New Translations of the Canon
By Don Hobbs

Well, it's been a busy week in the world of foreign translations of the Canon. I have added two new ones to my list, brining the total number of known translations to eight-one. It all began a couple of weeks ago when Jeff Katz sent me an email with two URLs where someone was translating "A Scandal in Bohemia" into Occidental. I had never heard of Occidental but was able to find out all about it with a quick search of the Internet.

According to Wikipedia, the language Occidental, later Interlingue, was created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl and published in 1922. It was
devised with great care to ensure that many of its derived word forms reflect the similar forms common to a number of Western European languages. This was done through application of de Wahl's rule which is actually a small set of rules for converting verb infinitives into derived nouns and adjectives. The result is a language relatively easy to understand at first sight for individuals acquainted with several Western European languages. Coupled with a simplified grammar, this made Occidental exceptionally popular in Europe during the 15 years before World War II, and it is believed that it was at its height the fourth most popular planned language, after Volapük, Esperanto and perhaps Ido in order of appearance.

Occidental survived World War II, undergoing a name change to Interlingue, but gradually faded into insignificance following the appearance of a competing naturalistic project, Interlingua, in the early 1950s. However, today with the emergence of the Internet, Occidental is once again increasing in popularity. However, it is not to be confused with Interlingua or Occitan.

On a whim, I did another serch for the language Ido and found the URL for Ido Language Institute and in their bookshp, they offer a translation of he Boscombe Valley Mysery" translated into Ido. This bring the total to eight-one.

Again according to Wikipedia, Ido was developed in the early 1900s, and retains a sizable following today, primarily in Europe. It is largely based on Esperanto, created by L. L. Zamenhof. Ido first appeared in 1907 as a result of a desire to reform perceived flaws in Esperanto that some of its supporters believed to be a hindrance in its propagation as an easy-to-learn second language.

During all of my searching, I also came across the URL for Omniglot: (http://www.omniglot.com) On this website, there is treasure trove of information regarding languages, translations and hundreds of useful link to nearly every concievable language. One just never knows where a simple search will lead. My simple searches found two never translations. I plan on digging deeper and there is no tell what I might find. So stay tuned.

Happy Collecting!!