Volapük is a constructed language created between 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God had told him in a dream to create an international language. Notable as the first major constructed international auxiliary language, the grammar comes from European languages and the vocabulary mostly from English. However, the roots are often distorted beyond recognition.
Commemorative inscription for J. M. Schleyer on the wall of the parsonage in Litzelstetten, Konstanz, written in Volapük and German: Menade bal – püki bal Eine Menschheit – eine Sprache (One mankind – one language)