá.|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&size=45&page=80|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511090131/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&size=45&page=80|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1929, p. 10|quote=Qui in li divers revues interlinguistic...retrosecue li labores de Wahl til lor origines, ti va constatar, que li autor de Occidental ja in su unesim publicationes esset un consecuent representant e protagonist del strict naturalitá del futuri lingue international; ma in contrast a altri interlinguistes del camp naturalistic, Wahl ha sempre accentuat que ti ci naturalitá deve accordar con plen regularitá del structura del lingue.|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=14&size=45|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511090137/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=14&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta B, 1935, p. 14|quote=Occidental esset publicat de Prof. E. de Wahl in 1922. It ha monstrat nos que li vocabularium del grand lingues de civilisation posse esser regularisat per un sistema de derivation admirabilmen simplic, sin arbitrari formes, sin inventet regules». Pro to Occidental es un excellent combination de naturalitá e regularitá. Ti du caracteres merita esser expresset in li insigne e yo proposi representar ti du atributes per li equigambi rect-triangul sur li diametre de un circul. Li equigambie expresse que li naturalitá e li regularitá esset tractat con egal cuidas per sr. de Wahl.|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&page=14&size=45|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=12 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512060218/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&page=14&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref>

Among those de Wahl worked with while developing Occidental 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|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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> The method sought after by these "partisans of naturalism" was the distillation of existing words into their parts to obtain the international roots within them (such as naturalisation to nat-ur-al-is-ation),  then used in other words to keep root words to a minimum while maintaining a natural appearance.<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|access-date=20 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413203608/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=20&size=45|url-status=live}}</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-'' ({{lang|ie|molinero}} – miller), ''-or-'' ({{lang|ie|redactor}} – editor), ''-ari-'' ({{lang|ie|millionario}} – millionaire), ''-on-'' ({{lang|ie|spion}}, spy), ''-ard'' ({{lang|ie|mentard}}, liar), ''-astr-'' ({{lang|ie|poetastro}}, lousy poet), ''-es'' ({{lang|ie|franceso}}, Frenchman), ''-essa'' ({{lang|ie|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."|access-date=30 January 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022343/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1923&page=9&size=45|url-status=live}}</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.|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-date=23 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123010131/http://interl.home.amu.edu.pl/interlingvistiko/Barandovska_Latinidaj_planlingvoj.pdf|url-status=live}}</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 announced. De Wahl thus 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|access-date=21 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413203418/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1946&page=23&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> It was only noted in passing by Louis Couturat, who was already familiar with de Wahl and his collaborators. The principles stated in the memorandum are listed in a request for the committee to declare:<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|access-date=21 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413204029/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1937&page=74&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{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 orthography.}}

De Wahl published in 1922 a modification of [[Otto Jespersen]]'s 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|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6wDU-1Dih_QC|pages=52|publisher=Routledge |isbn=1135662606}}</ref> stating that the international language should be easiest for the majority of those "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|access-date=16 February 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024157/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1922&size=45&page=19|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=16 February 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415020144/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1941&size=45&page=15|url-status=live}}</ref> De Wahl believed that the number of speakers did not always need to be taken into account, particularly in specialized areas such as botany 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 [[World War I]]. 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.|access-date=16 February 2019|archive-date=15 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215154215/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1924&page=2&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> through obligatory endings (e.g. {{lang|eo|karmo}}, {{lang|eo|koŭtoŭo}}, {{lang|eo|gejŝo}}, {{lang|eo|madho}} in Esperanto) when imported into the international language:
{{blockquote|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'') if worldwide linguistic trends began to show a preference for them.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cosmoglotta A, 1927, p. 86|url=http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=94|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024139/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=94|archive-date=15 April 2021|access-date=15 December 2020}}</ref>

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:
{{blockquote|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|access-date=2019-03-04|archive-date=2021-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415020154/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=103|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

While primarily Romance in vocabulary,<ref>[http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=90&size=45 Cosmoglotta B, 1945, p. 90] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022104/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&page=90&size=45 |date=15 April 2021 }}: 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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415014845/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=104&size=45 |date=15 April 2021 }}: 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:] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415030205/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1944&page=116&size=45 |date=15 April 2021 }} 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> de Wahl opted for a large Germanic substrate which he felt was more expressive for technical and material vocabulary ({{lang|ie|self}}, {{lang|ie|ost}} (east), {{lang|ie|svimmar}} (to swim), {{lang|ie|moss}}, etc.), with Romance and Greek vocabulary more appropriate in the derivation of international words ({{lang|ie|fémina}} for woman to form {{lang|ie|feminin}}, {{lang|ie|can}} for dog to form {{lang|ie|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|access-date=25 February 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415030912/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1927&size=45&page=25|url-status=live}}</ref> Minor Romance languages such as [[Ladin language|Ladin]], Provençal ([[Occitan language|Occitan]]) and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] along with [[creole language|creoles]] were important 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|access-date=1 August 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415023908/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e&datum=1929&page=83&size=45|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=3 August 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415022336/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e1e&datum=1929&page=99&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> who wrote as early 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|access-date=1 August 2020|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> The Swiss magazine ''[[Der Landbote]]'' made a similar comment while reviewing the language in 1945, commenting humorously 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|access-date=1 August 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415014923/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=33|url-status=live}}</ref>

De Wahl stressed that Occidental's natural appearance did not imply wholesale importation 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|access-date=22 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413204226/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1945&size=45&page=38|url-status=live}}</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=2 January 2019 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024511/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1947&size=45&page=90 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Occidental's erring on the side of regularity led to vocabulary that was still recognizable but different from the international norm, such as {{lang|ie|ínpossibil}} in place of impossibil (ín + poss + ibil), {{lang|ie|scientic}}{{lang|ie| (scientific, from scient-ie + -ic), and {{lang|ie|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|access-date=22 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413203403/https://rudhar.com/lingtics/intrlnga/StanleyMulaik/Prototypes%20of%20Particles%20Interlingua.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> (the most recent common ancestor to its source languages) while Interlingue/Occidental focused on active, spontaneous 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.|access-date=22 December 2020|archive-date=15 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215102041/https://occidental-lang.com/resources/Autonomie_e_Regularita_in_li_Lingue_International.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Vocabulary ===
Though seemingly favourable to the Romance language family, 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 name=":17">{{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=9 September 2020|quote="Lasciate ogni nazionalismo, voi ch'entrate" in li sant dominia del interhoman comprension.|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415021927/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0g&datum=1929&page=31&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> In an article entitled "International o Romanic" (International or Romance) in 1929, he gave examples from a number of categories in which particular languages had a particularly large influence. Those included Greek for science and philosophy ({{lang|ie|teorema}}, {{lang|ie|teosofie}}, {{lang|ie|astronomie}}), Latin for politics and law ({{lang|ie|social}}, {{lang|ie|republica}}, {{lang|ie|commission}}), Scandinavian, Dutch and English for navigation ({{lang|ie|log}}, {{lang|ie|fregatte}}, {{lang|ie|mast}}, {{lang|ie|brigg}}, {{lang|ie|bote}}), and various other international vocabulary originating in other languages ({{lang|ie|sabat}}, {{lang|ie|alcohol}}, {{lang|ie|sultan}}, {{lang|ie|divan}}, {{lang|ie|nirvana}}, {{lang|ie|orang-utan}}, {{lang|ie|bushido}}, {{lang|ie|té}}, {{lang|ie|dalai-lama}}, {{lang|ie|cigar}}, {{lang|ie|jazz}}, {{lang|ie|zebra}}, {{lang|ie|bumerang}}, etc.).<ref name=":17" />

=== 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|access-date=22 December 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413203613/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&page=12&size=45|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=23 February 2019|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415014857/https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1935&page=3&size=45|url-status=live}}</ref> The tilde, already used by the Occidental-Union, was eventually selected based on five criteria:<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=e0m&datum=1936&size=45&page=11|title=ÖNB-ANNO - Cosmoglotta (Serie B)|website=anno.onb.ac.at}}</ref> symbolic character, simplicity, originality, unlikeliness to be confused with another symbol, 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" />