[escrito a mano: A
la Biblioteca Nacional.
Caracas.
El autor.]
Copyright in the United States
by
Harry W. Pearson
Derechos reservados.
Voldu, a universal language here presented for the first time, grew from studied criticism of its international forerunners, especially Esperanto. It does not pretend to displace national Idioms deeply rooted in the affections of all peoples but to provide an auxiliary tongue for common comunication. English, the most used language internationally, provided the base for Voldu, but has been purged of irregularities and other handicaps to its widespread adoption. Thus based on a living tongue, Voldu should be exempt from the reproach frequently made of “artistically fabricated” languages, namely, that they are unable to render certain things connected with style, intimacy, poetic sensibility, etc.
In addition to the advantage of being naturally born, Voldu in simplified (into 12 lessons), is logified, reformed completely in spelling, cleaned of certain phonetical deficiencies that make English inaccessible, even in its simplest form, to millions of people not brought up with it. In the process Voldu eliminated the antagonism between logical and economical laws by forming their synthesis.
Voldu, though closely related to English, might not, at first sight be recognized by those unacquainted with a few dozens of most used words that have not been taken from the English. To teach them is one of the purposes of this booklet. The other purpose is to teach the derivation rules so that in a few days Voldu may become to the English-speaking a kind of familiar dialect.
The vocabulary contains a thousand words and roots, from which according to the rules of Voldu word formation, several thousand more words can be derivated. Beyond this vocabulary, there exists the possibility of Volduizing nearly all the rest of the English dictionary, of which this booklet cannot take advantage, contenting itself with showing what Voldu is like and how it works.
THE AUTHOR.
| a (as in father) b (bay) c (chay) d (day) e (as in bed) f (fay) g (gay) h (hay) |
i (as in seen) k (kay) l (lay) m (may) n (nay) o (as in open) p (pay) r (ray) |
s (say) t (tay) u (as in blue) v (vay) w (way) x (ksay) y (yay) z (shay) |
Only the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) constitute syllables.
There are no silent letters.
The stress is on the next to the last syllable, whenever there is no written accent.
Ex: Nue (nooh’ay); madra
(mah’dra); klawdoy (clou’doy).
But: Komprén (compren’); tíceros (tee’cheros).
The accent is employed:
A) to conserve the stress of any word, whenever it would have to contradict the above accentuation rule when taking flexion endings. For the same reason the accent disappears when it becomes superfluous.
Ex: Grande, gándere,
grándeste.
Tic, tícer, tíceros, tícera.
Akús, akusen, akuser, akúseno.
Frekwént, frekwenter.
B) in proper names.
Ex: Amérika, Méxiko, Sókrates.
Note: The accent can be abandoned later.
The divison of syllables and the punctuation are the same as in English.
In Voldu the noun usually stands without any article.
Ex: Padro—father, a father, the father.
The definite article, the only one in Voldu, is represented by de. It is unvariable in gender, number and case and may be employed:
A) to make clearer the sense in cases as:
Ex: Hi el pinter. He is a
painter.
Hi el de pinter. He is the painter.
Kie flor yu viz, rede or blanke? What sort of flower do you wish, a
red or a white one?
Kie flor yu viz, de rede or de blanke? Which flower do you
wish, the red or the white one?
B) to make nouns from words that are not characterized as such by their meaning.
Ex: De ka, de ko ed de
kaw. The when, the where and the how.
De up ed dawn. The up and down.
(See Exercises: 1, 2, 6 and 7)
A) The plural is formed from the singular by adding the ending y after vowels, oy (fem. ay) after consonants.
Ex: Fento, fentoy. Window,
windows.
Madra, madray. Mother, mothers.
Bebi, bebiy. Baby, babies.
Buk, bukoy. Book, books.
Man, manoy. Man, men.
Girl, girlay. Girl, girls.
B) The four cases of the noun are: the nominative, the genitive, the dative and the accusative.
The Genitive is formed from the the Nominative by adding s after vowels (and diphtongs), and os (fem. as) after consonants.
Ex: Padro, padros. The
father, the father’s, (of the father).
Madra, madras. The mother, the mother’s.
Voldu, Voldus. The Voldu, the Voldu’s.
Bebi, bebis. The baby, the baby’s.
Frat, fratos. The brother, the brother’s.
Girl, girlas. The girl, the girl’s.
Bebiy, bebiys. The babies, the babies’.
Fratoy, fratoys. The brothers, the brothers’.
Girlay, girlays. The girls, the girls’.
(About the genitive with of see Grammar: 14. The Cases)
The Dative is formed in the same way, by adding m.
Ex: Padro, padrom, padroym. The father, to the father, to the fathers.
However, it can always be rendered in the English way, with tu.
Ex: Padro, tu padro, tu
padroy. The father, to the father, to the fathers.
(See Grammar: 14. The Cases. Dative)
The Accusative is usually like the Nominative, from which it is distinguished by its position after the verb.
Ex: Padro vok fila. The father
calls the daughter.
Fila vok padro. The daughter calls the father.
It may however be formed (in the way as the Genitive and Dative) by adding the letter n, and would be employed in cases like this:
Ex: Hi luv madra mor ce padron, he loves the mother more than the father, in order to distinguish it from:
Hi luv madra mor ce padro, he loves the mother more than the father does.
C) The grammatical gender corresponds with the natural gender. Living beings (men and animals) are masculine or femenine, abstracs, things and plants are neuter. This determines the use of the pronoun.
Ex: Hors el civo. Hi kur kwik. The horse is an animal. It runs quickly. Zip cenza kuro. Da turna nordik. The ship changed her course. It (she) turned northwards.
It has two forms: predicative and attributive. The second is derivated from the first by adding the letter e. Both are unvariable in number, gender and case.
Ex: Pred: Madra
gud. The mother is good.
Cild lind. The child is pretty. Cildoy lind. The children are pretty.
Attr: Gude madra. A (the) good mother.
Linde cildoy. Pretty children.
Linde cildos nomo. The name of the pretty child.
The adverb of comparison in the same degree is as.
Ex: Hi el as old as
yu. He is as old as you.
Hi el not as old as yu. He is not so old as you.
Hi el as gude skoler as yu. He is as good a pupil
as you are.
The comparative is formed by adding er, and the superlative by adding est to the positive.
Ex: Pred: Gud,
guder, gudest. Good, better, best.
Attr: Gude, gúdere, gúdeste. (A) good,
better, best.
Than after the comparative is translated by ce.
Ex: Nue dom grander ce
nebros. Our house is larger that the neighbor’s.
Yu hav gúdere pensil ce hi. You have a better pencil than
he has.
Yu hav not gúdere drug ce hin. You have no better friend
than him.
When it is mentally completed with a substantive, the attributive form may stand alone.
Ex: Gúdeste (of drugoy).
The best (of all friends).
Lu muce gentoy bo? No, not muce (gentoy). Are there many people
there over? No, not many.
Ken yu tie girlay? Yes, tode. Do you know these girls? Yes,
all of them.
Him dom, iven grande. He has a house, even a large one.
Kie girlam giv yu buk? (Tu) blonde? To which girl do you
give the book? To the blond one?
Moreover, if required, every adjective can be transformed into a substantive, by taking the ending o (masc.), a (fem.) or u (neuter).
Ex: Grando(y), the great
one(s).
Granda(y), the great one(s), (women).
Grandu(y), that which is great; things, actions etc. which are great.
Mia, mine (sister, wife, sweetheart).
Miu, mine, that which is mine.
(See Exercises: 8 and 9)
Mi, I; yu, thou, you; hi, he; li, she; da, it; nu, we; vu (Vu), you; tey, they.
The declension of the pronoun is like that of the noun, and its accusative is obligatory.
Ex: Mi mis, mim, min. I,
of me, to me, me.
Kip teyn. Keep them.
Nu vida lin. We saw her.
Li bring yum dan. She brings it to you.
Yu tel him dan. You tell it (to) him.
In current Voldu only the form yu is used, for the singular and plural. The plural vu only used to avoid ambiguity, and Vu serves to translate the forms of politeness of other languages.
Ex: Mi giv dan vum, not
nur yum! I give it to you (all), not only to you (thee).
Mi say ke Vu layk floroy, (sira). I know that you like flowers, (Madam).
Se (sem, sen) corresponds to French on, German man, English one, and can be translated thus:
Ex: Se dir. One says.
People say. They say. It is said.
Se dira mim. I have been told.
Se dir sem. One is told.
Da el difik tu explik sem dan. It is difficult to explain it to
a person.
The reflexive pronoun of the third person is si (sim, sin).
Ex: Tey lod sin. They praise
themselves.
Hi luv sin. He loves himself.
Hi dir sim.
He says to himself.
Hi vay ze si. He goes home.
Se dir sim. One says to oneself.
The word self, meaning self (selves) indicates independence of action and has a rather proverbial character. But it may as well be employed to exphasize the pronoun.
Ex: Hi vay self. He
goes alone (without help).
But: Hi vay hi-self. He goes himself.
Spik so hi yu-self. Speak (to) him yourself.
Hi spik tu si-(self). He speaks to himself.
Ken yun-self. Know thyself.
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