I see the light: Occidental, LFN, LdP all accessible!

Le marquis professait une haine vigoureuse pour les lumières: ce sont les idées, disait-il, qui ont perdu l'Italie; il ne savait trop comment concilier cette sainte horreur de l'instruction, avec le désir de voir son fils Fabrice perfectionner l'éducation si brillamment commencée chez les jésuites.

Above is the first sentence of Chapter 2 of Stendhal's great French novel, La Chartreuse de Parme. I have recently finished translating the entire first chapter into Occidental, my first major literary achievement in any constructed language, which was a great relief as I was beginning to think I had wasted a year playing around with all these constructed languages for nothing, which would not have been a fun fact to contemplate considering how short life is. Apart from the obvious benefit of a producing a decent literary translation, this had the ancillary benefit of vastly improving my comprehension of written French, which to me is a very important ancillary benefit and which in itself makes it all worthwhile.

Anyway, as a result of doing all this translation my fundamental grasp of how languages work, my fundamental understanding, has greatly improved. Accordingly the penny has just dropped inside my brain and everything has lit up; I find myself bathed in light and suddenly able to see clearly, if you will pardon the expression. (You can see I've been reading too much Stendhal.)

I get it: Occidental, Lingua Franca Nova (LFN), and Lingwa de Planeta (LdP) (listed in descending order of maturity and stability but all worthy of equal respect) are actually all about the same degree of difficulty as each other, and are all very significantly easier than every other constructed language I've looked at except Idiom Neutral (IN), which is similar. And, what is more important, they all work; they simply each have a different style and a different emphasis. They are like different flavours of ice-cream: all tasty and all good in different ways. Now, please bear in mind that ease is not the only criteria on which to judge a language, and depending on what your literary needs are as a writer you may prefer a more challenging language such as Sambahsa, but I digress.

Anyway, back to the point at hand, which is that the light really has dawned on me and suddenly it seems clear that Occidental, LFN, and LdP are all similarly easy and much easier than most other languages while still remaining adequately expressive for international literary use. In particular I absolutely stand by my contention that they are way easier than the Big Three (Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua), which are all so difficult I've given up on them in bitter-sweet disgust and I generally do not recommend writers use them; in my opinion unless you have a specific need to directly reach the communities who speak those languages (which range in size between small and microscopic), you are better off learning a natural language instead; that is, if you are going to step up to that level of difficulty you might as well go all the way and just learn a natural language (my recommendations are Afrikaans or Indonesian, which are probably about the same level of difficulty as Esperanto); also I contend that if you truly find Interlingua extremely easy and you can effortlessly use it fluently then this is probably because you already speak a natural Romance language. Quite seriously, all joking aside, learn basic Italian first if you want to be able to write well in Interlingua; not the other way around. This is not necessary with Occidental, which is vastly easier than Interlingua. Again I digress, but I should again mention here that Sambahsa is an exception to these recommendations; although difficult it has many merits and for anybody even remotely interested in the history and geographical dispersal of Indo-European languages it is worth some study and it will probably end up being used in an Avatar-like movie one day, however I do not recommend it for ordering coffee at airports.

By the way, I am entirely serious about my recommendation of learning Afrikaans or Indonesian instead of Esperanto, Ido, or Interlingua. We can forget Interlingua right away because Occidental provides pretty much the same benefits and is vastly easier, so that leaves Esperanto and Ido. Well, I quite seriously suggest that Afrikaans and Indonesian are not greatly more difficult than Esperanto and Ido. Now, the first complaint I can hear in my mind from Esperantists and Idists is that the vocabulary of Afrikaans and Indonesian is not internationally recognisable. Hmmm. Stop right there. That is exactly the kind of prejudice to which we speakers of European languages automatically have a tendency to fall victim; in fact if your native language is Chinese or Swahili then the vocabulary of Esperanto, Ido, Afrikaans and (with the exception of a few words here and there) Indonesian will be equally foreign to you. But all are languages written in the Roman alphabet with nearly phonetic spelling and few or no diacritics (except Esperanto) and well suited to use on the internet, so we are on a level playing field here. And furthermore millions of people speak Afrikaans or Indonesian (actually more than a hundred million people for Indonesian) and both are already completely proven auxiliary languages in the real world, used by people of very diverse cultural backgrounds to communicate with each other in every sphere of life (from literature to business to family to government). So, if you are a writer I seriously suggest you consider writing your next novel in Afrikaans or Indonesian if you were considering writing it in Esperanto or Ido, assuming that for some crazy reason like me you are obsessed with the idea of writing for an international audience in a language readers can easily learn without requiring your work to be translated into their native languages.

Now, if you find the idea of writing a novel in Afrikaans or Indonesian for an international audience absurd, because readers will not recognise the vocabulary, then I suggest you do the following in this order: (a) take a look at Occidental as if you are writing for those who speak a European language it is readily comprehensible with minimal study; (b) if you don't like Occidental then take a look at LFN and LdP since they are similarly easy to write in and similarly accessible to readers, although not as immediately comprehensible to Europeans as is Occidental, but arguably more accessible with study to non-Europeans; (c) realise that there is no difference between requiring your readers around the globe to learn Afrikaans or Indonesian than requiring them to learn Esperanto... anybody likely to agree to do one would be likely to agree to do the other.

Anyway, personally I am currently learning both Afrikaans and Indonesian and will be reading a Harry Potter book in both languages, to get a feel for their literary potential for a writer whose native language is English.

But again I digress...

Phew! That was a long digression!

The point, and I do have one, is that I have finally realised that now that I have successfully translated over 5000 words of Stendhal's novel into Occidental, probably it would not be much of a problem for me to do the same either in LFN or LdP and that perhaps I should even do so as another useful exercise. Again remember, if you are a writer, all these kind of exercises increase your skill; writers paint with words. Painters will paint in different styles. Writers should paint in different languages. Even if your goal is only to publish in English. Read and write in other languages too! It helps to grow as a writer! And constructed languages give you a uniquely accessible opportunity to do so.

So how about these flavours of ice-cream?

Occidental: Blueberry with added liqueur. Rich and complex naturalistic flavour, with the most difficult spelling of any of the easiest group of languages. This difficult spelling is much easier than that of Interlingua but still will be very difficult for Asian writers and was driving me nuts enough to force me to take a second look at LFN and LdP. Which is when the light illuminated me: for blueberry ice-cream, the moderately difficult spelling of Occidental is just right. Take away the doubled consonants, for example (my chief complaint) and instantly you lose much of the at-sight comprehensibility to Europeans. In other words, it wouldn't be blueberry any more. It would be some other flavour, a flavour which would not be so palatable to Europeans, a flavour which they could not read so effortlessly. Same goes for the difficult Romance-language idioms: much easier than Interlingua but still difficult, you could not eliminate all of these and still have the familiar complexity which blueberry flavour represents and which Europeans can read almost at sight because that is how their languages are. And, overall, Occidental is still one of the very easiest languages to write in if you already speak English; after all, it beat all other comers. It was the language which succeeded for me and which allowed me first, before all other languages, to translate 5000 words of classic literature to a good standard of translation. Rich, sophisticated literary after-taste: handles complicated idiomatic expressions, if you want them, with ease. That's the liqueur component. Call it sophistication: capture some of the nuances of French, for example, but in a way which is internationally comprehensible and which does not take years to learn. You cannot write Occidental like LFN or LdP; you have to write it full-on, sophisticated, and in the style of natural European languages.

LFN: Vanilla. A Romance creole. Wonderfully simple spelling of the kind that makes you dance around the room rejoicing and which spelling would be vastly easier for Asians to learn than that of Occidental. And still a very effective literary language but simpler, less nuanced, and more accessible to younger readers and to non-European readers. Modern, modern, modern... backed up with great documentation and a great dictionary online. You cannot write LFN like Occidental; you have to write it like a creole. This does not mean it is not a powerful language; but you write it vanilla, not blueberry with liqueur. One very strong point of LFN: it sounds very beautiful, it has a consistent, believable sound which is a strong selling point (even for those who don't like simple spelling: you cannot see the spelling when you are listening to the spoken language). Sure, you will lose many small nuances and subtleties of meaning when writing in a creole, but you have to remember most such nuances (say, in Occidental) would be completely lost on many international readers anyway (as in English novels).

LdP: Vanilla with choc chips. Something midway in flavour between a creole, Italian, English, Russian, Chinese and Indonesian. Elements of (and words from) many languages: these represent the chocolate chips, but most of the vocabulary is still vanilla (easily recognisable words of Latin origin). The grammar is, frankly, more difficult than LFN, and also still in evolution, but on the other hand it strongly advocates facultative precision, which means if you remember to keep it simple and actively avoid complexity then you can keep it simple. Only after I started to study Indonesian did I really understand this: now I get it. For example, unlike LFN, you do not even have to decline nouns to indicate the plural if you don't want to. And unlike LFN there is no definite article (here, think of Russian or Indonesian and you will know what I mean).  You cannot write LdP like Occidental but you can write it rather similarly to LFN; LdP is like LFN with a sliding, adjustable complexity control: all the way from so simple that nearly everything is determined from context to so precise that you cannot remember which of the myriad available grammatical particles to use. But here's the thing: stop trying to write LdP like English, let go of the complexity, and start using context. Start writing LdP like Indonesian. Ah, and it starts working really well. And when you occasionally need great precision, you have it. Only drawback with LdP (there's an example of dropping the definite article, rather than saying The only drawback...) is it is very young so the vocabulary is still small and the language is still a bit of a moving target, but nevertheless very good.

So, at the end of the day, I have realised that I could probably write in any of these three languages with a bit more practice (not just in Occidental alone) providing I simply follow this golden rule:

Do not fight the flavour of the language!

You see, I was thinking of creating a new Occidental dictionary with all the doubled consonants removed, and so on; no, no no. That would be fighting against the flavour of the language. Occidental is a passive, at-sight language aimed at European readers. The cost is more difficult spelling and it is a bit harder to write at times than LFN. But don't fight it. Simply use the kind of expressions and grammatical constructs that are common in modern European languages, while avoiding jargon and avoiding excessively cryptic idiomatic expressions, and all will be well. In other words, when writing Occidental, don't try to keep it simple. Occidental is not about bare-bones simplicity. Write it blueberry, not vanilla, and all will be well and it will not be too hard (that is, unless you do not already speak a European language, and preferably two).

Ditto for LFN and LdP, except they are plain vanilla and vanilla with chocolate chips respectively: they respond well to simplicity (and are easier to learn than Occidental if you do not already speak at least one European language). Do not try to write them in a complex manner. Rethink your writing to obtain 80-90% of the same meaning but with only 50% of the complexity. Don't try to imitate the complex tenses found in Occidental: stick to the simple tenses. Possibly even write your story in the present tense instead of the past tense. And so on. Keep it simple. You don't want weird and complicated ingredients in vanilla ice-cream: it doesn't need pepper or anchovies or indeed blueberries, and leave out the liqueur. Then rejoice in the beautiful and artistic simplicity of vanilla: accessible to all and with a spelling so simple it is worthy of rejoicing. Now, to be honest, I think Occidental is better for Stendhal than LFN or LdP if your audience is European, but LFN or LdP is better for Stendhal if your audience speaks no European language. And if you were writing for an audience which speaks a creole, like Papiamento, LFN is perfect and will be well received by that audience. And so on.

I have also changed my mind about the public being unwilling to accept languages which look too simple or which appear like pidgins or creoles. Frankly, who cares what the public thinks? If you write well somebody will read it and that is all that matters. If enough of us start using languages with simple spelling, for example, eventually simple spelling will catch on. And in the meantime we can just present the works as audio-books, which sound fine.

Let's go for it!

Here are some small samplers of ice-cream flavours. It is refreshing to realise that, after all, I think I could probably write successfully in any of these three languages and that they are all approximately of the same easy level of difficulty but with that difficulty distributed in different ways and requiring different styles.

Please forgive my errors. Corrections welcome. Words in italic are my own inventions (the vocabulary of LdP is still rather small but growing).

From La Chartreuse de Parme

Chapter 2, Original French

Le marquis professait une haine vigoureuse pour les lumières*: ce sont les idées, disait-il, qui ont perdu l'Italie; il ne savait trop comment concilier cette sainte horreur de l'instruction, avec le désir de voir son fils Fabrice perfectionner l'éducation si brillamment commencée chez les jésuites.

English

The Marchese professed a vigorous hatred of the Enlightenment*: “It is ideas,” he used to say, “that have ruined Italy”; he did not know quite how to reconcile this holy horror of instruction with his desire to see his son Fabrizio perfect the education so brilliantly begun with the Jesuits.

Occidental

Li marqueso professet un vigorosi odie por li Elucidament*. “It es idés,” il dit, “queles ha ruinat Italia”; il ne savet qualmen conciliar ti-ci sant horrore de instruction con su desir por vider su filio Fabrizio perfecter li education tam brilliantmen comensat che li Jesuites.

LdP

Markisa deklari-te vigorful hena de Epoka de Lumisa*. “Ideas hi,” lu shwo-te, “he ruini Italia”; lu bu jan komo salamisi sey gran dashat de talim kun luy yaosa de vidi ke luy son Fabrizio perfektisi toy eduka tanto briliantem starti-ney she jesuitas.

LFN

La marci ia declara un odia enerjios per la Lumina*. “El es ideas,” el ia dise, “cual ia ruina ja Italia”; el no sabe como reconsilia esta teror santa de instrui con se desira per vide se fio, Fabrizio, perfeti la instrui cual ia comensa tal briliante a casa de jesuitas.

* Thanks to Olivier (see comments, below) for pointing out that les lumières was probably Stendhal's attempt to get around the censors when what he perhaps really wanted to say was les Lumières. The latter refers to the Enlightenment; accordingly I have updated all the parallel translations and I have chosen the form li Elucidament for Occidental, which I think looks sufficiently weird to suggest to the reader that it is not merely a noun meaning "elucidation" or "illumination" but probably refers to that period in history known as the Enlightenment. Written out in full one could write li Epoca del Elucidament.

*Thanks also to Dmitry for helping me to correct the LdP translation; I'm still a tiny bit confused but I'm guessing Epoka de Lumisa is reasonable. My capitalisation here is an attempt to compensate for the lack of a definite article or other marker to indicate this does not refer to any old epoch of illumination but refers directly to that period of history known as the Enlightenment.

Postscript: as is not unusual in my strange journey, much of which has been fuelled by enthusiasm, I probably got a little carried away with over-enthusiasm when writing this post. Specifically, I underestimated the difficulty of making a sophisticated literary translation like this one in any language, no matter how easy that language may seem; in fact my attempts to complete this particular translation in LFN and LdP later faltered and failed quite quickly. The moral of the story: to get anywhere with any language, for serious literary use, you have to specialise in it and that takes at least some months of dedicated study.

You cannot in fact just flit quickly from language to language. I am adding this note as a caution to other writers: pick a language you like and stick to it for a few months. If you still don't like it, then do the same with another language, until you find one that suits you. Do not, like I over-enthusiastically assumed when writing this post, assume that you can successfully jump from language to language with hardly a care in the world. It isn't that easy.

Also, I suggest you judge your results purely on just that: results. Look at what works for you and what does not work (look only at the bottom-line: the number and quality of pages you have managed to write) and don't over-analyse the reasons why you did or did not succeed, for that way lies madness. Keep it to a simple question: Did it work for you or not? That's all. For whatever reason, Occidental has worked well for me and has been more productive for me than other languages; to make my efforts with other languages as productive would take study time and cannot be achieved with only minor or trivial effort.