In our time, not every simple and even highly educated person is familiar with the term "Volapyuk". This somewhat funny and strange word came to us from Germany at the end of the 19th century and became known as an artificially created language. It was spoken and recorded by the world's elite, which included doctors, philologists, writers and astronomers.
Author of a language masterpiece
So, Volapuk is an international language that was founded in 1879 by a German Catholic priest named Johann Martin Schleyer. In May of this year, the most ordinary newspaper came out in the Bavarian district, but a whole project followed as an appendix to it. It outlined the grammatical, morphological and many other features of an artificially created language intended for educated people around the world. A year later, Schleyer publishes a book, which is called "Volapyuk - the world language." Another year passed, and in this new and as yet unknown language a newspaper began to be printed, and later the first internationalcongress.
Years of popularity
Around 1884, throughout Europe, and also partly in America and in advanced Asian countries, Volapuk was a very popular and studied language. Numerous magazines and newspapers are printed on it, it is studied in courses, schools and universities. Many scientists use Volapuk in their doctoral dissertations and developments. A case was also registered when an artificially created language became native for a person. We are talking about the daughter of the German researcher Volapuk Henry Kohn, with whom her father spoke the language from the cradle, which became an object of passion for him. Until the 1890s, the entire scientific world was literally absorbed not only in the study of Volapuk, but also in its constant application in work and everyday life.
Basic language
We have already established that Volapuk is an artificial language, but how and on the basis of what did it arise? Let's start with its author, a priest who was a native of Germany and therefore spoke German all his life. His goal was to create a kind of prototype of his native speech and writing, but with some adjustments that, in his opinion, would simplify the whole picture. The alphabet was based on the Latin alphabet, supplemented by several non-existent vowels. The lexical composition is the most recognizable words of the languages of the Romano-Germanic family, but their roots have been changed beyond recognition. It should be said right away that all of his most trickyfeatures, moreover, they have multiplied and become even more noticeable and complex. The most striking example of this is long words, consisting of three or four parts.
What was the simplicity of the language?
At first glance, it always seemed that Volapuk is a simple language, easy to learn and remember. The fact is that some aspects were indeed very alluring:
- Missing complicated spelling.
- There was no such thing as a dual number (it only occurs in Russian and Arabic).
- There were no ambiguous words.
- The emphasis was always fixed.
It can be said that Volapuk's charms ended there. What everyone who tried to learn it in the future faced was like a collection of all the complexities of German, English, Spanish and even Russian, supplemented by fictional forms and turns.
Declining popularity
For many years the cryptographer of the Volapyuk Academy was August Kerkgoffs, who, having carefully studied this language, immediately revealed all its shortcomings. By pointing out the minuses to the author, Martin Scheleier, he provoked a protest from the latter. The priest insisted that this language is his brainchild, in which nothing needs to be changed. This conflict caused a further split, during which many adherents of Volapuk left for other language projects - Idiom Neutral and Esperanto. By the way, the appearance of the latter language in 1887 aggravated the situation of Volapyuk. Esperanto was much simpler lexically andgrammatically, in it all the words were recognizable and even simplified.
Now Volapuk is a dead language, which is no longer published even in the most secret scientific newspapers and journals. It is not studied at philological faculties, not taught in graduate schools.
