However, some years later (1920), in the third edition of the same book, he added the following footnote to the former assertion: "As it was presumable, nowadays -1920-, the brand new Volapük has been forgotten definitively. We forecast the same for Esperanto."

Modern day use and resurgence

thumb|upright=0.85|Unofficial flag of VolapükVolapük still maintains a to this day, and has experienced a small revival in the 21st century, although often as a hobby language. in Vienna, Austria; the Center for Documentation and Study about the International Language in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland; and the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 2000 there were an estimated 20 Volapük speakers in the world.

A few months earlier there had been only 797 articles. The massive increase in the size of "Vükiped", bringing it ahead of the Esperanto Wikipedia, was due to an enthusiast who had used a computer program to automatically create geographical articles, many on small villages. The motive was to gain visibility for the language.

By March 2013 the Esperanto Wikipedia, with a very active user community, had risen to 176,792 articles, while the Volapük Wikipedia had at that point 119,091 articles. In 2013 and 2014, the Volapük Wikipedia was presented as evidence that the internet is helping revive the Volapük movement, albeit merely as a hobby, devoid of its former internationalist aim. As one of the largest works written in the language over the last century, it has an impact on the development of modern Volapük neologisms, particularly geographical terms.

There has been a continuous Volapük speaker community since Schleyer's time, with an unbroken succession of Cifals (leaders). These were:

  1. Johann Martin Schleyer 1879–1912
  2. Albert Sleumer 1912–1948
  3. Arie de Jong (provisionally) 1947–1948, 1951–1957
  4. Jakob Sprenger 1948–1950
  5. Johann Schmidt 1950–1977
  6. Johann Krüger 1977–1983
  7. Brian Bishop 1984–2014
  8. Hermann Philipps 2014–present

Orthography and phonology

thumb|Schleyer proposed alternative forms for the [[Umlaut (diacritic)|umlaut vowels, but they were rarely used.|class=skin-invert-image]]

The phonology of Volapük is as follows:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Vowels

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" |Front

! rowspan="2" |Back

|- class="small"

!Unrounded

!Rounded

|-

!Close

|

|

|

|-

!Close-mid

|

|

| rowspan="2" |~

|-

!Open-mid

| rowspan="2" |~

| rowspan="2" |

|-

!Near-open

|

|-

!Open

| colspan="3" |~

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Consonants

! colspan="2" |

!Bilabial

!Alveolar

!Postalveolar

!Palatal

!Velar

!Glottal

|- style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Nasal

|

|

| 

| 

| 

| 

|- style="text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Plosive

!

|

|

| 

| 

|

| 

|- style="text-align:center;"

!

|

|

| 

| 

|

| 

|- style="text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Affricate

!

| 

| rowspan="2" |~

| rowspan="2" |~

| 

| 

| 

|-

!

| 

| 

| 

| 

|- style="text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Fricative

!

|

| rowspan="2" |~

| rowspan="2" |~

| 

| 

| 

|- style="text-align:center;"

!

|

| 

| 

|

|- style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Approximant

|

|

| 

|

| 

| 

|- style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Trill

| 

|

| 

| 

| 

| 

|}

Additionally, ⟨x⟩ represents the sequence . The letters , , and are pronounced voiced after voiced consonants and unvoiced otherwise.

<gallery heights=100 class=skin-invert-image>

Unicode U+A79A.svg

Unicode U+A79B.svg

Unicode U+A79C.svg

Unicode U+A79D.svg

Unicode U+A79E.svg

Unicode U+A79F.svg

</gallery>

Special consonantal letters

thumb|The author Alfred A. Post mentions in his Comprehensive Volapük Grammar some additional letters created by Schleyer.|class=skin-invert-image

The following letters were constructed by the inventor to designate sounds which occasionally occur:

  • å
  • ħ
  • 𝑙
  • m̂
  • n̂
  • ᶇ
  • ȷ
  • ƈ
  • ſ
  • rr

Linguistic features

thumb|1898 broadsheet advertising Volapük

Schleyer adapted the vocabulary mostly from English, with a smattering of German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and French. Some words remain readily recognizable for a speaker of one of the source languages, but many others are modified beyond easy recognition, as Schleyer wanted to keep most vocabulary monosyllabic. For instance, vol and pük are derived from the English words world and speak. 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 alter its loan words in such a way that they would be hard to recognise, thus losing their ties to the languages (and, by extension, nations) from which they came. Conversely, Esperanto and Interlingua are commonly criticized as being much easier to learn for Europeans than for those with non-European native languages. However, during the reforms of the language in the 1930s, some of the vocabulary was made more recognizable, particularly with the introduction of the letter r, thus words such as lilöm (rain) and lilädön (to read) became rein and reidön. This also made international words such as dolar (dollar) easier to recognize.

Grammatically, Volapük was highly influenced particularly by German, although it gets rid of the irregular features of German grammar. The reforms of Volapük also however simplified its grammar, and removing grammatical features such as the aorist. "one", "oneself". They are pluralized with -s: "we", "ye", "they". The possessive may be formed with either the genitive -a or with adjectival -ik: or "my". Prepositions, conjunctions and interjections are also formed from noun roots by appending appropriate suffixes. In later, reformed Volapük, was narrowed down to males only, whereas got the meaning of 'it' as well as impersonal 'they'.

Verbs

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).

;Person

For the simple present, the pronouns are suffixed to the verb stem:

:binob I am, binol thou art,

etc. The present passive takes the prefix pa-:

:palöfons they are loved.

;Tense, aspect, and voice

The three tenses in the indicative, and the three perfect aspects, each take a characteristic vowel prefix:

{|class="wikitable"

!Tense !!Prefix

|-

!Past

|ä-

|-

!Past perfect

|i-

|-

!Present

|a-

|-

!Present perfect

|e-

|-

!Future

|o-

|-

!Future perfect

|u-

|}

The present-tense prefix is omitted in the active voice, so:

:binob I am, äbinol you were, ebinom he has been, ibinof she had been, obinos it will be, ubinon one will have been.

These are seen as being more distant from the present tense the further the vowel is from in vowel space, and they can be used with temporal words to indicate distance in the past or future. For example, from del 'day',

:adelo today, odelo tomorrow, udelo the day after tomorrow, ädelo yesterday, edelo the day before yesterday, idelo three days ago.

The passive voice is formed with p-, and here the a is required for the present tense:

:palöfob I am loved, pälogol you were seen, pologobs we will be seen.

;Infinitive mood

The infinitive is formed with the suffix -ön. It can be combined with tense/aspect prefixes:

:Logön to see, elogön to have seen.

;Interrogative mood

Yes–no questions are indicated with the particle li:

:Pälogom-li was he seen?

The hyphen indicates that the syllable li does not take stress. It occurs before the verb to avoid a sequence of three consonants or a double el: li-pälogol? li-binoms?

;Participles and the habitual aspect

Participles, both active and passive, are formed with -öl:

:Logöl seeing, elogöl having seen, ologöl being about to see, palogöl seen (being seen), pelogöl seen (having been seen), pologöl about to be seen.

Binob penöl is literally 'I am writing', though penob is also used. For "I write" as habitual action, the habitual aspect is used. This is formed by adding -i- after the tense prefix, and here again the present-tense a- is required. The forms are thus active ai-, äi-, ei-, ii-, oi-, ui-, passive pai-, päi-, pei-, pii-, poi-, pui-. All are pronounced as two syllables.

:Aifidob bodi I eat bread (as a daily occurrence), äipenob penedis I used to write letters.

With temporal words,

:aidelo daily (at the present time)

;Imperative mood

The imperative -öd follows the subject suffix:

:Gololöd! Go! (to one person), gololsöd! go! (to more than one person)

Optative -ös is used for courteous requests, and jussive -öz an emphatic command.

;Conditional mood

Conditionals are formed with -la for the protasis (if-clause) and -öv for the apodosis (then-clause):

: If äbinob-la liegik, äbinoböv givik&nbsp;– if I were rich I would be generous.

: Ibinomöv givik, if ibinom-la liegik&nbsp;– he would have been generous if he had been rich.

Note that the tense changes as well, so that in the first example the past tense is used even though the present tense is intended. Like the question particle, the -la is written with a hyphen to indicate that it is not stressed in speech.

;Potential mood

A potential mood is formed with -öx:

:Pelomöx he might pay.

;Reflexive verbs

Reflexive forms are made from the active voice and the pronoun ok:

:Vatükob I wash, vatükobok (or vatükob obi) I wash myself.

In the third person, the periphrastic form of vatükomok (he washes himself) must use the reflexive pronoun, vatükom oki, as vatükom omi would mean "he washes him (someone else)".

The plural -s may precede or follow the reflexive, as the speaker chooses:

:vatükomoks or vatükomsok they wash themselves.

Here there is a meaningful distinction between joining the pronoun to the verb, and inflecting it independently:

:Löfobsok we love ourselves, löfobs obis we love each other.

;Gerundive

The attributive affixes are active voice ö- and passive voice pö-.

Examples

The Lord's Prayer

{| lang="vo"

|-

!|1880 Schleyer Volapük

!|1930 de Jong Volapük

|-

||O Fat obas, kel binol in süls,

||O Fat obas, kel binol in süls!

|-

||paisaludomöz nem ola!

||Nem olik pasalüdükonöd!

|-

||Kömomöd monargän ola!

||Regän ola kömonöd!

|-

||Jenomöz vil olik, äs in sül, i su tal!

||Vil olik jenonöd, äsä in sül, i su tal!

|-

||Bodi obsik vädeliki givolös obes adelo!

||Givolös obes adelo bodi aldelik obsik!

|-

||E pardolös obes debis obsik,

||E pardolös obes döbotis obsik,

|-

||äs id obs aipardobs debeles obas.

||äsä i obs pardobs utanes, kels edöbons kol obs.

|-

||E no obis nindukolös in tendadi;

||E no blufodolös obis,

|-

||sod aidalivolös obis de bad.

||ab livükolös obis de bad!

|-

||

||(Ibä dutons lü ol regän, e nämäd e glor jü ün laidüp.)

|-

||Jenosöd!

||So binosös!

|}

Usage as common noun

The word Volapük or a variation thereof means "nonsense, gibberish" in certain languages, such as Danish volapyk and Esperanto volapukaĵo.

See also

  • Kosmopolan
  • Volapükologist
  • Volapük Wikipedia
  • Esperanto
  • Ido
  • Interlingua
  • International Volapük Academy

Notes

References

  • The Volapük-language Wikipedia's page on Volapük
  • A Volapük portal, with links to grammar, vocabulary, exercises etc

<!--* Charles Sprague, 1888, Hand-Book of Volapük-->

  • Description and history of the Volapük Academy
  • Links to sundry background materials
  • New Testament in Volapük

Summaries

  • Chapter on Volapük in Otto Jespersen's pro Novial An International Language (1928)
  • Volapuk at the Conlang Atlas of Language Structures.

Tutorials

<!--* A ten-lesson course in modern Volapük-->

  • (First of) a ten-lesson course in modern Volapük (Follow the 'next' link at the foot of each page for each succeeding lesson...)

Handbooks, grammars and dictionaries

<!--* English–Volapük dictionary&nbsp;– Compiled by Ralph Midgley (1998)&nbsp;– Volapük Nulik -->

  • Ralph Midgley's web-page - grammar, lessons, vocabulary, examples
  • Malgranda gramatiko de Volapuko per Esperanto by the ex-Cifal Brian Bishop (2015)&nbsp;- Volapük Nulik

<!--* Vocabulary – Volapük Rigik-->

  • Volapük to English dictionary
  • English to Volapük dictionary
  • Charles Sprague's Grammar of Volapük, 1888

Fictional treatments

  • . Reprinted 2019 (Amazon)