794 



VOLAPUK. 



a largely increased attendance at all the higher 

 educational institutions. At the State Univer- 

 sity the enrollment increased from 287 students 

 on Dec. 1, 1886, to 361 at the same date this 

 year. The increase at the State Military In- 

 stitute was from 136 to 166 pupils. At the 

 Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College 

 on Dec. 1, 1886, there were 87 students. At 

 the corresponding date this year there were 

 136. The Female Normal School at Farmville 

 has 215 students. At the Virginia Normal 

 and Collegiate Institute Dec. 1, 1886, there 

 were 162 academic students. On Dec. I, 1887, 

 the number of academic students was 187. 

 The annual appropriations to these institutions 

 aggregate about $100,009. 



Charities. During the fiscal year ending Sept. 

 30, 1887, 420 applications were received at the 

 Eastern, Western, and Southwestern Asylums 

 for admission, and 317 were admitted. In the 

 Eastern Asylum the average number of patients 

 was 401 ; in the Western Asylum on October 

 1 there were 589 ; in the Southwestern, 139 ; 

 in the Central Asylum the daily average 

 was 470. The number of pupils at the Deaf, 

 Dumb, and Blind Institute is 334. The addi- 

 tional building to the Central Asylum, for 

 which the Legislature of 1886 appropriated 

 $22,500, was ready for use at the close of the 

 year, and will accommodate 200 patient*. 



Penitentiary. On December 1 the State con- 

 victs numbered 960, 190 being white and 770 

 colored, or 185 white males and 706 colored 

 males, 5 white females and 64 colored females. 

 Of these, 807 are in the prison, 115 on the 

 South Atlantic and Ohio Railroad, and 38 in 

 Russell County. The total earnings of the in- 

 stitution for the year ending September 30 

 were $42,826, an excess over expenditures of 

 $7,657.56. 



Political. The November election for mem- 

 bers of the Legislature of 1887-'88, which met 

 in December, resulted in favor of the Demo- 

 crats, a light vote being cast. The Republi- 

 cans elected 14 Senators and 38 members of 

 the House ; the Democrats, 26 Senators and 

 61 members of the House, with one member 

 Independent. 



VOLAPPR. The inconvenience caused by the 

 diversity of human speech has long been de- 

 plored, and many projects have been formed 

 for remedying the evil. Of these, the earliest 

 recorded is that of John Wilkius, Bishop of 

 Chester, who published in 1668 "The Essay 

 toward a Real Character and a Philosophical 

 Language." We have recently heard of the 

 existence of a work entitled u Logopandectei- 

 sion; or an Introduction to the Universal Lan- 

 guage," by Sir Thomas Urquhart, of Cromar- 

 tie, said to have been published in 1653 at 

 London. Many similar attempts have been 

 made ; among the latest and most widely known 

 are those of Sinibaldo de Mas (Ideography, 

 1863), and Stephen Pearl Andrews (Alwato, 

 1877). But, with the exception of Volapuk, 

 no such attempt has ever advanced beyond 



mere experiment. Volapiik has steadily gained 

 ground during the nine years of its existence, 

 and is now understood and used in correspond- 

 ence by a large number of persons in all parts 

 of the civilized world. 



The Inventor. Johann Martin Schleyer, the 

 inventor, or, as he expresses it, " excogitator " 

 (datikel) of Volapuk, was born at Oberlauda, 

 Baden, in 1831. He was educated for the 

 Catholic priesthood, which he entered in 1856. 

 He had a love for linguistic studies, and lost 

 no opportunity of acquiring from the numer- 

 ous foreigners with whom he came in contact 

 a speaking knowledge of their several lan- 

 guages. He had studied about fifty languages 

 and dialects. His studies were, it would seem, 

 directed rather to the comparison of languages 

 as to their relative merits for practical use, 

 than to researches into the history and origin 

 of speech. In 1879 the idea of a universal, or 

 rather neutral, language possessed his mind, 

 and during March of that year he constructed 

 its entire grammar. He published his first 

 book, " Entwurf einer Weltsprache," in the 

 same year, and followed it with a grammar 

 and dictionary. Father Schleyer now resides 

 in Constance, having been retired on a pension. 

 He devotes his energies entirely to the propa- 

 gation of the Volapuk idea, and is the author 

 of numerous writings on the subject. 



Structure of the Language. 1. Phonetics and 

 Alphabet. The Roman letters are used to the 

 following extent: a, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, 

 1, m, n, o, 6. p, r, s, t, u, u, v, x, y, z. Schleyer's 

 arrangement of the alphabet is as follows: a, 

 e, i, o, u ; a, 6, u; b, p; d, t; v, f ; h, y, g, k; 

 1, r, in, n; s. j, c, x, z. The dotted vowels, 

 a, 6, u, have their German sounds. The intro- 

 duction of these three letters has been more 

 severely criticised than any other feature of 

 the system, and they are certainly a serious 

 obstacle to the races speaking English, ^Span- 

 ish, and Italian. The vowels, a, e, i, o, u, have 

 their usual '' Continental " sounds, as in Ger- 

 man, Italian, or Spanish, or as in the English 

 words father, they, pique, go, rwde (rood). The 

 following consonants have peculiar sounds: 

 j like sh in English; jip being sounded exactly 

 like its equivalent sheep; c like j in joy; z like 

 ts; y as in yet. The accent is invariably on 

 the last syllable. There are two unaccented 

 enclitics, -U and -la, always united by a hyphen 

 to the preceding word, which retains its accent 

 on the last syllable e. g., golom, he goes; 

 golom-lif does he go? There are no diph- 

 thongs; two vowels coming together divide 

 the syllables between them ; as geil, pro- 

 nounced like the English words gay eel. 



2. Selection of -Radicals. The radicals, or 

 root-words, are mostly monosyllabic. Using 

 v as a symbol for vowel and c for consonant, 

 the usual form of a root is cvo, as man, man ; 

 dom, house; Tcdrn, come; log, eye; lam, arm. 

 The sibilants, s, c, j, x, z, seldom or never occur 

 at the end of a root. There are also radicals 

 of the forms cove, as sten, stain; pled, play; 



