Volapük

Where it’s spoken

Volapük (the name means “world language” in itself) emerged in southern Germany when Schleyer, a Catholic priest, claimed God had appeared to him in a dream commanding him to create a universal language. By the late 1880s there were nearly 300 Volapük clubs and an estimated million learners worldwide. Internal disputes about reform — and the simpler, more flexible Esperanto — caused the movement to collapse spectacularly within a decade.

What it sounds like

Vocabulary mostly distorted from English and German roots, but unrecognisable: “world” became “vol”, “speak” became “pük”. Grammar features an aggressive case system with elaborate verbal inflection — much of what the Esperanto reformers later complained about.

How it’s written

The Latin alphabet supplemented with the umlauted vowels ä, ö, ü. The few dozen active speakers today communicate primarily through online correspondence.