Page:Hand-book of Volapük (Sprauge, 1888).djvu/8

vi and the s is already appropriated for the plural termination. The Teutonic roots being barred out, recourse is had to the Latin, and dom is selected. We are also familiar with this in English, as in domestic. In hand again we have the same trouble with h and also with the two consonants coming together, the plural hands being unpronounceable by certain peoples. The Latin root man- will not help us here, because man</I> is already appropriated. Therefore, the transposed form <I>nam</I> is adopted, slightly assisting the memory.

As to grammar, the first requisite is regularity, and the second is simplicity. There was before the inventor a choice between the inflectional and the analytical modes ; whether to express the relations between words by modifications in form, or by separate words as connectivs. He inclined to the former, and his language is rather inflectional than analytical. It has four cases: the nominativ, being the unmodified form, and the genitiv, dativ and accusativ, designated by vowel endings. In selecting these endings the inventor has greatly aided the memory by employing the first three vowels, <I>a</I>, <I>e</I>, <I>i</I>, in their regular order. In the verb, the distinctions of tense are denoted by the vowel series, <I>a</I>, <I>&auml;</I>, <I>e</I>, <I>i</I>, <I>o</I>, <I>u</I>, at the beginning, while the persons are distinguished by affixing the pronouns, <I>ob</I>, I, <I>ol</I>, thou, etc. A prefixed <I>p</I> marks the passiv voice. The remaining inflectional forms are provided for by simple and regular terminations.

For some time after the appearance of Schleyer's grammar, his adherents were few, and his project was ignored by the scientific and literary world. It spread first to Austria where it awakened considerable interest, and where the first society for its propagation was formed at Vienna in 1882. Until 1884 its adherents outside of the German-speaking countries were very few and scattered. In that year it invaded Holland and Belgium, and a great many societies sprang up in those countries. In 1885, Dr. Auguste Kerckhoffs, Professor in the School of Higher Commercial Studies, at Paris, introduced it to the French nation by several articles, lectures and treatises. This created a great sensation in France and a strong National Association "pour la propagation du Volap&uuml;k" was formed, which numbers such men as Francisque Sarcey, Emile Gauthier, and Dr. Allaire.

Prof. Kerckhoffs aroused enthusiasm, not only in France, but in other countries where his works were circulated. Spain was the next, followed by Italy and Portugal. During 1885 and 1886 the countries of the north—Sweden, Denmark and Russia—also received the new language. Thus, the extension of Volap&uuml;k has been geographical, and the English-speaking peoples are the last of the great European races to be affected by it. In each country, as a rule, its popularization has immediately followed the publication of a grammar peculiarly suited to its people.

Prof. Kerckhoffs, some months ago, estimated the number of persons who have studied Volap&uuml;k at 210,000. This may be somewhat too high, but the number is certainly very large. In Vienna alone, the classes during the winter of 1886–7 were attended by 2,500 students. 138 societies for its cultivation have been organized in different places.

Eleven periodicals are now published, devoted primarily to Volap&uuml;k, at Constance, Breslau, Madrid, Paris, Vienna, Munich, Puerto-Rico, Stockholm Aabybro (Denmark), and Antwerp, the youngest being four months old, and the oldest, six years. Most of these contain articles in the language of the country, as well as in Volap&uuml;k ; but three of them, one being a humorous paper, are exclusively in Volap&uuml;k. <BR>