Volapük

Volapük is a constructed international auxiliary language created in 1879-1880 by the German Catholic priest Johann Martin Schleyer. It was the first conlang to gain a significant international following — over 200 Volapük societies and ~25 magazines existed at its 1889 peak — but rapid in-fighting over reform, plus the launch of Esperanto (1887) which proved easier and more politically inclusive, caused its near-collapse by the 1890s. Volapük features highly schematic agglutinative morphology, four cases, and umlaut-rich vocabulary derived from English roots distorted by Schleyer's design rules. The Volapük Vifik ('rapid Volapük') reform of Arie de Jong in 1931 produced the modern standard, with ~20-30 active speakers today.