ABSTRACT
Artificial language created by J.M.Schleyer in 1879 as an international language ( planned language). Volapük has a simple phoneticphonological sound system; its morphological structure is based on the agglutinating structure of Turkish; the vocabulary is primarily based on English roots, cf. the construction: vol-(from Eng. world)+-a-‘genitive’+pük (from Eng. speak), hence ‘language of the world.’ Because the grammar of Volapük was generally too complicated and the word formation too arbitrary, it soon disappeared in favor of Esperanto.
