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Show , HOW VOLAPUK SOUNDS. Iptnlons of m Listener at the Keeent - Convention In Boston. The) convention opened with an ad-Iress ad-Iress in volapuk by the president of the issociation, Col. Charles B. Sprague, of New York. Of course his address was received, attentively, but it cannot be laid that he was speaking to people in their own 1 language. His listeners doubtless understood part of his remarks, re-marks, for he was applauded two or three times, but to the majority of the people it was evident that tmderstand-ing tmderstand-ing came only with difficulty. Now, how did the new invention sound? Well, there was a great predominance of the European a and i (or ee) and of the long o. In every sentence each one of these vowels' seemed to outnumber all the others put together. Consonants were obscure as Col. Sprague spoke them, Hid it was noticeable that the sibillant I was very frequent The letter 1 also J teemed to be a hard worked member of the volapuk alphabet, : From the prominence of these few vowels and consonants and from the obscurity ob-scurity of other consonants one can get an idea of how volapuk sounds. The pronunciation follows the French in having no accent. That is, Col. Bprague talked with just about the same stress on each syllable, and I paid close attention atten-tion to this feature of the flow of sound after noticing it Lacking accent, vola-pnk vola-pnk lacks the force which is so strong a characteristic of English, and it also shows sadly the need of the virile consonants, con-sonants, which are the life of German. Perhaps nothing better could be expected expect-ed of an invented tongue, for the English and German are the result of genius and struggle, of wars and disputes, of orations ora-tions and poems, of business sharpness and philosophical contemplation. They are olive. Volapuk is wooden and dead. That is theftnpression made Upon me by hearing Col. Sprague's address in his vernacular Jno, not his nor anybody's. It was a convention of English speaking people using neither their" own vernacu-far vernacu-far nor that of any other people under heaven. It was just hashed up Choctaw. Col. Sprague talked seriously, but his wordmaking had its humorous aspect. He was wonderfully proficient, and is to be praised highly for his ability to talk in thatjtvhich jias no dialect and no every day vccabulary,.and oo is above the usual perils to translators. In a book translated into English from German by a Dutchman who had to learn both the former languages I have seen the mot curious mistakes and odd combinations, yet not in violation of rules given in the books. But there was no one to criticise the colonel, who was born and bred a Volapuk. He was not perfect, however. He would go wrong sometimes, and then step back for a fresh start, like a boa; bumping up to a float bow on, and then rebound! ng,fpr a second approach. But he got through very creditably. A delegate from the floor said something some-thing in Volapuk in a labored way and soon struck into English, tt was as if he had been stumbling across lots in a bog meadow and had come out into the traveled road again. He certainly seemed much relieved and got along mnoh easier in English. Springfield (Mass.) Republican. |