i6 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



succeeded in becoming more than printed theories. But two have 

 ever been spoken and written by any number of people. 



The first of these was Volapiik, of which the author was Johann 

 Martin Schleyer, born in Baden, Germany; a Boman Catholic cure, 

 of a village near Constance, in Switzerland, where he published in 

 1880, a " Grammatik der Universalsprache fur alle Erdbewohner." 

 A few years ago he was still alive in Constance, having survived his 

 language. His admirers credited him with a knowledge of eighty- 

 three tongues. Volapiik found an active propagator in Dr. August 

 Kerchhoffs, professor of modern languages in L'ecole des hautes etudes 

 commerciales of Paris. Beginning about 1886, it spread rapidly 

 through France, and thence to the great cities of Europe and America. 

 In 1889 there were 283 Volapiikist societies scattered over the globe; 

 its adherents were estimated at about a million; the number of pub- 

 lished books on Volapiik amounted to 316, of which 182 appeared in 

 1888 alone, and which were written in twenty-five languages. There 

 were some twenty-five journals devoted to its propaganda, of which 

 seven were published in Volapiik alone. Three international con- 

 gresses were held, the last one in 1889, in which the proceedings were 

 in Volapiik, and the language seemed to have become an established 

 fact. But the same year saw the beginning of its decline, which was 

 far more rapid than its rise. To-day Volapiik is among the dead 

 languages, possessing but a handful of faithful adherents. 



The rapid rise and spread of Volapiik, from 1886 to 1890, and its 

 subsequent decline and ultimate extinction, demonstrate that the desire 

 for an international language was universal, and that Volapiik, in part, 

 fulfilled the requirements. A study of that language clearly reveals 

 the causes of its success, as well as of its failure. The grammar was 

 simple and regular in construction, except in the multiplicity of its 

 verb inflections. The letters had each but one sound; the words were 

 absolutely phonetic; but the language had two fatal defects, the 

 complexities just referred to in the conjugation of the verb, and the 

 fact that the words were not formed on already existing international 

 roots. Most of the root-words used were to be found in the Teutonic 

 languages alone. All of them were mutilated beyond recognition; 

 sometimes according to some phonetic rule, oftentimes according to 

 a wooden arbitrary outline. Many of the words were actually " made 

 up " meaningless sounds constructed according to a mechanical 

 scheme of the author's. At best, Volapiik looked unfamiliar, was in- 

 harmonious, ugly and uncouth in appearance and sound, and failed in 

 the primary needs of an international tongue, except in the fact of 

 possessing a grammar far more simple than any of the " natural " 

 languages. As a matter of curious interest, and to illustrate some of 

 the salient characteristics of the language, the Paternoster is given 

 in Volapiik, as follows : 



