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Volapk LanguageVolapk is a constructed language. Its ISO 639 language codes are vo and vol. Volapk was created in 1879-1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany. Schleyer felt that God had told him in a dream to create an international language. Volapk conventions took place in 1884 (Friedrichshafen), 1887 (Munich), and 1889 (Paris). The first two conventions used German, and the last conference used only Volapk. As of 1889, there were an estimated 283 clubs, 25 periodicals in or about Volapük, and 316 textbooks in 25 languages. Grammar Schleyer adapted the vocabulary mostly from English, with a smattering of German and French, and often modified it beyond easy recognizability. For instance, "vol" and "pk" are derived from the English words "world" and "speak". Although unimportant linguistically, these deformations were greatly mocked by the language's detractors. 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 Volapk 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", e.g. Vola-pk, "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. Adjectives, formed by the suffix "-ik", normally follow the noun they modify. They do not agree with the noun in number and case unless they precede the noun or stand alone. Adverbs are formed by suffixing "-o" 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. (It has been claimed that the full conjugation of a verb in Volapük can involve 500,000 forms.) Not only verbs, adjectives and adverbs, but prepositions, conjunctions and interjections can be formed from noun roots by appending appropriate suffixes. Earlier versions of Volapk added vowels from blackletter typefaces to the antiqua ones. Later versions replaced them with the Roman vowels with diaereses added. History Schleyer first published a sketch of Volapük in May 1879 in Sionsharfe, a Catholic magazine of which he was editor. This was followed in 1880 by a full-length book in German. Schleyer himself did not 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 in 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 Volapk 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 Volapk 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 Volapk 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 added the phoneme "r" and used it to make some morphemes more recognizable. For instance, "lmib" (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 Esperanto and other constructed languages) in countries under Nazi rule and never recovered. There are an estimated 25-30 Volapk speakers in the world today. Large Volapk collections are held by the International Esperanto Museumhttp://www.onb.ac.at/sammlungen/plansprachen/eo/index.htm in Vienna, Austria; the Centre de documentation et d'tude sur la langue internationale in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland; and the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/v/volapuk.htm Example An example of Volapk is the translation of the Lord's Prayer: O Fat obas, kel binol in sls, paisaludomz nem ola! Kmomd monargn ola! Jenomz vil olik, s in sl, i su tal! Bodi obsik vdeliki govols obes adelo! E pardols obes debis obsik, s id obs aipardobs debeles obas. E no obis nindukols in tendadi; sod aidalivols obis de bas. Jenosd! External links
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