Volapuk--its History And Peculiarities

ring caoanauc woru ís mu ;i ;u i ui na odian medicine man't incanta ion, as we night on fir3t hearing it suppose, uut tlie mine of a new lánguido - and, as the vord really ígnlflet, a woiid language. o nation ever spoke Volirpuk, no one iver inade love or a Fourth-of July oraion íd Volapuk; it is a creation, a bomínculus, a sclentifically eonstructed business lmiguuge. Whether it wil! live and make for itself a place amnng its natural )orn competitors reinains to be seen. About ten years ago Johanu Martin Schleyer, then a priest of tlie Catlioüc church, now retired and Uring at Constance, Germany, publislied a scheme of a universal langiiHge especially adapted 'or coinmerce and international cotnmunc itlon, whlcli waa briefly as follows: First, the wordforms sliould be derived rom tlie simplest and most expres9ive roots of tlie different living languníes. Second, in structure it sliould be per'ectly regular - the adjective, adverb and verb sliould be regularly formed from tlie substantive and invariably of the same termination. There shoulJ be one leclension and one eonjunctlon and there sliould be no artificial gender. In a word t sliould be a perfect language, selecting be best frora each exHtin lnnguare and ¦ejeetlng the useless, irregular and difficult. In accordance wilh this plan Schleyer and those associated with Lini have con structed Volapuk. In order to glve a better idea of thls "world language" we will take the word "nat," meaninjf nature, and trace It through some of its grammatical forms. First, its declcnsion - nat, nata, nate, nuti, meanlni; nature, of nature, to nature, nature (accusative.) To form the adjectIve "ik" is used, and we have "natik" (natural.) To form the adverb "o" is added to tlie ndjeetive form- "natiko" (naturally.) Every Volapuk noun whose meaniug permits, 3 susceptible of these changes. Comparison of adjectives ie effected by addin# the euding "uin" for the comparative and "un" for tlie superlative, jonik, jonikum, jonikun, (fair, fairer, fairest.) The numeráis run easlly off the tongue- bal, tel, kil, fol, lul, mal, vel, jol, zul, bals (10,) kil? (20,) etc. The personal pronouns keep the saine vowel throughout, as follows: Ob (1,) ol (thou,) om (he,) of (she,) os (it,) on (one, they, peoplc, men, etc.) To form the possessive pronouns the adjective endino is afflxed as "obik," meaning my. The eonjunctlon of the verb is a marvel of simpliclty. The verb form is compoted of three parts: First, the root; secoinl, the persmial ending; third, tbc tense pierlx. Taklng the oíd ramilla] veib, "iove," we proceed as follows: lofob I love, lofol You love, lofom, He loves, Plural- lofobe W love. To conjúgate the different terms:- a lofob, I loveil, lofol, Thou haat loved, llofom, He has loved, olofof, She will love, [etc ulotos, It will have loved, The pa88ve voice is formed by the fortfter preflxinjt of the consonant "p," M polofof (slis will be lovod.) Take even io coragHlöWted a tense form as, "We shall have been highly lionorcil," In Volapuk oue would sny simply "I'ulestimobs !" So simple is this wonderfal l;mf;uage la structure, and so familiar are its roots that it is very easlly and quickly acquired. Already it has giiined wide favor upon the continent, and is rapidly provinz it practical usefulness. In many bu.slness houses in Paris a placard hearing tlie word "Volupnkon" (here they speak Volapuk] is displayed, while its prokuon and teachers are uuiuerous and enthusiUtlCi