VOLAPttK. 



795 



and ovco as kost, cost. Both of these classes 

 are fewer in number than cvo, because many 

 combinations of two consonants are unpro- 

 nounceable. In dissyllabic roots the formulas 

 are ovovc, covcvc ; as, vikod, victory ; plisip, 

 principle. These represent more complex ideas 

 than the single roots. There are even some 

 trisyllable roots, but they can usually be better 

 expressed by a compound word, as lotogaf, 

 orthography ; better, tonabav. 



As to meaning the radical is always, when 

 standing by itself, as noun, either concrete or 

 abstract. 



The process of selection seems to have been 

 as follows: English being the most important 

 ot the civilized languages, the root is taken from 

 an English word, provided there be one within 

 the limits of the rules, which is unobjection- 

 able. If there be no such word suitable, re- 

 course is had to the Latin and the Romance 

 languages, with the endeavor to find a word 

 which shall be somewhat familiar to as wide a 

 public as possible. German is drawn upon if 

 necessary, and some few other languages spar- 

 ingly. The letters r and h are avoided. 



Thus, for the idea man the English word is 

 unobjectionable, and it is retained as to spell- 

 ing, but with a slight change of pronunciation. 

 As pronounced it is immediately recognized by 

 all the Teutonic races. The Latin peoples must 

 learn it, for their homin- has degenerated into 

 om and has not sufficient body. But for the 

 word house the English word will not do, as it 

 begins with h, contains a diphthong, and ends 

 in s. Therefore the Latin dom is the next 

 choice. The Romance languages have lost it 

 (^strangely), and have replaced it by mansion 

 and cabin (maison, casa) ; but they as well as 

 the English are familiar with it in domestic. 

 Handis objectionable not only because of the 

 h, but of the two consonants at the end, which 

 would make it difficult in the plural for some 

 nations. We can not use man (manus, mano, 

 main) because it has been used for man. As a 

 last resort it is transposed, and nam (not being 

 required for any other purpose) is adopted. 

 Frequently the sound and not the spelling o/ 

 the English word is followed, as jip, sheep; 

 kip (keep), hold. R is often changed into 1, 

 &&flen, friend ; Yulop, Europe. 



Where an English or other word has dwindled 

 down to less than the formula cvo, it is some- 

 times filled out by prefixing or affixing a letter, 

 usually 1 or n. Pay becomes pel, do[ing] be- 

 comes dun, purchase (em-ere) is lem. 



It is necessary that a root should begin and 

 eud with consonants in order to receive the 

 signs of inflection, which are vowels joined at 

 the beginning or end. 



The numerals are not borrowed from any 

 existing language, but are made after a pattern 

 which brings in the vowels in regular order: 

 bal tl kil fol \u\ mal \e\ j<5l zu\. 

 12345 6789. 



The object in the selection of roots is to aid 

 the memory, and there is not any attempt, as 



in former systems, to suggest metaphysical or 

 classificatory relations of ideas. 



3. Derivation. Words are derived from 

 roots, very much as in Greek and other Aryan 

 languages, by the three processes of composi- 

 tion, prefixing, and suffixing. In compound- 

 ing, the modifying word is placed first and the 

 sound a connects the two parts volapuk, 

 world-language, from vol, world, puk, lan- 

 guage; yagadog, hunting-dog. The prefixes 

 are frequently prepositions, unchanged, as 

 seldn, foreign country, from se, out ; or abbre- 

 viated as bi- from bifu, before ; bisiedel, presi- 

 dent, fore-sitter. Some prefixes are shortened 

 forms of adjectives or nouns of quality, as gle-, 

 principal, chief, from glet, greatness, gletik, 

 great ; bid-, black, bldgik. 



The suffixes -el, -ik, -am are so regularly ap- 

 plicable to all roots that they are almost a part 

 of the inflectional system. El forms a noun 

 indicating the do-er, ac-tor. Tid, instruction ; 

 tidel, teacher ; pukel, speaker. El sometimes 

 denotes an inhabitant, as Deut, Germany ; 

 deutel, a German. Ik is the adjective termi- 

 nation ; all adjectives except numeral adjec- 

 tives have it. 



Am is a sort of gerund, like the German 

 noun in -ung or the English verbal noun in 

 -ing. It frequently corresponds to nouns in 

 -tion. The terminations o, , and o, are also 

 regarded as rather inflectional than deriva- 

 tional, although this line of distinction is diffi- 

 cult to draw. O forms adverbs : From adjec- 

 tives, gudik, good ; gudiko, well. From other 

 parts of speech, as neit, night ; neito, at night ; 

 flen, a friend; flenik, friendly; fieniko or 

 fleno, in a friendly manner. tT forms preposi- 

 tions, as from kod, cause, Tcodu, by reason of; 

 from sesum, exception, sesumu, except ; tef, 

 relation, tefu, relating to. 6 forms interjec- 

 tions bafof bravo! spidof hasten! 



4. Inflection. The modifications to which 

 words are subject in Volapuk are number, 

 gender, case, person, tense, voice, mood, de- 

 gree. (1) Number. The singular is the simple 

 form of the word. There is no dual. The 

 plural is invariably formed by adding s to the 

 singular, no matter what the part of speech, 

 noun, pronoun, verb, or (exceptionally) adjec- 

 tive. Man, mans; man a, manas; golob, I go, 

 golobs, we go. The numerals bal, 1 ; tel, 2 ; 

 etc., with the added, form the tens, as bals, 

 10 ; teh, 20 ; kils, 30. (2) Gender. In the pro- 

 nouns of the third person there are tluve 

 forms, om, of, os, called the masculine, femi- 

 nine, and neuter. In referring to a noun 

 which is the name of a female being, of is 

 used, both as a pronoun standing alone and as a 

 verb termination. Referring to a male being, 

 om is used similarly. We should naturally ex- 

 pect, then, that for lifeless or sexless things ox 

 would be used ; but this is not the case. The 

 pronoun and verb termination for a lifeless 

 thing is om that is, things are he. 0* is used 

 only impersonally or abstractly, as it thumK-rs. 

 totos ; it is said, pasagos. This certainly seems 



