VOIVODE (also Vaivode, Vayvode, Wayvode, &c., Med. Gr. βοεβόδος), a title in use among certain Slavonic peoples, meaning literally “leader of an army” (Sl. voi, host, army; voiditi, to lead), and so applied at various periods and in various eastern European countries to rulers, governors or officials of varying degree. It is best known as the title of the princes of Moldavia and Wallachia. In these states the title remained in use from the earliest times until 1658 in the case of the first state, and until 1716 in that of the second, when it gave way to Hospodar (q.v.). During the period of Hungarian domination of Transylvania (1004–1526) it was governed by a voivode as an Hungarian province, the last voivode raising himself to the position of an independent prince. In Poland the title was used of certain administrative officials; Polish historians latinized it by palatinus. At the present day voivode is used, in its original sense of a high military officer, in the Montenegrin army, where it corresponds to the general officer in other European armies.
VOKES, the name of a family of English actors. Frederick Mortimer Vokes (1846–1888), the son of a costumier, made his first appearance on the stage in 1854. In 1861 he, his sisters Jessie (1851–1884), Victoria (1853–1894) and Rosina (1858–1894), and Walter Fawdon (Vokes), first as the “Vokes Children” and then as the “Vokes Family,” began to perform at music halls and at the pantomimes, and by their agility and humour made the name well known to English and American theatre-goers. Fred Vokes was a man of real inventiveness as well as rare acrobatic skill.
VOLAPÜK, the first artificial language (see Universal Languages) to attain any measure of practical success. First published in 1880, it was the work of J. M. Schleyer (b. 1839), a south-German priest. Volapük is not, like the earliest attempts of the kind, an a priori language, but is based mainly on English, the rest of the language being made from Latin and the Romance languages. The borrowed words are reduced to a monosyllabic form and are often altered in a very arbitrary manner. Thus the name Volapük itself is made up of the two English words, world and speak, the first in the genitive, the three vowels a, e, i, being used to express the three cases, genitive, dative and accusative respectively; the nominative is expressed by the bare root, and s is added to form the plural. The grammar of Volapük is therefore partly borrowed, like the vocabulary, partly original. Adjectives end in -ik. The persons of the verb are indicated by adding the pronouns ob “I,” ol “thou,” om “he,” &c., plural obs “we,” &c.; the tenses and the passive are indicated by prefixes, the moods by suffixes following the person-endings, many other inflections being used as well, so that the Volapük verb boasts of no less than 505,440 different forms.
Although founded on English, Volapük is mainly German in structure. It gets rid of the German word-order and the irregularities of German grammar, but it is often impossible to understand a Volapük text without thinking in German. The following is a specimen of the language:—
Löfob kemenis valik vola lolik, patiko etis pekulivöl, kels konfidoms Volapüke, as bale medas gletikün netasfetana.
“I love all my fellow-creatures of the whole world, especially those cultivated (ones) who believe in Volapük as (being) one of the greatest means of nation-binding.”
Here konfid governs the dative just as its German equivalent does; and “cultivated” is used in the sense of the German gebildeter.
The history of Volapük has an interest greater than that of the language itself. It has proved (1) that people in general are ready to adopt an artificial language, and (2) that an artificial language is easier to learn than any national language, and supplies an efficient means of communication between those who have no other language in common. Volapük had no special philological merits to recommend it; yet, after a few years’ incubation in south Germany, it spread, first to France (about 1885) and then in a few years over the whole civilized world, so that in 1889, when the third Volapük congress met at Paris, there were 283 Volapük societies all over the world, and the total number of Volapük students was estimated at over a million. At this congress every one—even the waiters—spoke Volapük, and the permanent triumph of the language seemed certain. But the year of its zenith was the beginning of a decline even more rapid than its rise. It fell to pieces through dissensions in its own camp, the first cause of which was the opposition of the inventor to those of his disciples who aimed at making the language mainly an instrument of commercial correspondence, and advocated the greatest possible simplification of grammar and vocabulary. The divergence of views between the inventor and his colleagues became more and more marked; and after the third congress the breach between M. Schleyer and the Volapük Academy (founded at the second congress in 1887) became a definite one: the director of the Academy proposed a totally new scheme of grammar, and other members proposed others, although one of the objects of the foundation of the Academy was the preservation of the integrity of the language. A new director, M. Rosenberger of St Petersburg, was elected in 1893; and from this moment the Academy dissociated itself from Volapük and began to construct a new international language, Idiom Neutral (see Universal Languages). (H. Sw.)
VOLCAE, a Celtic people in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, who occupied the district between the Garumna (Garonne), Cerbenna mons (Cévennes), and the Rhodanus (or even farther to the east in earlier times), corresponding roughly to the old province of Languedoc. They were divided into two tribes, the Arecomici on the east and the Tectosages (whose territory included that of the Tolosates) on the west, separated by the river Arauris (Hérault) or a line between the Arauris and Orbis (Orbe). The Volcae were free and independent, had their own laws, and possessed the jus Latii. The chief town of the Tectosages was Tolosa (Toulouse); of the Arecomici, Nemausus (Nîmes); the capital of the province and residence of the governor was Narbo Martius (Narbonne). It was said that there was an early settlement of Volcae Tectosages near the Hercynia Silva in Germany; Tectosages was also the name of one of the three great communities of Gauls who invaded and settled in Asia Minor in the country called after them Galatia.
See A. Holder, Altceltischer Sprachschatz, i. ii. (1896, 1904), s. vv. “Arecomici” and “Tectosagi”; T. R. Holmes, Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul (1899) p. 513; A. Desjardins, Géographie de la Gaule romaine, i. (1876).
VOLCANO, an opening in the earth’s crust, through which heated matter is brought, permanently or temporarily, from the interior of the earth to the surface, where it usually forms a hill, more or less conical in shape, and generally with a hollow or crater at the top. This hill, though not an essential part of the volcanic mechanism, is what is commonly called the volcano. The name seems to have been applied originally to Etna and some of the Lipari Islands, which were regarded as the seats of Hephaestus, a Greek divinity identified with Vulcan, the god of fire in Roman mythology. All the phenomena connected directly or indirectly with volcanic activity are comprised under the general designation of vulcanism or vulcanicity—words which are also written less familiarly as volcanism and volcanicity; whilst the study of the phenomena forms a department of natural knowledge known as vulcanology. Vulcanicity is the chief superficial expression of the earth’s internal igneous activity.
It may happen that a volcano will remain for a long period in a state of moderate though variable activity, as illustrated by the normal condition of Stromboli, one of the Lipari Islands; but in most volcanoes the activity is more decidedly intermittent, paroxysms of greater or less violence occurring after intervals of comparative, or even complete, repose. If the period of quiescence has been very protracted, the renewed activity is apt to be exceptionally violent. Thus, Krakatoa before the great eruption of 1883 had been dormant for something like two centuries, and it is believed that the Japanese
