Page:Hand-book of Volapük (Sprauge, 1888).djvu/63
ädalogom, being a transitiv verb, should have an object, in the kimifal, of course. We readily find this object in the next word bäledani. This we find to mean “old-man;” but even if bäledan were omitted from the vocabulary we could discover its meaning from the root bäled, age, and the ending an (an echo of man), which is applied to persons. ädalogom bäledani = he perceived an old man. Blegol is recognised as a participle qualifying bäledani, which it follows. Blegön is found to mean to bend. Oki is the reflexiv pronoun ok, -self in the kimifal. Therefore blegöl oki is bending himself. It might be expressed in one word, blegölok. Su staf is readily found to mean on a staff. Taking the phrase together we may translate it “leaning on a staff.” E, and. Kömöl is another participle, from kömön, to come. Al omi, to him; omi is in the kimifal because al denotes motion towards him. This is not indispensable, for al om would express the same idea. Al, or itself, conveys the idea of direction; so that there is not the same useful distinction as between in and into.
In the next sentence, seeking first the verb, we recognise it in ifenoms by the personal ending oms, they, and the tense-prefix i. I we find in the series a, ä, e, i, o, u (present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future, future perfect); its English equivalent is “had;” oms is third person, plural, they; therefore we have only to look for the meaning of fen to know what “they had” done. Fen being to weary, ifenoms must be they had wearied. We now look back for the subject which must be plural. Töbs has the plural-sign and is in the kimfal. Töbs ifenoms = troubles had wearied. But we cannot positivly decide upon this until we examin the words which precede töbs, for according to the rules of position the subject must be at the beginning of the sentence. Much depends upon the particle e, for if this is a preposition, töbs, tho' in the kimfal, cannot be the subject. E proves, however, to be the conjunction and, and bäled, the noun, age. Bäled e töbs, age and troubles, form a compound subject to ifenoms. The object omi is at once recognised by its ending.
| Bäled e töbs ifenoms omi. | = | age and troubles had wearied him. |
