744 



VOLAFCK. 



ete., which render thorn tronblesomp even .o natives 

 nnl nee initially unlearnahle t.i foreigners, it was 

 his object in produce a language prepared solely 

 with :i view U) its practical utility, in which the 



written." The prefix p l>ofore the tense vowel makes 



tin- Veil) passive, as fi.i/,,1, if', "I am loved. ' TIlC 



ounditiooal and subjunctive tnoodi are indicated by 



the addition <it' :i syllable, or and Ai rcs|iectively. alter 



irregularities and OOVplacitM of existinir languages the person ending, tlius: Sltimobde Inliik, i/ 



should \>c avoided MM complete simplicity and rcgu- //;///.. signifies "1 Would lie happy it' 1 wen- rirli." 



larity 

 guase 



; ncd. 

 -nii.111. 



I'ntoitunatcly his n.itive 

 aud he li i.- retained (icriiian 



Ian- Tin 



imperative adds 

 go thou." 



to the pel-win ending, as 

 The infinitive ends in tin. (lie 



isms uf irnmmar and orthography which make his participle in lit, while other prefixes, suffixes, and in- 

 method difficult to other modern nations Before fixes are employed to cover other exigencies of gram- 

 givim; the criticisms of linguists, however, we .shall matical inflection. 



In lorniini: ,-enlenees the words are arranged in the 

 followinir order: First, the subject ; second, tlie prcdi- 

 . third, the object. Kaeh principal word is fol- 

 lowed by its nioditiere, except that adverbs, when 

 modifying adjectives or other adverbs, precede. 



This 



briefly describe the leading features of Yolapuk. this 

 title signifying " world language " in the new method 

 of speech. 



Volapiik possesses in nil 3" letters. To thi> T> pure 

 vowels are added the Herman a, ii. ii. sounds which 



very tc\v persons uf Knglish. Spanish, or Italian birth negative no also precedes the negatived verb. 



arc capable of properly making. The mii.-onants. as arrangement is a radical departure from the (ierinan 



he amuses them, are b, p ; d, t ; v. f; Ii. y, g, k ; method, in which the verb is placed at the end of tho 



1. r. in. n; 9, i, C, X, z. To these are added 10 new sentence. 



si^us. invented or borrowed from existing alphabets, to Volapiik has grown with some rapidity into favor. 



supply deficient sounds. There are no diphthongs, the Ii made some progress in (iermany ami Austria pre- 



vowels have tli2 Continental sounds, and certain of the vious to 1.SS4. in which year it was taken up in 



consonants have arbitrary sounds, c being likej in joy, Holland and Belgium, and in France in I xv~>. h was 



j like English ah. Thus ji/> is pronounced " sheep. " introdueed into the latter country by Dr. Ki -rckhofl's, 



In forming the vocabulary a basic scries of radicals who made several changes, the most of which were. 



or roots was chosen, these being mostly monosyllabic, decided improvements. Other European nations bc- 



rith an internal vowel, and one. sometimes two. pre- 



Missvllabic roots are 



The root wonl is al- 



eame interested in it during 1886 MM 1880, but littlu 

 ii:'.-ri-t was shown in England and in the 1'nited 



Stales until 1887, since which time mm-li has been 



liminary and final consonants. 

 formed on the same principle, 

 ways a noun, concrete or abstract. Knglish being written on the subject, text-books published, and 

 recogniied as the most important and widespread Ian- classes formed in several cities, though principally 

 guage of modern civilization, the roots are taken from among persons of (lerman birth. A convention was 

 it. wherever a suitable one can be found, other Ian- held in Munich in August, I*.S7, the delegates U'ing 

 puages being used more sparingly. Thus English mostly (lermans. At this several .simplifications were 

 "man" forms an unobjectionable root But Knglish adopted, a general society of Volapuk clubs formed, 

 " honsc" b not in accordance with the rule of root and an academy established, which liegan its functions 

 formations. So ]jitin "dom" is chosen instead, in isss. Father Schleyer is at the head of both these 

 "Sheep 

 the spelling 

 should begin 



prefixes and suffixes can be readily added as gram- 

 matical inflections. The prefixes used are frequently 

 ordinary or abbreviated prepositions. Some are adjec- 

 tives or shortened nouns of quality. For snlTixes ef, 

 ik, am are very commonly used. F.I forms nouns 

 which indicate the doer. Ik is the termination of all 

 adjectives but the numerals. 

 English termination "ing" or 



are used as inflectional terminations. forms adverbs ; 

 ti, prepositions; 6. interjection. 



The grammar of Volapiik has the modifications of 

 Aryan grammar generally, and forms all these modifi- 

 cations by inflectional expedients. The plural is in- 

 variably formed by the addition of , and tens are 

 formed from units in the same manner. The personal 

 pronoun forms its genders in the third person by the 



otis. fv> IMm dom is chosen instead, m low, 1'atner Oclileyens at tlie Head ot botli tliese 

 )" \3Jiii. Here the pronunciation is preserved, j organizations. Over UK) books on the subject were 

 :lling changed. It is necessary that, all roots published in Europe up to July, 1887, and many more 

 begin and_end with a consonant, in order that J nave been issued since. Several periodicals in Vola- 

 piik are now published, and the number of persons 

 who have studied it is given at 100,000. It has been 

 brought into considerable use in commercial inter- 

 course, and has in fact made a remarkable pro 

 indicating the need of some such international lan- 

 guage. 



Am eorreepond* to the. The growing popularity of Volapiik has aroused 

 tion." O, ii. ami 6 philological students, and several other systems 

 have Wu promised since its introduction. In !>*."> 

 P. Steiner, of (Jeniiany, published a system entitled 

 " Pasilengua. ' and in 1SSS Dr. L. Samenhof, of 

 Warsaw, an "International Language." Both these. 

 endeavor to produce a simple, regular system, with a 

 vocabulary formed from existing Aryan words. Dr. 

 Samenhof is credited with excellent judgment in his 

 selections, and the vocabulary of both can lie acquired 



with great ease, yet both use diacritical marks, sounds 

 not common to all Aryan tongues, and grammatical 

 complexities. The method proposed by Dr. Samenhof 



addition of DM, <</. and o.<. ().<, however, is not neu- 

 ter; all things are masculine: us is used only imper- 

 i-on illy and abstrac'ly, as tntnx. ''it thunders." In 



nonns denoting person the suflix ji makes the noun closely resembles that in use in the "agglutinative 

 feminine. In animals om denotes the male, ji the family" of languages. More recently. A. Melville 

 female. The nominative case is the simple, word form. Bell, the author of the system of " visible speech " for 

 To form the genitive, dative, and accusative <. r. and / deaf unites, has proposed what he calls "World 



Knr'lish." based on the fact of (he wide employment. 

 of Knglish. It is simply English written on a phonetic 

 system, with certain new consonantal signs and a sim- 

 plification of Knglish grammar. 



The advantages of Vnlapuk are given by the Satur- 

 day Rrrific, as the following. Its words present no 

 accumulation of heaped up consonants or vowels, and 

 there are no long compound words. It has no arbi- 



are added ; in the plural n*. r.t. and i*. The preposition 

 governs the nominative except when it denotes motion, 

 then the accusative. Adjectives and participles may 

 be declined when separated from the nouns which 

 they qualify, no that the relation can be shown. The 

 personal pronouns areoft, " I " ; nl, "thou" | on, o/, 

 01, " he, she, it" ; on, "one," or " they." as in " they 

 ay." These are attached to the roots 10 form the per- 



son endings of verbs in the indicative, as priin/>, "I trary rules of orthography, sparingly uses difficult 

 write" ; jifimt, " thou writes! " ; jifnnn, ''one writes" ; sounds, and greatly decreases the number of 'words by 

 jKivJa, " we write," etc. The signs for the tenses are its free use of inflections. This renders it useful for 

 prefixed vowels, n for the present; d. imperfect; r, telegraphy. It is marked by clearness and precision, 

 t; i, pluperfect; o, future; n, future perfect, land freedom from ambiguous forms, while its numer- 

 Example: dpenob, "I wrote"; r.penol, "thou hast ous rhymes adapt it well to versification. It is 



