Adelo eplöpob ad reafön ini lönaspad (registaramaspad) obik pö el Reddit, sevabo nen yuf ela ‚VPN’. Dinäds valik at binons vemo bisariks. Nu dalob nunön dö notükam nüma nulik gaseda obsik.

El Reddit no dälon ad gebön oki pro belödans Rusäna. Fe kanob gebön topedi at medü ‚VPN’ as „Nedänan”, ab dunamod somik no nitedon obi. Sänsur ai nepliton obi. Spelob, das danädü neletians nulik at ela Reddit menef suno oplöpon ad tuvedön säkädis valik vola.

I was reading about how a Python translation bot was used to create many of the articles on Volapük Wikipedia. Is this Python script still out there? I had trouble finding it. My other question is whether anyone has tried to train an AI on a body of Volapük data, as that would probably provide a way better translation.

I'm slowly working thru Ralph Midgely's lessons at volapuk.com. Lesson 2 introduces the word el. Midgely writes:

Neither is there a word for "the" in the normal way of things. However when we use words which have no equivalent in Volapük, be they names of people, places, or things, then the word el (from Spanish) serves for "the".

In the example sentences, we sometimes see el, sometimes not. I'm having a little trouble figuring out what the rule is that governs usage of el. So a passage from the chapter, with bold marking the places where I would expect el to be usable:

Hiel "Samül" lödom in dom gretik e nulädik in zifil jönik. Binom studan in niver. Fat omik binom "Robert" -- binom büsidan e vobom in bür. Mot omik binof "Lisabet" -- binof tidan e tidof in jul smalik. Sör omik binof "Janin". Vobof in zif gretik in bür, bi binof sekretan. ün timül at vakenof in Spanyän. Blod omik binom "Peter" binom vemo yunik.

Why don't we have el/hiel/jiel before the names Robert, Lisabet, Janin, & Peter?

In Brian Bishop's short Esperanto grammar of Volapük (PDF), I see some restrictions, but no clear rule that would explain this. My best guess at present is that since nominative singular doesn't need to mark case or number, el is totally optional, & that the first sentence could have lost hiel, while the others could have easily added it (or jiel, as appropriate). Am I close?

From Wikipedia, it looks as tho these letters were proposed by Schleyer but never really put into use. The fact that they exist in Unicode means that they're relatively easily available for on-line use. It looks like they haven't been put into use by current Volapükists, however. Is that right? Have they been adopted anywhere significant?

I've just read a review for Andrew Drummond's A Handbook of Volapük which claims that a reader who learned the lessons scattered throughout the novel would end the book with a decent knowledge of Volapük. The reviewer, however, did not attempt to absorb these lessons. For you actual Volapükists, is this true? Could one learn (basic) Volapük from this novel?