Volapűük nulíik

Introduction

Real setting

Volapȕük nulíik was a project which came into existence as some kind of play with morphology and phonetics, especially with Volapük but also Gaeilge and Inuktitut. I have tried to create other conlangs from other constructed languages (e. g. Esperanto). However, since the morphology of Volapük involves some degree of complexity it was easier for me to use elements within the language (particles, case suffixes, prepositions etc.) and combine them in a new way. There is no real purpose or design goal of this language what might become visible as it does not look that well build, for instance there is no special syllable structure designed for euphonic reasons. There are however some elements that add a special tone to sound, such as initial sound mutation which has become a feature of verbal and noun morphology.

Fictional setting

The language is located in the old country of Volapükȁän. The country has been inhabited for more than 5000 years. Written records of the language exist from about 1500 years BC. About 1000 years (1000 AD) ago new settlers arrived at the shores of the northern coast. Those settlers, Irish men and Inuktitut found their dwellings and as an ongoing process intermixed with the local population, leaving deep traces in the language. The traces are less visible in the vocabulary but far more in the structure and morphological richness that makes the language a unique mixture of very distinct features. The language continues to be used as a language of official affairs, media, daily conversation and thus is fully functioning. Due to its special stress patterns it is not a preferred mean of poets, yet they have developped a style of their own to suit the special requirements of its stress patterns.

Phonology

Orthography

Volapȕük nulíik is written in Latin script with four diacritics (¨ ̏ ´ `). Long vowels are written with two graphemes. Names of persons, places, countries, companies are written with a capital letter.

Morphology

The basic morphology of Volapȕük nulíik encompasses only three categories:

-Nouns

-Verbs

-Interjections

Adjectives

Adjectives are predominantly nouns - they have a fixed position within the noun phrase and may function as nouns on their own. However, they may also function as a verb including the copula verb "binön":

Binán	klotéedat	šerlíik.
Bin-á-n	klotéed-at	šer-líik.
BE-pres.-3.sg.obj.	LADYDRESS-demons.near	EXPENSIVE-adj.

Šerlikán	klotéedat.
Šer-lik-á-n	klotéed-at
[EXPENSIVE-adj.]verb.copula-pres.-3.sg.obj.	LADYDRESS-demons.near

"This dress is expensive."

The first version is more common among speakers of a lower social status, whereas the second has a more official and literal style. The first version, however, may also be used by people of upper status, especially in situations in which a person wants to emphasise that the dress IS expensive. This is in contrast to languages like German or English not expressed on the intonational level but on the morphological.

Numerals

Numerals also belong, just like adjectives, predominantly to the category of nouns but can be used as verbs as well:

Lödáps	niđom	žönlig	giló
Löd-á-p-s	ni-đom	žön-lig	gil-ó
RESIDE-pres.-m./f.pl.	IN-HOUSE-abs.	BEAUTIFUL-adj.abs.	THREE-loc.

"They live in three beautiful houses."

Telđegänáms.

Telđeg-än-á-m-s.

[TWENTY]verb.copula-pers.n-pres.-m.pl.

"We are twenty men."

Nouns

The category of nouns encompasses all verbs that denotes concrete and abstract objects, persons, animals, plants, feelings and concepts. It is the basic category of words since each adjective, verb and so on is based on a nominal root and derived from it. Nouns inflect for case, number and possession and may receive further conjunctive / modal particles

Each noun is built up according to a fixed scheme:

Prefix	Stem	Determiner	Case suffix	Possessiv suffix	Modal particles

Numbers

Nouns inflect for numbers. This means they indicate wheather a noun appears as a single entity (singular) as a pair / in two (dual) or in more that one entity (plural). Each number has specific marker:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Suffixes	-ø-/-b-	-t-/-d-	-s-/-z- (-š-/-ž-)

Since the singular is a category that almost any object, person, animal, idea or anything else can appear in, it is considered the 'default' category and unmarked. This is also true for most natural languages, where there is no explicit suffix denoting a single unit of something. However, there are languages as Welsh which provide a singular suffix for nouns that normal denominate entities that exist in a conglomeration, e.g. the trees of a forrest coed where a single tree is derived from the whole via the suffix -en, thus giving coeden 'a tree'. This system does not apply to Volapȕük nulíik. Every noun has per default the numerical value 1, thus is in the singular by default. The second suffix for the singular number is actually a suffix occasionally used, e. g. for poetic purposes or when a speaker wants to stress the singularity of a noun. The dual suffix has a correspondence with the number word for 'two' tel. It can appear in a voiced alternative which evolve as a result of voiced surrounding consonants. This applies also to the plural marker s which alternates with z. In personal endings there is also the alternation -š-/-ž- which evolved due to phonolgical changes.

Cases

Volapȕük nulíik has a complexe set of cases. The complexity arises from a set of nine primary cases which exist on itself but can be combined with a set of prefixes of local, temporal or abstract function. This combination creates more than thirty different cases which not all can be named and not all are actually regarded as cases of their own.

The basic cases and their suffixes are:

Case	Suffix	Main function(s)
Nominative	-ø	Subject of transitive & intransitive verbs
Vocative	-ø/-ȍ	Form of a noun to call someone/something
Genitive	-á(-)	Relational case, direct object in negative sentences
Dative	-é(-)	Receiver of bitransitive verbs, [logical] subject of emotional verbs, locative: origin of movement
Accusative	-í(-)	Direct object of transitiv verbs
Locative	-ó(-)	Indicating position in a place, space etc.
Translative	-úu(-)/-ȕ(-)	Change of state
Essive	-ú(-)	Being in a changeable state
Exlative	-wé(-)/-wȁ(-)	Ending of a state

The Northern dialect has retained a tenth case that has collapsed in other dialects with the dative suffixe -é(-) and thus adding its meaning to the dative case:

Case	Suffix	Main function(s)
Nominative	-ø	Subject of transitive & intransitive verbs
Vocative	-ø/-ȍ	Form of a noun to call someone/something
Genitive	-á(-)	Relational case, direct object in negative sentences
Dative	-é(-)	Receiver of bitransitive verbs, [logical] subject of emotional verbs
Accusative	-í(-)	Direct object of transitiv verbs
Locative	-ó(-)	Indicating position in a place, space etc.
Delative	-ȁ(-)	Origin of movement
Translative	-úu(-)/-ȕ(-)	Change of state
Essive	-ú(-)	Being in a changeable state
Exlative	-wé(-)/-wȁ(-)	Ending of a state

The Vocative provides two optional endings: a) a zero-ending, differing from the nominative only in this feature that the beginning of the word appears in its lenited form:

Nominative	Historical vocative	Modern vocative	Meaning
dóom	o đóom!	đóom!	house
táal	o dáal!	dáal!	earth
góod	o ghóod!	ghóod!	god / God
píid	o bíid!	bíid	regret

The particle -ö was traditionally used to express exclamations, e.g. seelȍ! "Quiet!" < seel "being quiet", moȍ! "Get out of here!" < mo "away". This usage has extended towards nouns and names of persons: Kal ("Charles") > Kalȍ!, Floor ("flower") > Floorȍ!, etc.

In the Northern dialect this principle has remained to the very day and developped in a manner that adding the suffix showed the person adressed a form of respect. Adressing a "normal" person was gradually done by simply using the nominative form. However, about two hundred years ago the people speaking the northern dialect started to adopt a fashion of using the lenited nominative form as a normal form of adressing. Therefore, the dialect incorporated both forms, having a "normal" vocative form and a "special" vocative form, showing extra respect to the person adressed.:

Vocative	Usage	Meaning intended
o Gal!	Most dialects	normal form of adressing someone
Kal!	Northern dialect	normal form of adressing someone; other dialects: harsh adressing
Kalȍ!	Northern dialect	respectful manner of adressing someone

The further development spread the -ȍ-suffix to other dialects and within about 50 years the usage as a marker of respect evolved. Therefore, the language has nowadays two forms of marking the vocative case: a) using the lenited nominative stem b) adding the suffix -ȍ to show more respect to the person adressed.

Verbs

Syntax

Example texts

Examples of translations:

"If I had a flower for every time I think of you, I could walk forever in my garden." - Claudia A. Grandi

Translation:

"Florretáabaafì tikábilbalbì, nesimlikánöv gáadba."

Florretáabaafì	tikábilbalbì	nesimlikánöv	gáadba.
Flor-ret-áa-b-aa-fì	tik-á-b-i-l-bal-bì	ne-sim-lik-á-n-öv	gáad-ba.
FLOWER-receive-pres.gen.-1.sg.-always-if	THINK-pres.-1.sg.-acc.-2.sg.-one.time-because	[neg.-BORDER-adj.]verb.copula-pres.-3.sg.obj.-cond.	GARDEN-1.sg.gen.

Literally: "If I always get a flower because I think of you one time, my garden would be endless."

"He who hesitates is lost."

"Tsogáapaabì flotáapaa nivlumedó."

Tsogáapaabì	flotáapaa	nivlumedó.
Tsog-áa-p-aa-bì	flot-áa-p-aa	ni-vlumed-ó.
HESITATE-pres.gen.-3.sg.f./m.-always-because	FLOAT-pres.gen.-3.sg.f./m.-always	IN-RIVER-loc.

Literally: "Since he/she always hesitates he/she always floats in a river."

"I love pizza."

"Pitsakkiddofáab."

Pitsakkiddofáab.

Pitsak-kid-dof-áa-b.

Pitsak-Cid-Cof-áa-b.

PIZZA-eat.v-enjoy.v-pres.gen.-1.sg.

Literally: "I enjoy eating pizza."

"My heart is empty, I feel it."

Translations:

Senäláb vagälikánda láadba. literally: "I feel that my heart is empty." [Very modern styled and more common among younger people]

Vagälikán láadba. Senäláneb. literally: "My heart is empty. It feels to me." [traditional]

Nesenällabán láadba, senäláneb. literally: "My heart is without emotions. It feels to me." [very traditional and stylistically on a high level.]

"Sunlight takes about eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach Earth."

Translation:

"Bináans minúut šölza sekúun telđegee kontagáanadla solalíit talá suzürfatí."

Bin-áa-n-s	minúut	šöl-za	sekúun	telđeg-ee	kontag-áa-n-ad-la	sola-líit	tal-á	su-zürfat-í
BE-pres.gen.-3.sg.obj.-pl.	MINUTE	EIGHT-about	SECOND	TWENTY-and	TOUCH-pres.gen.-3.sg.obj.-fin.-subj.	SUN-LIGHT	EARTH-gen.	on-SURFACE-acc.

Greetings

Daily greetings

"Gudikáperös / Gudikápelös Múun." -> Good day. [literally: May the God of time be good to you.]

"Slippudólös / Slippudórös dunneetú." -> Good night. [literally: May you sleep good during the night.]

"Gudikónös déella." -> Good morning. [literally: May your day be good.]

Thankfulness

Showing one's thankfulness is an important value in the society of Volapükáan. Therefore, there is not only one translation for "thank you" but several, depending on the person to thank, the person(s) who receive the thank and finally the circumstances.

1. Circumstances

There are three main verbs which translate as "to thank":

danön - to thank [generally]

danilön - to thank a little [a small favour done]

ledanön - to thank [a big favour done / saving someone's life].

2. Basic structure

The verb "danön" and its derivations all follow the following pattern:

subject - person who says 'thank you'

accusative - thing / action that is thanked for

dative - person who receives the 'thank you'.

3. Persons

The subject is generally a first person, thus a first person suffix will be used. However, since Volapüük nulíik diferentiates very explicitly between singular, dual, plural, exclusive and inclusive forms, there are in total 19 different suffixes which can be placed in this positon.