Edgar de Wahl

Also known as Edgar von Wahl, Edgar Alexei Robert von Wahl

Estonian teacher and linguist (1867–1948)

AI overview

Edgar de Wahl was an Estonian teacher and linguist who lived from 1867 to 1948. He is primarily remembered for creating Occidental (also called Interlingue), an artificial language designed to be easier for Europeans to learn and use for international communication.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Edgar
Family name: Wahl
Gender: male
Citizenship: Russian Empire
Place of death: Tallinn
Educated at: Imperial Academy of Arts
Languages spoken: French
Family: Wahl
Field of work: linguist
Military branch: Imperial Russian Navy
Image: Edgar von Wahl (cropped).jpg

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date of birth: 1867-08-11
date of death: 1948-03-09
Commons category: Edgar von Wahl
Commons Creator page: Edgar von Wahl
place of burial: Alexander Nevsky cemetery

Sources (1)

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Encyclopedic overview

Edgar von Wahl (Interlingue: Edgar de Wahl; born Edgar Alexis Robert von Wahl; 23 August 1867 – 9 March 1948) was a Baltic German mathematics and physics teacher who lived in Tallinn, Estonia. He also used the pseudonym Julian Prorók, and is best known as the creator of Interlingue, an international auxiliary language that was known as Occidental throughout his life.

He was born to the Baltic German noble von Wahl family in the then Russian Empire and spent most of his childhood in Tallinn (Reval) and the capital Saint Petersburg. He studied at the University of Saint Petersburg and at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. During and after his studies he served in the navy. After completing the military service in 1894 he lived permanently in Tallinn and worked as a teacher. During World War II, when most Baltic Germans left Estonia in 1939–1941, he decided to stay. He was arrested in 1943 by the Nazi German occupation authorities and placed in a psychiatric clinic because of alleged dementia. He stayed there until his death in 1948.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Edgar de Wahl” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.