Salute, Jonathan!/Preface
Salute, Jonathan! (Hello, Jonathan!) is the story of a young Englishman who goes to visit his friend in another European country...or so it would seem.
It is written entirely in the language Occidental (Interlingue), a language created by Edgar de Wahl from Tallinn (Estonia) that he published in 1922. The book Salute, Jonathan! was written by Mithridates and published on Wikibooks in 2019.
Salute, Jonathan! begins with very simple language. The first words in the book are Un mann sta in un cité (a man stands in a city), and it continues from there. The words the reader knows are repeated and new words are added slowly and in context, so that no dictionary is required to read it. Occidental was created to be an international language, with a very simple and straightforward grammar. Thanks to its simplicity and regularity, you will know how to read and use it by the end of Salute, Jonathan!.
The method in the book is based on the same used in books such as English by the Nature Method, Le français par la méthode nature, and L'italiano secondo il metodo natura, as well as Hans Ørberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata.
Curious about the true nature of the story in the book? You will begin to get clues as to the true story around Chapter 4 as the language becomes more and more complex and an actual story begins to form. Salute, Jonathan! is in fact a full translation of a classic book that you are likely very familiar with. Read on to find out!
Update October 2024: Some chapters now conclude with an English summary of the new vocabulary that has interesting cognates (related words) in English and sometimes Latin to provide you as the reader with a greater understanding of the words you use in daily life. For example, the word scrir (to write) contains a note illustrating its relationship to the English words scripture (Occidental scritura) and inscription (Occidental inscrition).
Symbols used in the book
editSome symbols are used in the book to explain new words quickly. Some of them are:
- ↔ The two words are opposites. big ↔ small
- · An interpunct, used to show the makeup of a word. For example: the English words inter·nation·al and one·up·man·ship.
- → A right arrow, used to show the relation and progression from word to word. For example: the English words scribe → scripture → scriptural.