The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-25
HISTORY OF VOLAPUK
PROGRESS OF THE UNIVERSAL LAM
GUAGE DURING TEN YEARS.

At the peace congress in Rome much OF
what the English speaking orators had tc
say was lost upon their hearers and IL goes
without saying that language common
/ TO all would have very much facilitated
matters. In a thousand other different
directions the utility of a cosmopolitan
! tongue can be easily made apparent. The
reader who follows the current activities
of the day will need to tax his memory
! but slightly TO satisfy himself that the
consideration Of ali great subjects-social
political, scientific and religious-is inter
national. Within comparatively short
! time have been held international con-
crosses of the geographers at Washington,
the biologists at Washington, the hygien-
| lists at London, the postal union at Vienna.
the humanitarians at Brussels, the Young
Mems Christian association at Amsterdam,
the CongregationRlists at London, the
Methodists at Washington and the Won
ems Christian Temperance union at Boston.
To each of these congresses came people
from every civilized country, and probably
no want was more distinctly felt than that
Of a common medium of exchange of
thought. Not only IS there to be need of
an international language, but that need
is already existent The need has been ex-
istent ever since international relations
have been existent, and while the interna-
tional relations of the world were commit
ted to the mediation of the few who were
the depositaries of learning Latin served
the need, and later French supplanted
Latin as the language of diplomacy, and
to some extent the language of commerce,
science and art.
Yet in all this labor of the centuries
there has been presumption in favor of
ultimate success. and the latter half of the
Nineteenth century has seen many a dream
of the ages realized, even to Puck's once
mythical girdling of the earth Has it
likewise seen the birth of q practical world
language whose universal use is to be as
certain and as useful rs shorthand or tel
egraphy? The champions of Volapuk can
claim all this for it. Let us see on what
their claim is based.
Volapuk is not an arbitrary name 1t is
derived from vol, world, and puk, Ian
guage, and signifies language of the world.
While it has passed it's thirteenth birth
day, it was not sudden conception of its
author, but the slow and laborious out
come of years of weary study More than
fifty languages and dialects were studied
and examined by the patient worker who
devised this language. Through thirty
years he resolutely pursued his work seek
ing the simplest forms of infection and
construction, familiarizing himself with
those sounds which were common to the
many languages of civilization, appropri-
ating such roots as were general among
native tongues, devising a system of pre-
fixes and suffixes best suited to afford the
largest expansion of vocabulary on the
smallest basis of roots, aiming always al
simplicity and eXpressiveness through
means as largely appropriative and as lit
tie revolutionary as possible.
The accumulative material for his Ian
guage was vast, its nature was varied, it's
condition chaotic. The process of selec-
ton, rejection and assortment was labor
Gus. One after another plans were mapped
out and found to be homogeneous. Assert
ment and reassortment failed to produce
an orderly system, but the work was never
relinquished and order came at last.
The system framed it was still withheld
from the world until its author had pre-
pared large vocabulary covering the
principal fundamental symbols for express
sion of ideas. Then be announced his Ian
guage, presenting at once its grammar and
vocabulary and challenging the worlds
criticism. This he did in the spring OF
1879. The world vas ready for him as it
has been always reauy for chose of whom
the world was not worthy"-ready with
ridicule, with abuse, with lampooning,
with sheer, with that worst of reflections.
voiceless ignoring. Then Volapuk lapsed
into temporary forgetfulness, and was
without following during two or three
years. Therefore, in considering the &C
QUESTIONS of Volapuk we may properly
date the beginning of language to ten years
ago. and represent here what it has to
show for the ten years of its existence.
The first approval which Volapuk re-
ceived was in Vienna, Austria, where a
body of learned men associated themselves
in club for its study and promotion. 1t
speedily spread to France and was there
championed by the government director of
technical instruction in the schools of Par
IS. Presently it cropped out in ST. Peters
burg under the guidance of the supervisor
of English instruction in the Russian
schools. Its welcome to the Scandinavian
trinity OF nations was next given, and then
aoown the western shores of Europe it
found home in Holland and Belgium.
1t entered Germany and conquered the
prejudices of all the Continent, nor staid
its victorious march until Turkey and
Syria and far away China and Japan rec
ognized the blessings it had to offer
eagerly appropriated them.
England signalized its appreciation
the language by offering as its enthusiastic
adherents the renowned Max Mueller and
Alexander John Ellis, while in several
schools the language has long been an adj
Nertised study in their curriculum. The
United States and Canada have long since
given to Volapuk the recognition of pro-
gressive scholars, several of whom have
edited works in this invented tongue, and
IN Australia it has a journal wholly de-
voted to its interests. Indeed, to empha-
size the approval of Volapuk which the
English speaking world has afforded it
may he noted that the London Pathological
society as long ago as 1855 declined the
ofertures of the American Philosophical
society to JOIN in a congress TO consider
the perfectlng of universal language"
on the declared and published ground that
there already exists a universal language,
olapuk, which has large number of adj
herents in all countries of the world and
which is completely elaborated in gram
mar and vocabulary"
But not only has Volapuk gained the
approval of numerous intelligent followers
all over the world, it has also established
itself everywhere in practical way. There
are forty-seven periodicals published in
this language in China. Australia, Swe-
den, Denmark. Holland. Belgium, France,
Spain, Italy, Austria, England and the
United Ststes. The literature of the Ian
guage numbers many hundreds of titles
aud Is wide in It's range, representing travel,
history. drama, science and poetry. Por-
II