Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — The Universal Language. [ARTICLE]

The Universal Language.

Volapuk is the name of the universal language that has recently been invented by a German professor. Its Vocabulary is formed from the Germanic and Latin languages, and the grammar is as simple as it can be made. The adjective, verb, and adverb are regularly fbrmed from the noun, and have invariably the same termination, so that it suffices almost to learn the substantives of the language to know all the words of the dictionary. There are no irregular words, and but ..one conjugation. The adjectives are invariable and there are but two genders, maculine and feminine. In pronouncing Volapuk each letter vowel, or consonant has an unvarying sound, and the accent is always on the last syllable. The words are written as they are pronounced and pronounced just as they are written. It is claimed that any person who knows a Roman language, as French or Italian, or a Germanic language, as German or English, may be able, after a month’s study, to translate without difficulty a letter from his mother tongue into' Volapuk. The advantages to international commerce from a universal language in facilitating correspondence between merchants of different nations can be easily understood. The city of Paris, last winter, established a school, free to all, for teaching the new language. The first congress of the partisans of Volapuk met last year at a German ' town on Lake Constance, when 300 members came from all parts of Europe; a second congress will be held at Nuremberg in 1887, and in 1889, the occasion of the Universal Exposition, a grand international congress of delegates from all the societies of Europe and the other countries of the world will be held at Paris.—(Texas Siftings.