Volapük

Volapük is a constructed language created by Johann Martin Schleyer, a German priest and linguist, and published in 1879 as an international auxiliary language. The name Volapük roughly means “world language.” The language uses a Latin-based alphabet and an inflectional grammar built from prefixes and suffixes applied to roots. Its vocabulary was formed from a small set of roots combined with affixes, yielding long, often compound words.

Volapük quickly gained popularity in the 1880s, with clubs, schools, international congresses, and translations spreading across Europe and the Americas. It attracted tens of thousands of adherents at its peak and inspired a substantial body of textbooks and periodicals.

However, the complexity of its grammar and word formation, and disagreements within the community, led to a rapid decline after the late 1880s. The movement was largely displaced by Esperanto and other languages, and by the early 20th century Volapük had become a minor linguistic curiosity.

Today Volapük exists in small scholarly and hobbyist communities, with periodic publications, a lexicon, and online courses. Estimates of fluent speakers range from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Volapük is recognized as one of the earliest attempts to create an international auxiliary language and has influenced later constructed languages and discussions about universals in language.