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Esperanto Book, with Volapük Plate

de eojeff, 10 decembrie 2014

Contribuții/Mesaje: 10

Limbă: English

eojeff (Arată profil) 10 decembrie 2014, 01:44:26

Hello All,

I just got my hands on a 100 year old leather bound book, in Esperanto. This appears to be part of some sort of "collection approved by Zamenhof." It's called L' Avarulo, it's a collection of some of the works of Molière.

The weird part is, right inside the cover is a book plate by Edwin Davis French, the famous book binder. The catch is, the inscription is in Volapük!

The inscription reads:

Menad bal pük bal.
Se buks volapükik e vapükik
Lönöl al

Edwin Davis French
1893

I'm not sure what it says. I'm more likely to learn Klingon than learn Volapük.

I'm unfamiliar with the "approved collection" how common are these books? And, do any of you know why the book binder would include an inscription in Volapük like that? It almost feels like he's being funny. It's my understanding that Volapük and Esperanto were adversarial and the once popular Volapük quickly gave way to the more internally consistent language of Esperanto.

One last note: if there is demand for the book I might scan it and post it online; the copyright expired long ago.

~Jeff

Christa627 (Arată profil) 10 decembrie 2014, 02:17:35

eojeff:
The inscription reads:

Menad bal pük bal.
Se buks volapükik e vapükik
Lönöl al
Edwin Davis French
1893

I'm not sure what it says. I'm more likely to learn Klingon than learn Volapük.
The first line is the Volapük motto "One mankind, one language." The rest I'm not sure about. My trying to decipher it with a Volapük dictionary hasn't been very successful so far. malgajo.gif

Bruso (Arată profil) 10 decembrie 2014, 03:32:26

Christa627:
The first line is the Volapük motto "One mankind, one language." The rest I'm not sure about. My trying to decipher it with a Volapük dictionary hasn't been very successful so far. malgajo.gif
The rest reads "out of books on Volapük and international language belonging to" (followed by the name).

It looks like the original Schleyer Volapük, not the De Jong reform, which makes sense if the inscription was made near the time the book was published.

Christa627 (Arată profil) 10 decembrie 2014, 07:01:01

Bruso:It looks like the original Schleyer Volapük, not the De Jong reform, which makes sense if the inscription was made near the time the book was published.
Yeah, it seemed that way to me too; I think the dictionary was for the reformed version, which is probably why I wasn't having much success with it.

marbuljon (Arată profil) 11 decembrie 2014, 21:55:45

I would certainly be interested in reading it if you were to scan it!!

When I lived in Iceland a few years ago, I found an Icelandic-Esperanto textbook from about 100 years ago, while I kept the student's notes from it I didn't buy the book as I had no interest in Esperanto at that time (I only took the notes because I liked the handwriting). Ohh how I regret it, it only cost like 3 USD...

eojeff (Arată profil) 13 decembrie 2014, 13:10:03

Thanks for the English translation out of Volapük, that was most helpful. I'll be posting a review of L' Avarulo to my blog. I'll update this thread when I do. I'll also scan it and post it to Wikimedia Commons, but that will take some time.

On a side note, did Esperanto "kill" Volapük? Or, did Volapük "kill" Volapük and Esperanto was just there to fill in the ideological vacuum?

~Jeff

Rujo (Arată profil) 13 decembrie 2014, 13:53:30

The Volapük was destroyed by its own inability to project itself as an international language. Esperanto had no guilt about it. In Taboeba there is a connoisseur of Volapuk. If you write the phrase there, I am quite sure there will be a translation about that. Possibly others here in Lernu! have capacity to do so. Furthermore, I believe that Ĉevino, our friend here, holds such knowledge about that language, because of the wide cultural and linguistic baggage he demonstrates to have.

bartlett22183 (Arată profil) 13 decembrie 2014, 18:54:07

I myself suspect that there were multiple issues which led to the demise of Volapük. Esperanto was probably one among several. Had the timing of the appearance of the two languages been just the reverse, I speculate that Volapük would never have gotten as far as it ever did. In and of itself, I consider Volapük to be a respectable auxiliary language, but several factors taken together may have killed it. (Respectable? But what about the mutilated vocabulary? Well, if your native tongue is already not west Indo-European, the vocabulary of Esperanto might seem almost as strange, even bizarre, as that of Volapük, but it was the Europeans who got E-o going.)

eojeff (Arată profil) 14 decembrie 2014, 15:03:37

marbuljon:I would certainly be interested in reading it if you were to scan it!!
I have uploaded the plate to Wikimedia Commons for those wishing to see it. Special thanks to everyone who hazarded a passable English translation of the Old Volapük.

You can see the plate here: L' Avarulo - Book Plate by Edwin Davis French.

I'll scan and upload the book itself at some point and update this thread at that time.

~Jeff

Nephihaha (Arată profil) 14 decembrie 2014, 21:09:41

A lot of the earliest Esperantists were apparently involved in Volapuk. But the reason for the demise of Volapuk is obvious - Esperanto is easier to pick up... and can be read to some extent by non-speakers.

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