Complete Course of Volapük: Pronounciation and Orthography

The Alphabet.

Eight vowels and nineteen consonants.

English sounds:

a — a in task, e.g. ta, against.
e — a in mate, e.g. te, only.
i — ee in meet, e.g. ti, nearly.
o — o in note, e.g. po, behind.
u — oo in soon, e.g. nu, now.

German sounds:

ä — ä, e.g. lä; at, near.
ö — ö, e.g. fö, in front.
ü — ü, e.g. büfü, before.

English sounds:

c — j in jet, e.g. cen, change.
g — g hard as in got, e.g. gad, garden.
j — sh in shame, e.g. jip, sheep.
h — fully aspirated, e.g. hap, harp.
x — ks as in expect, e.g. xil, exile.
y — y in yes, e.g. ya, already.
z — ts, e.g. zif, town.

Our hard c is rendered by k: kad, card.

The remaining consonants.

ba, da, fa, ka, la, ma, na, pa, ra, sa, ta, va.

The letter a, in the name of the consonants, is of course the English a in name.
The letters q and w are only used in proper names.
There are not diphtongs; two vowels in the same syllable are pronounced separately: laud, la-ud, a lark.
All the vowels are long.

Accentuation

The accent always falls on the last syllable, as in tikelè, to the thinker.

Proper Names

For languages with the Latin alphabet the spelling is preserved; for instance, we should write John, Jean, Johann, according to the nationality, and London, Rome, Köln.
Some geographical names are arbitrary, as Flent, France, Deut, Germany, and Nelij, England, and they are declined. (See next chapter).

A Reading Lesson

Plofed de literat äliladom vöno in klad funapükati fa Flëchier su Turenne.
Mayed stüla e subim tikas älegäloms julelis velik, e bal de oms äsagom kofiko nilele omik: "Kiüp okanol mekön pükati sümik?"—"Ven obinol Turenne," voik ägesagom.

Translation

A professor of literature read one day in (his) class a funeral oration by Fléchier on Turenne. The majesty of the style and the elevation of the thoughts delighted all the pupuls, and one of them said ironically to his neighbour: "When shall you be able to make a similar discourse?"—"When you are Turenne," replied the other.