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.

A Complete Course of Volapük by Aug. Kerckhoffs, Introduction

What follows is an introduction of an old Volapük course. The rest of the course will be slowly posted here chapter by chapter. While there are more modern resources to learn this first attempt of a universal constructed language, there is still merit to seeing how learning such new languages was tackled in the old days. With the relative success of Esperanto and the philosophy behind it, Volapük had been shoved aside to the margins as a curiosity. This is not to say that Volapük was not without problems and did not have any involvement its own decline, but it was also Volapük that seemed to be the first widely-accepted answer to the question of how can we be made to understand each other easily in a world that sees itself more connected than before. 

Creating a new language is a daunting task, from building words to making the grammar work. How can one create a language that will fully cover every linguistic situation it will make? Volapük came with a simple proposition: make everything regular. This concept has its first complete manifestation in this language and its idea has always been a goal for those creating a language that is meant to be easily learned.

The fanaticism over a new language becoming the world lingua france had faded by the time English had maintained the stronghold for this position, but the hope of a linguistic equalizer has never waned within those who support constructed languages.

For a course for a language created for the goal of universal use, this introduction is rather aware of the constructed nature of Volapük. It is insisted that of Volapük will not have its own original literature. While this is framed under the refutation of the idea that Volapük will become the sole world language, it is a disservice to think that a language cannot have its literature because of its form. Esperanto showed how it can be done, but so far, these original works have not been translated.

[Volapük set new language ideas to the table that few linguists have taken interests, nor have language creators utilized such features to better effect.]

Esperanto is now seen as the model conlang, but let us not forget Volapük's role as the first that tried to speak for the world.

[to be added on]

Note: The Volapük of this course may have some differences to the Volapük known nowadays as laid out by Arie de Jong. 

Author's Introduction: