Pronunciation of Volapük

PRONUNCIATION OF VOLAPÜK

The alphabet of VOLAPÜK has 27 letters, which are:

a, ä, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, r, s, t, u, ü, v, x, y, z = eight vowels and nineteen consonants.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT EVERY SINGLE VOWEL AND CONSONANT MUST BE PRONOUNCED CLEARLY!

The VOWELS are pronounced in the following manner:

A as in : lArd                O as in : rOte
Ä as in : mAde             Ö as in French : jEU
E as in French : mEt      U as in : sOOn
I as in : bEEr                Ü as in French : rUE

The CONSONANTS are pronounced as follows:

B as in : Ball               N as in : Name
C as in : Joy               P as in : Pill
D as in : Dull              R as in : Rain
F as in : File               S as in : Zeal
G as in : Goal             T as in : Tale
H as in : Hill               V as in : Vale
J as in : pleaSure         X as in : eGGS
K as in : Kettle           Y as in : Yell
L as in : Lake
M as in : Man              Z as in : birDS

In Volapük, EVERY SINGLE LETTER, INCLUDING EVERY SINGLE VOWEL, must be clearly sounded!

Practise now with the numbers from 1 to 10:

BAL, TEL, KIL, FOL, LUL, MÄL, VEL, JÖL, ZÜL, DEG

Practise these words of ONE SYLLABLE:

FLOR = flower; HIT = heat; FLUK = fruit; NIF = snow

In words of MORE THAN ONE SYLLABLE it is THE LAST ONE which takes the stress. To be of help, the last syllable in the following examples has been underlined:

FLORÜP = flower-time = Spring
HITÜP = heat-time = Summer
FLUKÜP = fruit-time = Autumn
NIFÜP = snow-time = Winter

Try TWO CONSECUTIVE VOWELS: REIN = rain (pronounced : RAY-EEN)

Try THREE CONSECUTIVE VOWELS: NEAI = never (pronounced : NAY-AH-EE)

ONE LAST IMPORTANT POINT:

Try to make a habit of saying each word out loud; you may feel a little self-conscious doing this to start with, but you will soon become very familiar with the sounds of the language, not all of which are exactly like the sounds we are accustomed to in English. Furthermore, you will gain much more confidence in this way!

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by Ralph Midgely
A pronunciation guide for our English-speaking readers.