Volapük

[ILuvEire]

Salve! Moi! Hi! Dia dhuit!

Does anyone here speak Volapük or have any food resources on it. Is there any interest in Volapük? I liked it better than most IAL's because it has a less "Romlang" feel to it (like Glosa, Ido, Esperanto, Latino Sine Flexione etc.).

[''']

Well...I know a guy..and I have the English verison of the official Handbook but I'm not fluent or even conversationable.

[Dawid]

here you are: http://personal.southern.edu/~caviness/ ... vif00.html
it's volapuk's Arie de Jong version
I want to learn but I'm looking for somebody who can help me. I have found volapuk group on yahoo, but they didn't write back :/

[ILuvEire]

here you are: http://personal.southern.edu/~caviness/ ... vif00.html
it's volapuk's Arie de Jong version
I want to learn but I'm looking for somebody who can help me. I have found volapuk group on yahoo, but they didn't write back :/

Yes, they ignored me too. I can help. I've been studying Volapük every once-in-a-while.

[Dawid]

cool thank u. I will learn more and we could talk about, or even in it
aahh, I didn't mention that I wrote e-mail to current Cifal (Ralph Midgely, I suppose) and he didn't write back. I was thinking about a traditional letter, but I didn't send it

[ILuvEire]

cool thank u. I will learn more and we could talk about, or even in it
aahh, I didn't mention that I wrote e-mail to current Cifal (Ralph Midgely, I suppose) and he didn't write back. I was thinking about a traditional letter, but I didn't send it

Yeah, seems that most of the "Volapük activists" have given up. It has an nice sound, and I love the agglutination.

Here, I'll start some lessons here:

VOLAPÜK
Table of Contents:
I Pronunciation
II History
III Nouns/Articles - Nominative/Accusative/Gentative/Datative
IV Imperfect Tense
V Perfect Tense
VI Pluperfect Tense
VII Future Tense
VIII Future Perfect Tense



I Pronunciation
IPA will be in green, X-SAMPA in blue, but only when they differ.
Vowels:
A: /a/
E: /e/
I: /i/
O: /o/
U: /u/
Then there are the three umlauted vowels. Similar to the German umlauts.
Ä: / ɛ E/
Ö: / ø 2/
Ü: /y/
If you cant type umlauts, just leave them out. There is nothing like the <ae oe ue> of German used.
There are also handwritten shortcuts to the umlauts. I personally use them all the time. You can see them here (I can't post the image because it's too big.)

All of the consonants are the same as their IPA values except the following:
C: / [color=008000]tʃ[/color] [color=0040FF]tS[/color]/
J: / [color=008000]ʃ[/color] [color=0040FF]S[/color]/
X: /ks/
Y: /j/
Z: /ts/
Some amount of voicing is allowed for all of the consonants, especially <C, J>.

Practice the numbers 1-10.
1. bal
2. tel
3. kil
4. fol
5. lul
6. mäl
7. vel
8. jöl
9. zül
10. deg

II History
In 1879 Johann Martin Schleyer published a sketch of the language in a Catholic Magazine (I can't remember its name) of which he was publisher. Soon after he wrote a full length book about Volapük in German. He never wrote any materials in other languages, but others did. Schleyer was a Roman Catholic Priest who believed that God came to him in a dream and asked him to create a world language. (Have you ever noticed that the two largest IALs were made by religious people?).

It was a massive success, but when Esperanto came around people abandoned it. Today there are ~25 people that speak it fluently.

In the 1920s Arie de Jong, the leader of the remaining Volapük speakers, decided to to a remake of the language. He made it more regular, and got rid of some perceived sexism of the language. He also reintroduced the phoneme /r/ to make words look more recognizable. For example, he changed lömib to rein.

Because of this, volapük experienced some revival, but was quickly stifled by the Nazis (along with all constructed languages)

The current Cifal (Chief) of the Volapük language, and president of the Kadäm Volapüka (Volapük Academy) is Brian Reynold Bishop. He has organized the Volapük language movement, which started activities in 2007.

[Dawid]

cool, thank u, pronunciation is easy, and I luv sounds of volapuk too I don't want to give up I want to b the next Cifal, hehe I will learn it! I promise!

[ILuvEire]

cool, thank u, pronunciation is easy, and I luv sounds of volapuk too I don't want to give up I want to b the next Cifal, hehe I will learn it! I promise!

Lol. I don't know if I like it enough to be the next Cifal, but it is a really nice language.

[Dawid]

hehe could u tell me more about volapuk movement I can't find it on the net. I found only 'Volapop' (in volapuk :/) We should organise something
I luv volapuk 'cos it sounds more natural than esperano (which I speak fluently)

[ILuvEire]

hehe could u tell me more about volapuk movement I can't find it on the net. I found only 'Volapop' (in volapuk :/) We should organise something
I luv volapuk 'cos it sounds more natural than esperano (which I speak fluently)

Honestly? Not much really happens. The current Cifal lives in the UK (London I think) and so I think all of the events happen there. I live in Texas, so you are much closer than I am to him anyway.

If you speak Esperanto, it may help you a bit learning Volapük. I don't speak Esperanto, but I believe Zamenhof used some things from Volapük, no?

[Dawid]

there's an article (in e-o)
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volapuko_kaj_Esperanto
Zamenhof used some affixes and some words r similar. if u want I can translate it into english
but I really, really prefer volapuk
Menefe bal, puki bal!

[ILuvEire]

there's an article (in e-o)
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volapuko_kaj_Esperanto
Zamenhof used some affixes and some words r similar. if u want I can translate it into english
but I really, really prefer volapuk
Menefe bal, puki bal!

I can't believe it's not translated into English!

It's okay, I studied some Esperanto before I found Volapük so I can read it okay with lots of dictionary work. Good thing it's such a romlang.

[ILuvEire]

III Nouns/Articles
Vocabulary:
Yat: squirrel
Flen: friend
Fat: Father
Mot: Mother
Buk: book

Volapük is a heavily agglutinative language as I'm sure you know. Each noun can be declined in the Nominative, Dative, Genitive, and Accusative cases. I will abbreviate them as nom., dat., gen., and acc. in the rest of this lesson. The other abbreviations I will be using are pl., and sing..

Nom:
The nom. sing. doesn't really have a declension. It is the base for forming all of the other declensions.
The nom. pl. uses the suffix -s.

Acc:
Acc. sing. uses the suffix -i
Acc. pl. uses -is

Dat:
Dat. sing. is -e
Dat. pl. is -es

Gen:
Gen. sing. is -a
Gen. pl. is -as

A fully declined noun:
Squirrel:
Nom. Sing. Yat
Nom. pl. Yats
Acc. sing. Yati
Acc. pl. Yatis
Dat. sing. Yate
Dat. pl. Yates
Gen. sing. Yata
Gen. pl. Yatas

Articles
Volapük doesn't use articles for "native words" (real Volapük words). Words that don't have Volapük equivalents, and ones that wont be transliterated use a "dummy article". Called el. It is declined instead of the word itself.

This is usually only used for place names. For example using my name (Tyler), I don't call myself el Tyler. When people are going to see me they say Kileke, not ele Tyler (using the transliteration of my name into Hawaiian, Kileki, and deleting the i).
Example:
el New York
els New York

eli New York
elis New York

ela New York
elas New York

ele New York
eles New York

Exercises:
Decline the word buk (book).
Decline the place name Helsinki

[Dawid]

Nom. Sing. buk
Nom. pl. buks
Acc. sing. buki
Acc. pl. bukis
Dat. sing. buke
Dat. pl. bukes
Gen. sing. buka
Gen. pl. bukas

erm... looks weird

el Helsinki
els Helsinki

eli Helsinki
elis Helsinki

ela Helsinki
elas Helsinki

ele Helsinki
eles Helsinki

?

[ILuvEire]

Good job! All right. And I know sometimes there are some weird looking words. Like Fat for father, yat for squirrel, or flen for friend. Schleyer was trying to make the words short and easy to pronounce. Besides, think about trying to conjugate a word like "*antidisestablishmentarianism" into Volapük?

*Aantidisestablishmentarianismobösli? (Would you please antidisestablishmentize?)

I slaved over a hot keyboard for like 20 minutes creating the list of Volapük family members. Enjoy!

* general term: famül
* parents: pals: mot (jipal), fat (hipal)
* simblings: jiblod (jigem, sör), brod (higem)
* children: cil: daut (jison), hicil (son)
* grandparents: lepal: lemot, lefat
* great-grandparents: lelepals: lelemot, lelefat
* great-great-grandparents, ancestor: lelelepals (lemenäds)
* parents' siblings: jiter (zian), hiter (ziom)
* parents' siblings' children: kös: jiköst, hiköst
* simblings' children: jinef, hinef
* child's spouse: lüjison, lüson
* spouse's parents: lüpals: lümot, lüfat
* spouse's siblings: lüjiblod, lübrod
* sibling's spouse: lüjiblod, lübrod
* man that married one's sister: lübrod
* parent's spouse: hilupal: jilumot, hilufat
* spouse's children: hilucil: jilucil, hilucil
* godchildren: jispönab, hispönab
* godmother, godfather: jispönan, hispönan

It's from here.

[Dawid]

cool, thank u long words? no problem for me! I learn Inuktitut, and there are veeery long words-phrases, for example:
qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga = I’ll have to go to the airport.
it isn't the longest word....
hehe, okay, I enjoy my mini dictionary and wait for the next lesson
Give me some basic expressions and verbs to practise sentences...

[ILuvEire]

Vocabulary!
Nouns/Prön:
at = this
blod = brother
böd = a bird
bür = an office
büsidan = a businessman
cil = a child
del = a day
dog = a dog
dom = a house
ekö = here is/are
famül = a family
flor = a flower
gok = a fowl
jevod = a horse
jul = a school
julan = a pupil (at school)
kapar = a goat
kat = a cat
kel = which, who
kun = a cow
läd = a lady
matemat = maths
nem = a name
niver= a university
nuf = a roof
pük = a language
pükistudan = a language student
sekretan = a secretary
sol = the sun
soarajul = an evening school
Spanyän = Spain
stral = a ray
timül = a moment
tor = a bull
vom = a woman
vöd = a word
yan = a door
zif = a town

Prepositions/Conjunctions:
bi = because
e* = and
fa = by
i* = also
in = in (place)
kobo (ko) = together (with)
pro = for
ün = at, in (time)
* These words have a -d added to the root when they come before a word that starts with a vowel.

Verbs/[i]Värbs[/b]:
binön = to be
labön = to have
lärnön = to learn
löfön = to love
lödön = to live, reside
reidön = to read
studön = to study
sagön = to say
tidön = to teach
topön = to be situated
vakenön = to be on holiday/vacation
vedön = to become
veütik = important
visitön = to visit
vilön = to want to
vobön = to work

Adverb:
gudiko = well
nilü = near to
saidiko = sufficiently, enough
suvo = often
vemo = very / very much

Adjectives:
gretik = big, large
gudik = good
jönik = beautiful, lovely
mödik = a lot of, many
nulädik = modern
ofik = her
omik = his
patik = special
smalik = small
tefik = corresponding (to), relating (to)
yunik = young
vifik = fast, quick

IV Present Tense/Adjectives/Adverbs
As you may have noticed, all adjectives end with -ik. They are all declined in the same way as nouns. It doesn't matter if the adjective comes before or after the noun. It's a matter of personal preference, although it can be changed for poetic effect. Also, the emphasized word can be pushed to the front.
Examples:
That's my friend!: At binon oba fleni!
Those are my friends!: At binon oba flenis!
Those are my young friends!: At binon oba yunikis flenis/flenis yunikis!
That's my young friend!: At binon oba yuniki fleni/fleni yuniki!

Any adjective may be turned into an adverb.
Examples:
I'm fast: Binob vifik.
I run fast: Rönob vifiko.

Present Tense Verbs:
As you may have noticed, every verb ends with -ön. This is the infinitive. So when you want to conjugate a verb, you delete the -ön and add some affixes.

Each tense uses a prefix to show tense. The prefix for the present tense is a-. You will also add a suffix for the person.
1st Person - ob
2nd Person - ol
3rd Person Feminine - of
3rd Person Masculine - om
3rd Person common/neuter - on
3rd Person Null Subject - os

So...
Golön - to go
Agolob - I go
Agolol - you go
Agolof - she goes
Agolom - he goes
Agolon - it OR he/she goes

The null subject is used when you talk about a process. So...
Areinos - it is raining.

Then there is another prefix used with the present tense frequently; p-. It indicates the passive voice.
Examples:
Golön - to go
Pagolob - I am going
Pagolol - you are going
Pagolof - she is going
Pagolom - he is going
Pagolon it OR he/she is going.

Whew. That took a long time.

[ILuvEire]

Turs
Exercises

Translate the following from Volapük to English:
1. Lönob in Spanyäni.
2. Labob nemi, binon ______. (You can fill in the blank.)
3. Lärnob Volapüki!
4. Vilol reidön buki, ko oba blod.
5. Cil pavisitom jul.

[Dawid]

sorry 4 making u wait teacher I had problems with my net...
my homework:
1. I live in Spain (shouldn't b 'lödob?')
2. My name is, I am ______. (Can b translated this way?)
3. I learn Volapük!
4. I want to read book, with my bro
5. Child pavisitom school.
what does 'pavisitom' mean?
next lesson please...

[Dawid]

uhm, one question...
volapuk word for throat...