The Bookseller, the Library, and Volapük

The late news from Paris

Among the many volumes in the Bancroft Library, the special collections library of the University of California, Berkeley, are two books on Volapük, the Hand-Book of Volapük, by Charles E. Sprague, and the Abridged Grammar of Volapük; Adapted to the Use of English Speaking People, by Auguste Kerckhoffs, and the only question I have is: “did they end up in the library because of Bancroft’s younger brother?” The Bancroft Library is named Hubert Howe Bancroft, a California bookseller and amateur historian who amassed a substantial library which he later sold to the State of California.[1]

Why not the older Bancroft? Well, they might have been his, but he doesn’t seem to have thought much of Volapük. In an essay on “Early California Literature,” he noted that while “a universal tongue must in time prevail,” he felt that English “need fear no competition from such artificial substitutes as Volapuk, of uncouth aspect.” No Volapükian he. But his brother is another matter altogether.

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Poetess’s Legacy to Universal Language

Eliza Pittsinger. California poet.
Could have benefited
universal language

It is safe to say that Eliza A. Pittsinger, a poet who died in San Francisco in 1908, is among the forgotten poets of California, but at the beginning of the twentieth century, she seems to have been something of a celebrated poet. She was born in about 1820 in West Hampton, Massachusetts,[1] to John and Mary Pittsinger. In 1842, she married one Professor Mayo[2] in Hartford, Connecticut. They separated and later divorced, with Eliza went back to using the name Pittsinger (if she ever used Mayo).

As early as 1862, Pittsinger had moved to San Francisco, where she described her profession as “poetess.” She had certainly established herself as a poet by this time, contributing a poem to the ceremonies for laying the corner stone of the New Pioneer Hall of the Society of California Pioneers, in July 1862. According to the Society of California Pioneers, this building was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Miss Pittsinger, was not a California Pioneer, as the term is reserved for those who settled in California before 1850, at which time she was still in Northampton, although the San Francisco Call described her as such in an death notice of her sister, in May 1907. At the time of Pittsinger’s death, the Call stated that she arrived in California in 1852.

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Volapük and Life, Henry James and Love

In a group of short items in the Mexico Weekly Ledger, of Mexico, Missouri, on July 12, 1888 is an item that seems to slight either Volapük, the town of Walla Walla, or maybe both.

A Volapuk club has been formed in Walla Walla, W. T. We are glad to see that Walla Walla people now have something to live for.

That's just harsh.

The next item notes that

Henry James boasts that he has never loved a woman. If from this we can infer that he has loved a man we think we can name the man.

I'm sure they mean Henry James loved himself, since in 1888, they weren't likely to be suggesting that he loved other men, though in point of fact he did. What he did about that is a question that will probably never be answered, though he did describe himself in 1904 as "hopelessly celibate."

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How Do You Say "Goodbye" in Volapük?

Is that what they were
talking in Paris?

I've long seen it said that the appearance of Esperanto brought about the end of Volapük. The Volapük movement was limping along and then a better candidate for an international language came along. Judging from newspaper reports, Volapük was already struggling with more dissections and defections then it seemed Esperanto would it its time.

By 1893, a number of rivals had appeared to challenge Volapük, many of which were reformed versions (the umlauts were the first thing to go, no matter how fondly Schleyer thought of them). It seems the Volapük movement would have collapsed if Zamenhof had never created Esperanto, though by 1891, Nuremburg Volapük Society had become the Nuremburg Esperanto Society (I'll get to that).

I'm not sure how fast news of the fall of Volapük travelled, but the Jamestown Weekly Alert of Jamestown, North Dakota (then, the Dakota Territory), reported on June 1, 1893, that French Volapük society had disbanded. Clearly, there was no sympathy in the Jamestown press:

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International Languages, A New One Every Day

Some people just can't agree on a common language

When I started to learn Esperanto, I was unaware that it was one of a large number of international languages that had been proposed over the years. There are hundreds of known artificial languages, some of which are assumed to have not gained any adherents beyond their originators. More than a year before Zamenhof published the first book on Esperanto, the Daily Yellowstone Journal of Miles City, Montana, in their May 28, 1886 edition, carried a short piece from the Chicago Times which poked some fun at the international language schemes recently announced. 

Two of the languages (according to some perfunctory research) were recent inventions, both released in 1885 or 1886. Neither of these were familiar names to me. One was Pasilingua, and the other was Nal Bino. Both were creations of former advocates of the third international language mentioned in the article, Volapük.

Volapük had been introduced about five years before, and it was already spawning reformist factions, although these might have been factions of one. Neither of these two managed to topple Volapük, which was looking quite successful in 1886, though within a few years many of the Volapük clubs would turn to Esperanto instead.

Three Developed "Universal Languages"

Another universal language has been invented. There are now three well-developed systems, "Volapuk," "Pasilingua," and the last, "Nal Bino," and if philologists continue their inventions there will be more trouble in learning all the "universal languages" than in acquiring acquaintance with the languages now existing which do not profess so much.

It's not quite fair to pin this one on philologists, although I suspect the term is used to mean "amateur linguists," though I suspect a few linguists might object to that.

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Esperanto: A Last and Desperate Attempt for Volapuk?

"That well-worn fad"

In 1897, The San Francisco Call ran a short article on Esperanto, just about ten years after that language was introduced. The item describes Esperanto as "an improved form of Volapuk." It's funny to see that ideas for international language were already being derided as a "well-worn fad" in 1897.

Although this is one of the earliest articles in the American press on Esperanto, it disagrees with a slightly earlier piece that continued to run in newspapers later. The other piece, originally from the New York World, correctly identified Esperanto as a rival to Volapuk, although it does place Zamenhof in Warsaw, although he was living in Grodno in 1897.

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