Volapük

History

The volapük was a fast success, making in a few years more than one hundred thousand followers in Europe and America. It was spread first of all in Austria, where in 1882 was founded the first company for its propagation. In 1884, it was diffused in Holland and Belgium. In 1885, Auguste Kerckhoffs, professor at the School of the high commercial studies of Paris, propagated it in France by its conferences and its publications, causing the creation of an National association for the propagation of the volapük.

The publications of Auguste Kerckhoffs also contributed to make known the volapük in Spain, Italy and with the Portugal. In 1885 and 1886, it was it tower of the Sweden, the Denmark and the Russia. In 1888, a handbook presented it to the anglophone public.

Auguste Kerckhoffs estimated then at 210.000 the number of people having studied the volapük. It is probably about a very optimistic evaluation. Nevertheless, the number of followers was important. With Vienna for example, the courses of volapük gathered during the winter 1886 - 87 approximately 2.500 pupils. In 1887, there existed in the world 138 associations of volapukists and eleven periodicals devoted to the volapük. In 1889, the number of clubs had passed to 283, the number of periodicals with 25, and one counted 316 methods of volapük in 25 languages.

The followers of the volapük held several congresses (with Friedrichshafen in August 1884, with Munich in August 1887…) But which language did one speak in these meetings? R. Lorenz, professor in Polytchnikum of Zurich and member of the Delegation of 1908, written: “The destiny of Volapük was sealed when its partisans, in 1888, tried the experiment to organize a congress where it would be Volapük which one should speak. The painful but too obvious result was that with a similar system the goal could not be reached. ”. The Congress of 1887 created three authorities however: an worldwide association ( Volapükaklub Valemik ), an Academy of the volapük ( Kadem Volapüka ), and an official journal or central body ( Volapükabled Zenodik ). The creator of the language, Schleyer, directed the whole of the movement.

This apparent success was however followed internal conflicts which caused the disappearance of the language. Indeed, not only the Grammaire of the volapük was relatively complex in spite of its regularity, but especially the vocabulary, because of the arbitrary deformation of the words of origin, was almost impossible to assimilate. Grabowski, which had studied it, would have said to Zamenhof: “The author of Volapük speaks his language very badly. During our conversation, we had to often resort to the dictionary, and I do not know which us two generally opened it”. Certain followers thus proposed reforms and simplifications, but Schleyer was opposed to it, by declaring that he was the single owner of the language and the only person with being able to authorize changes. Consequently, the volapük dispersed: several reforms gave rise to competitor projects (Dil, Dilpok, Nuvo-Volapük, Balta, Spelin, Veltparl, Idiom Neutral) and the volapük lost little by little the majority of its speakers, a big number of them adopting the Esperanto, as well the idea of a neutral international language worried them more as the particular form which this language could take. Thus it was for example volapukist group of Nuremberg which in 1888, following Léopold Einstein, adopted the Esperanto (which had been published only in 1887) and constituted of this fact the first club of Esperanto which existed. Since 1900 Zamenhof spoke about the volapük as of a dead language the volapük is practiced today only by some rare people, who are for the majority of the esperantists curious to see what resembled the first international language to have known a beginning of success.

The vocabulary of the volapük is borrowed from various European languages (with often important deformations), but the independent sources are the English and the German . For example, the words flight (“world”) and pük (“language”) come from the English words world and speak . These deformations, due to the concern for Schleyer not to use phonemes difficult to pronounce by certain people, contributed to feed the mockeries of the adversaries of the language.

Pronunciation

The alphabet of the volapük is composed of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet Latin except the two letters Q and W . The letter R was initially removed to facilitate with Asian the pronunciation volapük (for example friendly says flen of English friend ). The R was finally added but it is almost non-existent. It contains moreover letters ä , ö , and U .

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Grammar

Variations

Personal: flight = the world - flights = the worlds
Genitive: stole = of the world - stole = of the worlds
Datif: steals = in the world - steal = in the worlds
Accusatif: voli = the world - windbreak = the worlds

Formation of the words

The word is composed of a radical, which can bend one or more prefixes or suffixes, but also to be composed of two or several radicals.

VOLAPÜK = universal language, of FLIGHT = world and of PÜK = language .

When several roots coexist within the same word, one places the word which makes the idea principal at the end. The articulation is always done by the addition of the letter has (the mark of the genitive).

pokamon = pocket money

monapok = money pocket

My means money, pok , pocket.

Some radicals:

borrowed from the Romance Languages:

FRAUD: pain, FLUM: river, KAP: head, MILAG: wonder, SAP: wisdom.

borrowed from the Germanic Languages:

of which the German :

FAD: wire, FEL: field, JÖN: beauty, KET: chain

and the English:

BEG: prayer, KLOT: wrap, SMOK: smoke, TIM: time.

Some suffixes:

EL: designate the inhabitants of a country, an area, a city. FLENTEL: French, of FLENT: France.

EL: nominate also the person who deals with the thing expressed by the radical. MITEL: to stop, of MIT: meat.

YEAR: nominate also the person, without idea of activity. BÄLEDAN: old man, of BÄLED: age.

ÄB: nominate the person, with the idea of passivity. JELÄB: protected, of JEL: love.

AF: indicate the animals. JALAF: shellfish, of JAL: carapace.

IN: indicate the trades or industry. BILEN: brewery, of BIL: beer.

ÖP: indicate, the 5 parts of world, or a given place. YULÖP: Europe. KAFÖP: coffee (bar), of KAF: coffee (drink).

EM and ÖM indicates collectives. BLEDEM: foliage, of VILLAGE: break into leaf. GADÖM: tools of garden, GAD: garden.

IK: form an adjective, and IKO, an adverb, starting from a radical. FAMIK: glorious, FAMIKO: glorieusement, of FAM: glory.

Some prefixes:

BE: reinforce the idea of a verb. BEKLOTÖN to revétir, of KLOTÖN: to vétir. BELIFÖN: to animate, of LIFÖN: to live.

DA: transform the neutral verbs into verbs actifs.DATIKÖN: to imagine, of TIKÖN: to think.

GE: corresponds to French Re , English back . GEPÜKÖN: to answer, of PÜKÖN: to speak.

IT: reinforce the idea of the radical. LEDIB: damages, DIB: depth.

LU: is pejorative. LUGOD: idol, of GOD: god.

: give a negative direction or privative. NEFLEN: enemy, of FLEN: friend

SMA: give the idea of smaller. SMABEL: hill, of BEAUTIFUL: mountain.

OFF: form the female one. OFBLOD: sister, of BLOD: brother.

BEVÜ: is INTER, or ENTERS in French. BEVÜNETIK: international, of NETIK: national.

SE: give an idea to leave. SEGOLÖN: to leave, of GOLÖN: to go.

ZI: give the idea of " autour". ZIGOLÖN: to circumvent, of GOLÖN: to go.

Figures

The figures from 1 to 9 start and finish by a consonant. The consonant of end is always a L . One can observe the continuation of the vowels has E I O U ä ö U , only figure 7 fact exception with a E inserted.

ball = 1

such = 2

kil = 3

fol = 4

lul = 5

mäl = 6

vel = 7

jöl = 8

zül = 9

By adding a S , one obtains tens corresponding, for example 10 says balls , 60 says mäls . To form the numbers from 10 to 99 one intercalates a E , for example 73 says velsekil ( E , or ED in front of a word starting with a consonant means and ).

(ball) tum = 100

(ball) tumbal = 101

(ball) tumtelsakil = 123

kiltummälsefol = 364

millet = 1.000

telmil kiltumfolselul = 2.345

balsmil = 10.000

balion = 1.000.000

folbalion jöltumvelsemälmil kiltumtelsezül = 4.876.329

telion = 1.000.000.000

Bims gretik lul = five large trees

The numeral adjectives go by the addition of suffixes ID or IK.

mailbox: one, BALID: first, BALIK: simple, BALSID: tenth, BALSIK: multiply by ten.

The numeral adverbs go by the suffix O, or the ending NA.

BALIDO: firstly, BALSIDO: dixièmement, BALIKO: simply, BALNA: the first time.

and can reform other numeral adjectives then.

BALNIK: of a species, BALNALIK: who takes place once

The fractional numbers are formed by the suffix DIL, which means left .

TELDIL MAILBOX: a half of SUCH: two and mailbox: one.

and which takes the form S of plural.

FOLDILS KIL: three quarters

Conjugation

Various pronouns

The Pronom S in volapük are:

ob = I

ol = you

gold = you (form of courtesy singular)

om = it (employed for all the male words)

off = it (employed for all the female animated objects recognized as such, if one speaks about an animal without being concerned with his sex, one will employ om )

bone = neutral impersonal

one = neutral in the direction of the collective one

ok = reflexive pronoun French

To obtain the plural pronouns with the Personal , one adds a S :

obs = us

ols = you

WHO = they

ofs = they

These pronouns are declined:

oba = of me, obas = of us

obe = with me, obes = with us

obi = me, obis = us

and the personal pronouns by the suffix ik

obik form = my, obikel = mine

obsik = our, obsikel = ours

The termination of the Infinitif of the Verbe S is - ön (that comes from German ). To combine, it is enough to replace the termination of infinitive by the pronoun corresponding to the personal one.

binön = to be , binob = I am , binol = you are , binom = it is , binof = it is ,

binobs = we are , binols = you are , binoms = they are , binofs = they are .

binom gretik = it is large

binos gudik = it is well

Various times

Various times in volapük are:

For the active verbs:

For the code: the patük (present), the petük (past, which gather the imperfect one and the preterit of French), the pätük (made up past), the pitük (pluperfect, which gather the past anterior of French), the potük (future) and the putok (future former). To combine at these various times, one uses the prefixes respectively has (optional), ä- , E , I , O , and U .

binol = you are , äbinol = you were or you were , ebinol = you were , ibinol = you had been , obinol = you will be , ubinol = you will have été"

for the conditional one, one adds the suffix öv to imperfect and pluperfect:

äbinol-öv = you would be , ibinol-öv = you would have been .

For the requirement, one adds the suffix öd to times of the code:

binol-öd = would be , binols-öd = are

For the subjunctive, one adds the suffix the to times of the code:

binol it = (that) you would be , äbinol it = (that) you were , ibinol it = (that) you had been

For the passive verbs or in passive way:

the liability is built using the prefix p , which one adds to the active conjugation:

Palöfob = I am loved ( löfob = I like ), Pulöfob = I will have been loved , Pilöfob-öv = I would have been loved

the agent is introduced by the preposition F (= by )

löfön = to like , palöfob F ol = I am liked by you (it is often more pleasant to call upon the prefix has if it itself is preceded by the prefix p , however, one can also say plöfob F ol )

for the reflexive verbs and impersonal:

They are combined as in French using the personal pronoun with the accusative:

vatükob obi = I wash myself , evatükob obi = I washed myself .

the reciprocity goes by balvotik = one the other and by balvoto = reciprocally .

Examples

The volapük is a agglutinant Langue, that means that the words are formed by accumulation of prefixes and suffixes resulting from different roots.

pük = the language

pükön = to speak

pükel = that which speaks

pükelik = rhetoric ( - ik is the termination of the adjectives)

nepük = silence ( is not the prefix of negation)

The Our Father:

O Conceited obas, kel binol in süls,

paisaludomöz nem ola!

Kömomöd monargän ola!

cheap Jenomöz olik,

äs in sül, I known tal.

Bodi obsik vädeliki givolös obes adelo.

E pardolös obes debis obsik,

äs id obs aipardobs debeles obas.

E No obis nindukolös in tentadi,

sod aidalivolös obis of bad.

The Anthem volapükien:

Sumolsöd stäni blodäla!

Dikodi valik hetobs;

Tönöls jüli baladäla

Volapüke kosyubobs,

Vokobsöz KB datuval:

"Menade ball, püki ball! "

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