Volapuk

a proposed world language. In 1878 Johann Martin Schleyer of Constance, Germany, published suggestions for an artificial language by which he proposed to displace the languages now in use. The term Volapuk means words, speech. Schleyer was a devoted student of philology. It is said that he could read and write fifty different languages. In 1880 he published a grammar and dictionary in Volapuk. He proposed some 1,300 root words and, in all, a vocabulary of about 14,000 words. Volapuk congresses have been held and associations have been formed, especially in France, Switzerland, and Germany. Over 2,000 volumes have been published in Volapuk. Several periodicals are published in the language, but of late interest seems to have declined.