Sarkozy word has a certain ´je ne sais quoi´

Nicolas Sarkozy left interpreters befuddled when he came up with a word that is almost as rare as a nine-euro note.

PARIS, March 11, 2010 (AFP) - Parlez-vous volapuk?

Nicolas Sarkozy left interpreters befuddled at an environment conference in Paris on Thursday when he came up with a word that is almost as rare as a nine-euro note.

The French president, complaining about negotiations leading up to last December's UN climate summit, said world leaders had been handed a draft text "similar to volapuk."

Vol-a-what? Even native French speakers were stumped by this one, and some at first thought he said "vol a Buc", or "flight to Buc," a small and obscure town near Paris that has no airport.

Better-versed minds prevailed, and it turned out not only that Sarkozy was right, but he was also making a nod to history and his hero.

Volapuk is a language invented in the late 19th century by a German Roman Catholic priest, Johann Martin Schleyer, who dreamt of creating a universal means of communication.

His idea never really took flight and other international languages, such as esperanto, emerged as more successful candidates.

In French, "to speak volapuk" was once used to denote gibberish or gobbledegook, but it was last used in any major context at a press conference in 1962 by General de Gaulle, who is revered by Sarkozy.

Fewer than two dozen people in the world these days are believed to speak volapuk, but they are still optimistic that their language can survive.

"Volapük lifon nog, ab no dabinon plu muf gretik yelas büätik. Too pük dalabon nog slopanis ona. Äbinon yufapük bevünetik primik ad dalabön noganükami calöfik," says their website.

Need a translation?

"Volapük is living still, but there is no longer the great movement of former years. Nevertheless the language still has its supporters."