Umberto Eco speaks Volapük!

So I just finished reading Umberto Eco's latest novel, "Baudolino" -- which is a
darn good read, for those of you out there who haven't read it yet -- and
there's this one scene near the end, in Chapter 35, where Baudolino and his
companions are rallying the denizens of the city of Pndapetzim (various
fantastical races such as skiapods, blemmyae, panotians, and pygmies) to fight
against the invading White Huns. And the following passage:

"The strategy had been so designed that nothing was left to chance, and at night
the cohorts crowded into the center of the city and proceeded, by the light of
the first stars, towards the plain, each preceded by its own priests and
chanting in its own language the Pater Noster, with a majestic sonorous effect
that had never been heard, not even in Rome in a most solemn procession:

Mael nio, kui vai o les zael, aepseno lezai tio mita. Veze lezai tio tsaeleda.

O fat obas, kel binol in süs, paisalidumöz nemola. Komönöd monargän ola. [sic -- TL]

Pat isel, ka bi ni sielos. Nom al zi bi santed. Klol alzi komi.

O baderus noderus, ki du esso in seluma, fakdade sankadus, hanominanda duus,
adfenade ha rennanda duus.

Amy Pornio dan chin Orhnio viey, gnayjorhe sai lory, eyfodere sai bagalin, johre dai domion.

Hai coba ggia rild dad, ha babi io sgymta, ha salta io velca..."


The first and third also strike me as nineteenth-century conlangs, though I don't
know if they really are.

Thomas

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