Everything about Volap K totally explained
Volapük (or in English) is a
constructed language, created in
1879–
1880 by
Johann Martin Schleyer, a
Roman Catholic priest in
Baden,
Germany. Schleyer felt that
God had told him in a
dream to create an
international language. Volapük
conventions took place in
1884 (
Friedrichshafen),
1887 (
Munich), and
1889 (
Paris). The first two conventions used
German, and the last conference used only Volapük. In 1889, there were an estimated 283 clubs, 25 periodicals in or about Volapük, and 316 textbooks in 25 languages. Today there are an estimated 20-30 Volapük speakers in the world.
Volapük was largely displaced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by simpler and more easily-learned languages, such as
Esperanto and
Latino Sine Flexione.
Orthography
| letter |
|
| a |
[a] |
| ä |
[ɛ] |
| b |
[b] |
| c |
[tʃ] or [dʒ] |
| d |
[d] |
| e |
[e] |
| f |
[f] |
|
| letter |
|
| g |
[ɡ] |
| h |
[h] |
| i |
[i] |
| j |
[ʃ] or [ʒ] |
| k |
[k] |
| l |
[l] |
| m |
[m] |
|
| letter |
|
| n |
[n] |
| o |
[o] |
| ö |
[ø] |
| p |
[p] |
| r |
[r] |
| s |
[s] or [z] |
| t |
[t] |
|
| letter |
|
| u |
[u] |
| ü |
[y] |
| v |
[v] |
| x |
[ks] or [gz] |
| y |
[j] |
| z |
[ts] or [dz] |
|
Note:
ä,
ö and
ü are sometimes written
ay,
oy and
uy respectively (similar to the German alternative spelling of
ae,
oe,
ue).
Grammar
Schleyer adapted the
vocabulary mostly from
English, with a smattering of
German and
French. Often modified, it's beyond easy recognizability. For instance,
vol and
pük are derived from the English words
world and
speak. Polysyllabic words are always stressed on the final syllable, regardless of how the source language places the
stress. Although unimportant linguistically, and regardless of the simplicity and consistency of the stress rule, these deformations were greatly mocked by the language's detractors. It seems to have been Schleyer's intention, however, to deform its loan words in such a way that they'd be hard to recognise, thus losing their ties to the languages—and, by extension, nations—they came from. Compare the common criticism that
Esperanto and
Interlingua are much easier to learn for
Europeans than for those with non-European native languages.
The letter
r was largely avoided, on the principle that it would be difficult for
Chinese speakers to pronounce. In the adoption of foreign roots
r was generally changed to
l, for example English
rose becomes
lol. However, the language retains a phoneme /r/ in opposition to /l/, with minimal pairs such as
rel "religion" vs
lel "iron"; /r/ is simply less common.
Other phonemes difficult for non-Europeans (such as
ö /ø/ and
ü /y/) remain common.
The
grammar is roughly based on that of
Indo-European languages but with a regularized
agglutinative character: grammatical features are indicated by putting together unchanging elements, rather than shifting, multi-meaning
inflections.
As in
German, the Volapük
noun has four cases:
nominative,
genitive,
dative, and
accusative. In compound words, the first part of the compound is usually separated from the second by the genitive termination
-a, for example
Vola-pük, "of-world language". However, the other case endings (
-e dative,
-i accusative) are sometimes used, or the roots may be agglutinated in the nominative, with no separating vowel.
The following is the declension of the Volapük word
vol, "world":
| Volapük declension |
Singular |
Plural |
| Nominative |
vol (world) |
|
| Genitive |
vola (of the world) |
volas (of the worlds) |
| Dative |
vole (to the world) |
voles (to the worlds) |
| Accusative |
voli (world) |
volis (worlds) |
Adjectives, formed by the suffix
-ik, normally follow the noun they modify. They don't agree with the noun in number and case unless they precede the noun or stand alone.
Adverbs are formed by suffixing
-o, either to the root or to the adjectival
-ik; they normally follow the verb or adjective they modify.
The
verb carries a fine degree of detail, with
morphemes marking
tense,
aspect,
voice,
person,
number, and (in the third person) the subject's
gender. However, many of these categories are optional, and a verb can stand in an unmarked state. A Volapük verb can be conjugated in 1,584 ways (including infinitives and reflexives).
Not only verbs, adjectives and adverbs, but prepositions, conjunctions and interjections can be formed from noun roots by appending appropriate suffixes.
History
Schleyer first published a sketch of Volapük in May 1879 in
Sionsharfe, a Catholic poetry magazine of which he was editor. This was followed in 1880 by a full-length book in German. Schleyer himself didn't write books on Volapük in other languages, but other authors soon did.
The
Flemish cryptographer Dr.
Auguste Kerckhoffs was for a number of years Director of the Academy of Volapük, and introduced the movement to several countries. However tensions arose between Dr. Kerckhoffs and others in the Academy, who wanted reforms made to the language, and Schleyer, who insisted strongly on retaining his proprietary rights. This led to schism, with much of the Academy abandoning Schleyer's Volapük in favor of
Idiom Neutral and other new constructed language projects. Another reason for the decline of Volapük may have been the rise of
Esperanto. In 1887, the first Esperanto book (
Unua Libro) was published. As the language was easier to learn, many Volapük clubs became Esperanto clubs.
In the 1920s
Arie de Jong, with the consent of the leaders of the small remnant of Volapük speakers, made a revision of Volapük which was published in 1931. This revision was accepted by the few speakers of the language. De Jong simplified the grammar, eliminating some rarely-used verb forms, and eliminated some perceived
sexism in the pronouns and gendered verb endings. He also rehabilitated the
phoneme /r/ and used it to make some morphemes more recognizable. For instance,
lömib "rain" became
rein.
Volapük enjoyed a brief renewal of popularity in the Netherlands and Germany under de Jong's leadership, but was suppressed (along with other constructed languages) in countries under Nazi rule and never recovered.
There are an estimated 20 Volapük speakers in the world today.
There has been a continuous Volapük speaker community since Schleyer's time, with an unbroken succession of
Cifals (leaders), the current cifal being Mr.
Brian R. Bishop.
Large Volapük collections are held by the International Esperanto Museum
(External Link
) in
Vienna,
Austria; the
Centre de documentation et d'étude sur la langue internationale in La Chaux-de-Fonds,
Switzerland; and the
American Philosophical Society in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(External Link)
Volapük community is very active on
Wikipedia, and in September
2007 number of articles surpassed 100,000, though the most of articles were automatically generated.
Examples (1880 version)
» O Fat obas, kel binol in süls, paisaludomöz nem ola!
Kömomöd monargän ola! » Jenomöz vil olik, äs in sül, i su tal!
Bodi obsik vädeliki givolös obes adelo! » E pardolös obes debis obsik,
äs id obs aipardobs debeles obas. » E no obis nindukolös in tendadi;
sod aidalivolös obis de bad. » Jenosöd!
Examples (1930 version)
» O Fat obas, kel binol in süls! Nem olik pasalüdükonöd!
Regän ola kömonöd! » Vil olik jenonöd, äsä in sül, i su tal!
Givolös obes adelo bodi aldelik obsik! » E pardolös obes döbotis obsik,
äsä i obs pardobs utanes, kels edöbons kol obs. » E no blufodolös obis,
ab livükolös obis de bad! » (Ibä dutons lü ol regän, e nämäd e glor jü ün laidüp.)
So binosös!
Sample text
Ven lärnoy püki votik, vödastok plösenon fikulis. Mutoy ai dönu sukön vödis nesevädik, e seko nited paperon. In dil donatida, ye, säkäd at pebemaston, bi tradut tefik vöda alik pubon dis vöds Volapükik. Välot reidedas sökon, e pamobos, das vöds Volapükik pareidons laodiko. Gramat e stabavöds ya pedunons in nüdug; too loged viföfik traduta pakomandos ad garanön, das sinif valodik pegeton. Binos prinsip sagatik, kel sagon, das stud nemödik a del binos gudikum, ka stud mödik süpo.
Translation:
When one is learning another language, vocabulary presents difficulties. One must continuously search for unknown words, and consequently interest is lost. In the elementary part, however, this problem has been overcome, because the relevant translation of each word appears below the Volapük words. A selection of readings follows, and it's suggested that the Volapük words be read out loud. The grammar and a basic vocabulary have already been done in the introduction; nevertheless, a quick glance at the translation is recommended to ensure that the overall meaning has been acquired. There is a maxim which states that a little study a day is better than a lot of study all at once.
Response
In some Scandinavian languages, the word 'volapyk' is used as a synonym for 'nonsense'. Etymologically, it's derived from the difficulty of understanding volapük, and thus the language was perceived as pure nonsense (akin to the use of Greek in the English idiom "it's Greek to me"). The word is also used in slang Russian to mean "nonsense" and "gibberish".
In Esperanto, the expression "Tiu estas Volapukaĵo por mi" (this is a Volapük-thing for me) is sometimes used meaning "I can't understand this" or "this is nonsense".
Further Information
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