Volapük - Conlang Profile	Advanced
Language Name Volapük Language Author Johann Martin Schleyer Year Began 1880 Site Volapük Broken Link No Site Language English Language Type international auxiliary language Editorial With a name meaning "world speech", Volapük became something of a fad in the late nineteenth century and was the second international auxiliary language to win thousands of adherents (after Solresol); it was the precursor to Esperanto in popularity. It has a vocabulary based primarily on English and German roots that have been somewhat simplified for ease of pronunciation and morphological analysis. Its grammar was difficult enough that enthusiasts were rarely able to actually learn to speak the language. The language was successfully reformed in the 1930s. If Esperanto is the GUI (Graphical User Interface) of auxiliary languages, than Volapük is the DOS of the field. The language is primarily of interest now for historical reasons. Language Sources English, German and French (in that order), but word stems are often unrecognizable. Design Principles Based on monosyllabic CVC (rarely CCVC) roots, both suffixes and prefixes (for tenses) start (or end) with a vowel, noun conjugation with three cases, hi- and ji- prefixes can specifically denote sex, loanwords and proper names are not conjugated, instead the article is. Interest Of Others Apparently very popular in the 1880s, but the popularity faded after the third Paris congress of 1889, which failed to implement the much-needed changes; finally reformed in the 1930s. Dictionary Yes Etymologies No Grammar Yes Sample Texts Yes Unique Script No Primer Yes Babel Text Yes Lexicon Size 1,569 Submitted By NA Date Edited Monday, September 27, 2004 Description Of Update Some more info. Date To Headline Monday, October 04, 2004 (link) < Voksigid  Volapük  Volapük Revised >
Conlang Profiles at Langmaker.com © 1996-2005 Jeffrey Henning.

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