The novel mentions «London legal Volapük» — an expression that has become, in Russian, synonymous with incomprehensible, garbled speech. Yet few realize that Volapük was originally a serious attempt to build a universal language for international communication.
How It Was Created
Volapük was invented in 1879 by the German Catholic priest Johann Martin Schleyer (1831–1912). By the creator’s own account, the idea came to him on the night of March 31, 1879, during a bout of severe insomnia. He claimed to have paced through his house all night until inspiration struck, and he suddenly saw exactly what an international language should look like.
The name «Volapük» combines two elements: vol (from the English «world,» in the genitive) and pük (from the English «speak»), meaning «world-speak.» Schleyer’s first article on the new language appeared in May 1879, in the Catholic journal Sionaharfe, which he edited.
A Brief Golden Age
By the end of the 19th century, Volapük enjoyed a period of extraordinary popularity. By 1889:
- 25 Volapük-language journals were being published around the world.
- 316 textbooks had been written, in 25 languages.
- 283 Volapük clubs were active.
- There were roughly 1,100 teachers and 50 professors of the language.
There’s even a known case of Volapük becoming someone’s native language — the daughter of Volapük professor Henry Cohn, Corinne Cohn.
Features of the Language
Volapük was an agglutinative language with nominative alignment and synthetic grammar. Its features included:
- Alphabet: 27 letters, based on Latin script.
- Phonology: a simple sound system avoiding hard-to-pronounce combinations.
- Stress: always on the final syllable.
- Declension: 4 noun cases.
- Verbs: a complex system with 6 tenses, 4 moods, 2 aspects, and 2 voices.
This grammatical system could generate anywhere from several thousand to several hundred thousand distinct verb forms — which turned out to be more of a liability than an asset.
Why It Declined
Despite its early success, Volapük ran into serious problems:
- Grammatical complexity: Many quirks of German grammar carried over into Volapük, making it hard to learn.
- Unrecognizable vocabulary: Words were altered so heavily from their source languages that they became unrecognizable.
- Long compound words: As in German, which drew ridicule.
- Leadership conflicts: Between creator Schleyer and Auguste Kerckhoffs, director of the Volapük Academy.
- Competition from Esperanto: Introduced in 1887, Esperanto proved simpler and more logical.
Reform and the Present Day
Between 1929 and 1931, the Dutchman Arie de Jong carried out a reform of the language, simplifying its grammar and restoring a more recognizable sound to many words. But it never regained its former popularity.
Today there are only about 20–30 active Volapük speakers worldwide. The movement is led by a «Cifal» (supreme leader), and an 8-member Volapük Academy remains active.
Volapük in Russian
In modern Russian, the word «volapyuk» has taken on a figurative meaning — «speech made of a jumble of incomprehensible words, gibberish.» That’s precisely the sense used in the novel, where the hero runs into the dense legal jargon of English notaries.
So the mention of «Volapük» in an 1990s context precisely captures the protagonist’s sense of running headlong into incomprehensible specialized terminology in a foreign country.