796 



VOLAPftK. 



a defect, that the masculine forms should be 

 used for things without sex. It would be im- 

 possible to remedy it without replacing os by 

 some other termination capable of forming the 

 plural. In nouns denoting persons, the prefix 

 ji forms a feminine derivative, while the sim- 

 ple form is understood to be masculine, as 

 viudel, widower ; jiviudel, widow. In case of 

 animals the simple form represents the species 

 irrespective of sex. The distinctively mascu- 

 line form begins with om, the distinctively 

 feminine form with ji; jeval, horse; omjeval, 

 stallion ; jijeval, mare. Os is used as a neuter 

 adjective termination : gudikos, the good ; das 

 Gute, TO ayaOov. (3) Cases. The simple form 

 of the word is the nominative. To form the 

 genitive, dative, and accusative, add the three 

 vowels a, e, i, plural as, es, is. Nom., fat 

 (father); gen., fata; dat., fate; ace., fati. 

 Plural: Norn., fats; gen., fatas; dat., fates ; 

 ace., fatis. These cases are often designated by 

 the Volapuk names kimfal, kimafal, kimefal, 

 kimifal that is, " who-case," " whose-case," 

 etc. The vocative is the nominative preceded 

 by the interjection o ; si, o sol, yes, sir. The 

 omission of o is permitted and is habitual with 

 some writers. The nominative is the subject. 

 Prepositions govern the nominative except 

 when they denote motion, and then govern 

 the accusative. Bindb in gad, I am in the 

 garden ; golob in gadi, I go into the garden. 

 The latter may also be expressed golob ini 

 gad, the ending i placed after the preposition 

 instead of after the noun. Besides nouns and 

 pronouns, adjectives and participles may be 

 declined. This usually occurs when they are 

 separated from the nouns which they qualify, 

 so that it is necessary to make them agree in 

 case in order to show the relation. Verbs in 

 the infinitive are declined by Schleyer, although 

 writers of the "simplifying" school disuse 

 this. (4) Person. The person-endings of verbs 

 and the personal pronouns are the same series 

 of syllables ob, ol, om, of, os, on. First per- 

 son, ob, I; obs, we. Second person, ol, thmi ; 

 ols, you. In the third person there are forms, 

 as explained under genders, for masculine- 

 neuter, om; feminine, of; neuter-impersonal, 

 os ; besides there is the indefinite "one," 

 " people," on (French on, German man). Om 

 and of have the plurals oms and ofs. These 

 syllables are attached to the root to form verbs 

 in the indicative : Penob, I write ; penol, thou 

 writest; penom [he or it], writes; penof [she], 

 writes ; penos, it (indef.) writes ; penon, one 

 writes, '"they" write. Penobs, we write; 

 penols, you write ; penoms, penofs, they write. 

 (5) Tenses. The tense-signs are vowels prefixed 

 to the stem, a for the present, d for the im- 

 perfect, e for the perfect, i for the pluperfect, 

 o for the future, u for the future perfect. But 

 the present tense-sign a is always omitted in 

 the active tenses, as in the above conjugation 

 of penob (instead of apenob). This is a little 

 anomalous. Apenob, I wrote ; epenol, thou 

 hast written ; ipcnom, he had written ; openof, 



she will write ; upenon, one will have written. 

 (6) Passive voice. The tense-vowel preceded 

 by the letter p makes the verb passive. Paid- 

 fob, I am loved ; pdlofol, thou wast loved ; 

 man peldfom, the man has been loved; vom 

 pildfof, the woman had been loved ; polofobs, 

 we shall be loved; pulofols, you will have 

 been loved. (7) Moods and Special Forms. 

 The conditional and conjunctive words are 

 formed by adding another syllable, -dv and -la 

 respectively, after the person -endings. Abino- 

 bov labik. if abinob-la liegik, I would be happy 

 if I were rich. The imperative adds -od after 

 the person-ending : gololod, go [thou] ! golol- 

 sod, go [ye]! There is also -os, a softened form 

 of the imperative, denoting a wish or request, 

 and a harsh form, -oz. -Ox (seldom used) is a 

 potential ending, " may possibly." The infini- 

 tive ends in -on, and the participle in ol. These 

 have the tense-vowels: ebinon, to have been; 

 ebinol, having been ; pojindl, about to be fin- 

 ished. They may even take the person-sylla- 

 bles: binobon, for me to be; ebinofdl, she hav- 

 ing been. The continuous or habitual form 

 inserts -i- next after the tense-vowel. Aipenob, 

 I am in the habit of writing ; dipenob, I used 

 to write. The reflexive form adds -ok to the 

 active voice : vatiikob, I wash ; vatiikobok, I 

 wash myself. The interrogative form is de- 

 noted by U, prefixed, or suffixed as an enclitic. 

 Li-penol? Do you write? Penom-lif Does 

 he write? (8) Degree. The comparative de- 

 gree adds -um to the positive; the superlative 

 adds -tin. Gletik, great ; gletikum, greater ; 

 gletikiin, greatest ; vifiko, swiftly ; vifikumo, 

 more swiftly; viftJc&no, most swiftly. 



5. Order of Words. The normal order of 

 words in a sentence is, broadly : 1. Subject; 2. 

 Predicate ; 3. Object ; and each of these prin- 

 cipal parts is followed by its modifiers. For 

 instance, a noun is followed by the adjective 

 qualifying it or by another noun in the kima- 

 fal (genitive) or by a preposition with a noun. 

 The adverb follows the verb which it modifies. 

 In fact, the object is a modifier of the predi- 

 cate, so that its position is in accordance with 

 the rule. But adverbs, when they modify ad- 

 jectives or other adverbs, precede, not follow, 

 tho^e words, the connection being so close 

 that the phrase is almost a compound word ; 

 and the negative no also precedes the verb 

 which it negates. Schleyer authorized devia- 

 tion from this natural " word - placement " 

 (vddatopam) whenever emphasis, and in some 

 cases euphony, demanded it. At first German 

 writers took advantage of this liberty to place 

 sentences in the complex and inverted order 

 of their own language. They were specially 

 addicted to setting the verb at the very end of 

 a subordinate sentence, conforming to a Ger- 

 man idiom which is one of the greatest obsta- 

 cles to other nations in studying German. It 

 is noticeable that this peculiarity is disappear- 

 ing, partly through the raillery of Prof. Kerck- 

 hoffs, who has not ceased to ridicule this Ger- 

 manism and to insist upon the natural word- 



