PREFACE.
Young as is Volapük it has obsolete forms. It has rejected of as the feminine prefix to nouns; no longer uses the hyphen after the feminine prefix, or before the mode terminals except that of the subjunctive; has substituted an for el as the terminal to denote an inhabitant of a country, and has given special significance to iel in word-formation. Such changes in the language justify a new grammar.
Moreover, the compiler has thought that the presentation of the general and essential rules of the language in a few pages, by themselves, with reference to more specific rules in a second part, would simplify the study of the language: hence this little work.
The presentation, throughout the book, of the roots of words in bold-faced type is intended to serve as a help to the student.
It is assumed that the student understands the following grammatical rules:—
1. The subject and the verb agree in person.
2. Nouns in apposition have the same number and case.
3. The direct object takes the accusative case, and the indirect object (if without a preposition) takes the dative case.
4. One noun governs another in the possessive case.
All other rules are explained in this grammar.
Instead of the usual practice-lessons there is given a narrative, with vocabulary and reference notes to the grammar, and this story will be found to embody all the forms in use in Volapük. This ingenious story is the work Mr. Bernard F. Supple, and the Volapük rendering the joint work of Mr. Supple, Dr. H. L. Smith and Mr. Fred. W. Mitchell, whose valuable aid in preparing this grammar the author gratefully acknowledges.
Boston, May 1, 1890.
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