When we hear that goods are in transit, we know that they are "on the way" and PASSING OVER to our part of the country. With this knowledge, we become more and more excited. In this transitory (= passing) world, by the time they have PASSED OVER to us in our region, our interest may well have PASSED OVER to something else!
Whenever we say that certain verbs are TRANSITIVE, we mean that the action signified by them PASSES OVER without further ado to their OBJECT, or as we have sometimes termed it, their VICTIM, that is to say, the first thing or person directly in the path of the verbal action; for this reason, they are called the DIRECT OBJECT! An excellent example is: "the dog bit the man" where "the dog" is the SUBJECT, "bit" is the VERB, and "the man" is the DIRECT OBJECT or VICTIM of the action!
In English, such a short sentence as this is dependent on WORD ORDER, for without a certain order, it would not be clear who bit whom. However, it is not so in VOLAPÜK, where in the short sentence: Dog äbeiton mani; mani äbeiton dog; äbeiton mani dog are all equally clear!
For example, if we live in a house, we can either say: Lödobs in dom with help from the preposition in (as above), or else we can use the prefix BE- and say: Belödobs domi. Because the verb BELÖDÖN is now a TRANSITIVE VERB due to the prefix BE-, it no longer requires the help of the linking word IN, but can PASS OVER straight away to its DIRECT OBJECT/VICTIM!
The reason we know whether a verb is TRANSITIVE (= can pass over) or INTRANSITIVE (= cannot pass over without help) is because in a dictionary, the abbreviation v.i. (= verb intransitive) and v.t. (= verb transitive) show us exactly where we stand! In Volapük: lov. (= loveädik)and nel. (= neloveädik)
Just a special mention now about the verbs which have the ending -IKÖN: These are always INTRANSITIVE with the general sense of "to become", whereas verbs with the ending -ÜKÖN make them TRANSITIVE, meaning:"to cause", "to compel", "to make" (someone do something), thus:
Finikön (v.i.) = to come to an end (завершаться)/ Finükön
(v.t.) = to bring something to an end (завершать);
Lifikön (v.i.) = to revive (оживать)/ Lifükön
(v.t.) = to revive someone (оживлять)
Even the verbs denoting BEING (bin) and BECOMING (ved), as, indeed, any root-words where the sense allows it, may avail themselves of this extremely useful BUILDING BLOCK of Volapük!
As for the WHENCE? (= from where?) and the WHITHER? (= to where?), these two adverbs are expressed in Volapük simply and logically be the endings-AO = from where? and -IO = to where? as in: domao = from the house, and domio = to the house
In our last unit, we shall be dealing with more PREFIXES and SUFFIXES, some of which have been introduced earlier IN PASSING, but hopefully have not been in any way PASSED OVER in transit!
Nevertheless an interesting and absorbing exercise in transit, would you not agree?
Here is the vocabulary for the second part of our story. As you get into the swing of it, you will develop a "feel" for the action, and thus have less need to look up each and every word; why not read the story through out loud and see how much of it you can actually understand?
alan = each (person) |
SAPAN FOTA (FÖVOT)
Kludo ävegoms lü sapan ed äkonoms ome fikuli.
Sapan fota äbleibom ninälön dü timil me medit seilik.Tän äsmililom, e poso äröbülom balibi oka, edäsagom: "O cils! vero ne desinob ad cödön fati edeadiköl olsik,ab binos jenöfot, das binos nemögik ad dilön jevodis degvelad dils leigik tel: binob man pöfik, dalabob jevodi te bali, ab ogivoboles jevodi balik oba, e me jevods degjöl, no obinos fikulik ad dunönma büads fata olsik."
Primo yunans äprotestoms, ab sapan bäldik fota äbleibomflagön, das ösumoms jevodi omik.
"Völadi kinik jevod labon-li?" äsagom. "Klülos,das jevod et binon vemo frutik pro ob, ab jevod obik no kanonöv jonülönobe dünoti gretikum, ka me nätükam püda bevü nilädansobik; klu sumolsöd jevodi obik, e no jäfikolsöd fovo meob! Büologal binon gidik, e pötatimo ogegivon obe jevodi obik,if atos binon vil ona."
Boso jemiko e mu danöfiko yunans kil äsumoms jevodi sapanaed ävegoms lomio.
Blod bäldikün äsumom lafi, sevabo jevodis zül; telidan,kel ögetom kildili bal nimas, äsumom jevodis mäl, e yunikünanäsumom züldili bal nimas, sevabo jevodis tel. Blods äbinomssusläbiks, ab jemiks, das ilüsumoms legivoti mana pöfik,ed alan äblinom seilölo jevodis okik lü lecek oka.
Süpiko blod bäldikün äbleibom stanön, ed ävokädom:"O milag kion!"
Blods votik ägüflekoms okis pö vokäd et, ed älogomslestunölo jevodi sapana fota zänodü yad ästanöli.
"Kim eglömom-li ad kesumön jevodi at?" äsäkombäldikünan.
I ) Translate the above episode into ENGLISH.
2) Answer the following questions in Volapük:
3) Finally, write a resume of approximately one quarter of the length of the story in Volapük.