De Wahl's rule facts for kids
De Wahl's rule is a special set of instructions for building words in a language called Occidental. This language was invented by a language expert named Edgar de Wahl. The rule helps to create different forms of words, like turning a verb (an action word) into a noun (a naming word).
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Understanding De Wahl's Rule
In Occidental, the basic form of a verb, called an infinitive, usually ends with -ar or -er. De Wahl's rule helps you find the main part of the word, called the "root," from these infinitives.
Here's how it works:
- If you take away -r or -er from the infinitive, and the word ends with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), you should add -t. If it ends with y, change the y to t.
Example: crea/r (to create) becomes crea/t- (the root). From this, you can get crea/t/or (creator). Example: atiny/er (to reach) becomes atin/t- (the root). From this, you can get atin/t/ion (attainment).
- If the last letter of the root is d or r, you should change it to s.
Example: decid/er (to decide) becomes deci/s- (the root). From this, you can get deci/s/ion (decision).
- In most other cases, you just remove the ending to get the root.
Example: duct/er (to lead) becomes duct- (the root). From this, you can get duct/ion (leading).
Exceptions to the Rule
There are six special verbs that don't follow the third part of the rule:
- ced/er (to give way) becomes cess-
- sed/er (to sit) becomes sess-
- mov/er (to move) becomes mot-
- ten/er (to hold) becomes tent-
- vert/er (to turn) becomes vers-
- veni/r (to come) becomes vent-
This also applies to any verbs made from these by adding a prefix (a part at the beginning of a word).
Making Nouns and Adjectives
You can also use this rule in reverse! To make nouns and adjectives (describing words), you remove the endings to find the root. Then, by adding -r or -er, you can often get back to the infinitive verb.
- Example: decora/t/ion (decoration) comes from the root decora/t-, which then leads to decora/r (to decorate).
How the Rule is Used
De Wahl's rule was mainly used in the language Occidental. However, with some changes, this rule can also be helpful for creating new word forms in Romance languages (like Spanish, French, or Italian) or in other languages that have borrowed words from Romance languages.
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