3 ms·

I'm fluent in English, know a fair bit of German and some very basic French and I can't understand any Volapük. If Europe's ever going to speak the same languag

by tormeh 10y ago

I'm fluent in English, know a fair bit of German and some very basic French and I can't understand any Volapük. If Europe's ever going to speak the same language it's going to be through the languages growing closer, eliminating different spellings of existing loanwords and creating new ones that are universal. None of the knowledge I have of European languages carry over to Volapük, at least in terms of vocabulary. That, to me, looks like a mistake on Volapük's part.

schoen 10y ago
You would probably have a very different experience with Interlingua. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua (The weirdest thing for me about it as a Latin and Portuguese speaker is that adjectives aren't inflected for number, so you have phrases like "servicios tangibile" and "contributiones actual", which sound kind of bizarre throughout the Romance milieu, where the adjectives would have to be pluralized too.) You can see some sample texts at http://www.interlingua.com/ http://www.interlingua.com/ or for example http://www.interlingua.com/libros/ http://www.interlingua.com/libros/ Interlingua is very Latin and Romance-heavy, so if your experience is more with German, it may not feel as familiar, but it's almost sure to be easier than Volapük for anyone familiar with multiple European languages. :-)
- wtbob 10y ago
  > Interlingua is very Latin and Romance-heavy, so if your experience is more with German, it may not feel as familiar, but it's almost sure to be easier than Volapük for anyone familiar with multiple European languages. :-) Well, if at least one of those multiple European languages is a Romance tongue, sure. But if someone speaks fluent Manx, English, Icelandic and Norwegian, he'll probably have more than a little trouble with it …
  - schoen 10y ago
    It would definitely be quite a bit harder, but all of those languages will have had some degree of Latin and Romance borrowing so they'll still confer at least a little benefit.
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by tormeh 10y ago

schoen 10y ago

You would probably have a very different experience with Interlingua. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua (The weirdest thing for me about it as a Latin and Portuguese speaker is that adjectives aren't inflected for number, so you have phrases like "servicios tangibile" and "contributiones actual", which sound kind of bizarre throughout the Romance milieu, where the adjectives would have to be pluralized too.) You can see some sample texts at http://www.interlingua.com/ http://www.interlingua.com/ or for example http://www.interlingua.com/libros/ http://www.interlingua.com/libros/ Interlingua is very Latin and Romance-heavy, so if your experience is more with German, it may not feel as familiar, but it's almost sure to be easier than Volapük for anyone familiar with multiple European languages. :-)

wtbob 10y ago
> Interlingua is very Latin and Romance-heavy, so if your experience is more with German, it may not feel as familiar, but it's almost sure to be easier than Volapük for anyone familiar with multiple European languages. :-) Well, if at least one of those multiple European languages is a Romance tongue, sure. But if someone speaks fluent Manx, English, Icelandic and Norwegian, he'll probably have more than a little trouble with it …
- schoen 10y ago
  It would definitely be quite a bit harder, but all of those languages will have had some degree of Latin and Romance borrowing so they'll still confer at least a little benefit.

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