In the attempt to form a universal language, no one has proceeded more
philosophically than the late Stephen Pearl Andrews, who attempted to
construct a language in which all the sounds should be selected in
accordance with nature, being such as are naturally associated with
the ideas they are used to express.
Mr. Andrews, by his personal amiability, enthusiasm, and lucid
intelligence, interested a number of disciples who have studied his
language called the _Alwato_, and it may be hoped will not allow it to
disappear with the life of its highly gifted and philosophic teacher.
The Volapük language which has no such pretention to philosophic
construction, is coming into such prominence as to deserve the
attention of the readers of this JOURNAL, hence I present the
following sketch which has been abridged from an article in the
_American Magazine_ for June, written by Richard Walker:
"VOLAPÜK is the invention of the Rev. Father Johann Martin
Schleyer, of Constance, Baden, Germany. He is an accomplished
linguist, having for forty-six years been interested in the
study of language. He can speak and write twenty-eight tongues,
including the Chinese and three African languages, and is also
eminent as a priest, hymnologist and religious editor. He
invented his universal language in 1878, announced it in 1879,
and had so far perfected it in 1881 as to publish in that year a
small book, entitled "Entwurf einer Weltsprache für alle
gebildte Erdbewohner" ("Plan of a Universal Language for all the
Civilized Inhabitants of the Earth"). Thus the name, Volapük;
_vola_ meaning of the world, and _pük_ language.
"Schleyer does not propose that Volapük shall supercede any
living language. He has attempted to make it so scientific and
natural, so regular in all the rules of construction, and
therefore so easy to learn, that every educated person will
acquire it next after the mother tongue; and he hopes that it
will thus become the accepted medium for all international
communications. With this end in view, he has formed it on the
general model of the Aryan family of languages; that is, its
signs represent letters and words, and not ideas; and the root
words of which it is constructed, instead of being arbitrary
sounds and signs, as in Bishop Wilkin's philosophical language,
or sounds that have a real or fancied natural meaning, as in
Stephen Pearl Andrews' "Alwato," are taken principally from
living languages, the English being more largely drawn upon than
any other.
"The alphabet employed is the Roman with some of the German
dotted letters added, and the continental sounds are given to
the letters. All words are phonetically spelled, so that there
are none of the difficulties of orthography and pronunciation to
be encountered which are so formidable in most natural
languages."
In making his Volapük vocabulary, Father Schleyer has sought first for
the simplest words now in use. If such words are to be found in the
English language, he has adopted them; if not, then he has drawn upon
the Latin, German, French, and Spanish languages in the order named.
For example, the word man in English, is a sufficiently simple root,
and, therefore, _man_, with the same spelling and the continental
pronunciation, is made to signify a man, or the man in Volapük--for
the articles _a_ and _the_ are discarded. But house in English is
inconveniently long and ends with a silent letter, and therefore the
word _dom_, from the Latin word _domus_, is taken. In some instances
neither of the languages named contains a root sufficiently simple,
and then the inventor constructs a new one. But, so rich is the
English language in simple Anglo-Saxon roots, that more than one-half
of the words in Volapük are derived from them, and the number of new
words whose roots are not to be found in any living language is
comparatively very small.
To the suggestion that, if the English language was to be drawn upon
so largely it would have been better to have adopted that, and induce
all educated persons to learn it, the advocates of Volapük reply,
first, that its irregularities of construction, orthography, and
pronunciation make it too difficult to acquire; and secondly,
international prejudice would prevent it from being universally
adopted. The use of so many English roots, however, makes Volapük much
easier to learn by one whose mother tongue is English, and thus bring
it within reach of the largest number of people speaking a common
language, while it eliminates irregularities and does not arouse
national prejudices.
The names of the cardinal numbers follow the vowels in their regular
order, a denoting the first, e the second, etc. Thus: _Bal_, 1; _tel_,
2; _kil_, 3; _fol_, 4; _lul_, 5; _mäl_, 6; _vel_, 7; _jöl_, 8; _zül_,
9; _bals_, 10; _tels_, 20; _kils_, 30; _tum_, 100; _mil_, 1,000, etc.
The year 1887, written out in Volapük, is _Balmil jöltum jölsevel_.
The Arabic numerals are used as in English.
S added to any word forms the plural, which is never formed in any
other way. The first three vowels (a, e, i) added to any noun, form
respectively its genitive, dative, and accusative; s added to these
forms makes the plurals of the same cases. Man is therefore declined
as follows:
_Singular._ _Plural._
NOM _man_, the man; _mans_, the men;
GEN _mana_, of the man; _manas_, of the men;
DAT _mane_, to the man; _manes_, to the men;
ACC _mani_, the man; _manis_, the men.
Every noun in the language is declined in the same way, so that all
declensions may be learned in one minute.
The verbs in Volapük are all regular, and there is only one
conjunction. The tenses are denoted by the vowels a, ä, e, i, o, u,
placed before the verbs. When these vowels are preceded by p, it shows
that the verb is in the passive voice. The personal pronouns are:
_ob_, I; _ol_, thou; _om_, he; _of_, she; _os_, it; _ok_, one's self.
S added makes the plurals. _Löf_, meaning love, _löfób_, means I love;
_löfól_, thou lovest, etc.; _älöfób_, I loved; _ilöfóm_, he had loved;
_ulöfós_, it will have loved, etc.; _palöfóms_, they are loved;
_pulöfófs_, they will have been loved, etc. As it is only necessary to
remember the few particulars named, all conjugation may be acquired in
five minutes.
Enough has been given--and there is very little more of it--to show
the extreme simplicity of the Volapük grammar. It can be learned in an
hour, and, as the variations of the nouns and verbs are indicated by
the vowels taken in their regular order, they are not easily
forgotten. The principal labor necessary to acquire the language
consists, therefore, in memorizing the vocabulary. Since more than
one-half the roots are English, a person speaking that language can
naturally acquire the new one in less than one-half the time required
for any foreign language, and the better knowledge he has of Latin,
French and Spanish, the faster will be his progress.
After Father Schleyer published his first book, in 1881, he was soon
able to interest a few persons in Germany in Volapük. It next got a
foothold in Switzerland, and then in Paris. English linguists are just
beginning to give attention to it, the only publication in English
until very recently having been a bad adaptation of an abridged
grammar. But on the Continent it has gained in popularity very rapidly
during the last two or three years, so that there are now at least ten
thousand persons who are familiar with and use it. More than three
hundred and fifty have received diplomas as adepts. There are eight
monthly periodicals printed wholly in Volapük, or partly in Volapük
and partly in other languages.
In the United States not more than twenty persons have studied
Volapük, and only about half a dozen can read and write it. Mr.
Charles E. Sprague, of New York, who holds the diploma of
Volapükatidel, reads and writes it with ease, and to him I am under
obligations for assistance in preparing this article. There are no
Volapükese clubs or periodicals published in the language or in its
interest either in this country or in England. A large number of books
in Volapük, or about it, have appeared in Germany, including grammars
in eighteen languages, a German-Volapük dictionary containing twelve
thousand words, a biography of the inventor, Father Schleyer,
pamphlets, etc.