Most people have heard of Esperanto, an artificial language created for international communication. But before Esperanto gained its fame, there was another highly successful language created for the very same purpose: Volapük, created in 1879 by a German priest, Johann Martin Schleyer. Volapük – or: "World Language" – was a typical product of the 19th century. It had a highly original, agglutinating grammar and a vocabulary that was mostly taken from English, but most of it heavily distorted and therefore barely recognisable. Ultimately, it failed, and nowadays, nobody would consider it a serious candidate for a world language anymore. Nevertheless, this amazing creation is still very much alive today, especially valued for its fascinating history, its rich literary heritage, its ingenious architecture and its quirky charm. On these pages you will find a few useful tools for learning and/or using Volapük.
— VOLAPÜK: VALEMAPÜK FÜTÜRA NEAI ÖDABINÖLA. Volapük: the universal language of a future that would never be.
— SUK IN VÖDABUKS. Online dictionary that covers several online dictionaries in one search.
— VÖDABUKS BEVÜRESODIK VOLAPÜKA. View an entire dictionary on one screen.
Obviously, a dictionary is indispensible for anyone who is writing in Volapük but doesn’t know a word. But dictionaries have limitations: they give you the translation(s) of a word, but do not tell you how exactly it is used. This tool allows you to search for a word in the most important text collections written in modern Volapük:
— VÖDISUK IN VÖDEMS: word search in Volapük texts.
— VÖDEMS IN VOLAPÜK PEREVIDÖL: if you want to see the whole text and not just the fragments were a certain word is found.
— TRADUT VÖDAS SE VÖDEM: a handy tool if you are trying to read a text in Volapük but don’t know the words.
— VOBÄD LISEDA VÖDAS BALIK KOMÄDÖL IN VÖDEM: generate a list of all unique words occuring in a text.
— FEATONATAM SE LAFAB KIRILIK: for transliterating text from Cyrillic into Volapük.
— And as a bonus, here’s an eternal calendar: KALED LAIDÜPIK.