Folkspraak
Folkspraak (also Folksprâk, Folkspraek, Folksprák, Folksprak, and hyphenated versions such as Folk-Spraak) is an
international auxiliary language (IAL) project based on the
Germanic languages, currently in development. It is intended to be quickly learnable by all Germanic speakers (a group including over 465 million native speakers, and an additional 300 to 900 million who speak
English as a second language). It is not meant to be designed by any one individual, but is a collective work created by all interested parties, according to the Folkspraak charter guidelines.
It has not yet been decided if dialects are to be fully tolerated. Only once all issues have been thoroughly discussed, and a large majority of the language developers have reached agreement as to the accepted form, shall an official version be created. There are currently disagreements about many rather basic areas of the language including
orthography,
grammar, and
vocabulary. Interestingly, many of the dialects proposed tend to look most like an English-influenced version of
Dutch or
Low German, although many have notably
North Germanic features.
The guiding idea for building the vocabulary is that a word from the same root, with the same or similar meaning, should be common or exist in three out of four core languages: (General) English, (High) German, Dutch and
Swedish/
Norwegian/
Danish. The Scandinavian languages are often counted as one language here, and a word wouldn't need to be common in more than one of these languages. Since many common words are often found in only two core languages at most, this method has not been proven sufficient for creating a complete Germanic auxiliary language. Several different methods have been elaborated to get cross the problem, including:# Accept that a word only found in two different core languages should hold valid. This method would often create many synonyms.# Using more common synonyms or compounds, such as "werk-schy"/"arbeid-schy" for lazy (work-shy).# Using smaller, less common Germanic languages, including
Low German,
Afrikaans,
Yiddish,
Frisian,
Icelandic.# Using the word most common in
Proto-Germanic.# Referring to words common in other auxiliary languages or large language families (such as
Interlingua or
Slovio).
There is also the related Inter-Germanic conlang
Middelsprake, designed independently by Ingmar Roerdinkholder (now a member of the Folkspraak group). Middelsprake turned out to be rather close to Folkspraak. The differences being that the latter often includes archaic orthography and phonology which are not present in the modern Germanic languages, whereas Middlesprake has a more regular and simple grammar, spelling and pronunciation.
Middelsprake is based on the comparison between eight living Germanic languages: English, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Low Saxon, Frisian and
Nynorsk Norwegian, and is an intermediate language between West Germanic and Scandinavian varieties. It is already proven to be understood almost completely at first sight by people from
Germany, the
Netherlands,
Denmark,
Sweden and even English speakers can recognize a lot of their own wordstock in it.
Fůlkspræk, also called Meta-Folksprak and Boksprak, has been developed by Stephan Schneider. It's phoneme inventory is based on Proto Germanic. Diacritic signs are used in order to represent etymological and grammatical phenomena. For instance, the ring above
u in the name „Fůlkspræk" shows a Proto Germanic
u, which turned to
o in at least one of the modern Germanic languages, such as English in this case (cf.
folk).
Folksprak is based on Fůlkspræk, and therefore it is based on Proto Germanic. This means, it is not a blend of modern Germanic languages, but an artificial (and therefore hopefully very simple) member of the Germanic language family. Folksprak is nonetheless very similar to the "real" modern Germanic languages, because it features Germanic-like phoneme shifts (for instance, the Proto Germanic
u in the word "Fůlkspræk" turns to
o in Folksprak). Folksprak uses the English alphabet plus two extra vowels: æ and ø.
This division into Fůlkspræk and Folksprak was supposed to help the Folkspraak-developers to focus both on Proto Germanic influences on Folkspraak and orthographic simplicity.
It's another scope of Fůlkspræk to be able to represent any modern Germanic word (e. g. English
mouse as
mûs).
As an example of Folkspraak in comparison to other Germanic languages, consider five proposed versions of the
Lord's Prayer next to the standard German and English prayer:
| Folkspraak | Folkspraak | Folksprak | Middelsprake | ASCII Bas-Spraek | German | English |
| Ons Fader in Himmel, | Ons Fater, whem leven in der Himmel, | Usser fader in de himmel, | User Fader we is in de hevel, | Unser faather in the himel | Vater unser im Himmel, | Our father in heaven, |
| lat din Nam aren helig, | mai din Name werden helig | mag dain nam wes helig | diin name schal wese helliged | hail|ik wees thiin naam | geheiligt werde Dein Name, | hallowed be Your name, |
| Lat din Rikdom kommen. | Mai din Konigdom kommen. | dain koningdum/raik komm | diin riik schal kom | thiin riik kom | Dein Reich komme. | Your kingdom come. |
| lat din Wil aren doede, | Mai din will werden, | dain will wes dan/she | diin wille schal schee, | thiin wil skee | Dein Wille geschehe, | Your will be done, |
| aup de Erd als in de Himel. | in der Erd und in der Himmel. | so up-an erd als in himmel | so up erd as in de hevel | so up erth als in himel | wie im Himmel, so auf Erden. | on the Earth as in Heaven. |
| Giv os dis Dag ons daglik Brod, | Geven os distdag ons Brod, | Giv uss dis dag usser (daglig) brod, | geve us dis dag user daglig brööd | geb uns this dag unser dag|lik broud | Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute, | Give us this day our daily bread, |
| Ond forgiv os ons Skuldens, | Und forgiv ons sindens, | end fergiv uss usser shuld, | on forgeve us user skuld | und for|geb uns unser skuld | Und vergib uns unsere Schuld, | And forgive us our sins, |
| als vi forgiv dem die skuld gegen os. | samme Weg als wi forgiv dem whem eren skuld to uns. | als wi fergiv dem we shuld gegen uss/dat av anders. | as wi forgeve det af anderes | als wiz for|geb that ab anther|as | wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern. | as we forgive those who sin against us. |
| Ond test os nit, | Und test os nihte, | End test uss nit/lad uss nit in fersuking, | on late us nik wesed forsöked | Und laed uns nit in for|sook|ung | Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung, | And lead us not into temptation, |
| men spar os form Uvel. | men spare os fraum der Sind. | end anstád spar uss fron yvel/doh mak uss frai fron yvel. | doch make us fri fron övel | thoh maak uns fri fron uuibel | sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen. | but deliver us from evil. |
| Fůlkspræk | Folksprak |
| Ůnsĕr Fadĕr in đă ħemmĕn, | Onser Fader in de hemmen, |
| werđĕ ħạlĭgĕt đin nam, | werde heliget din nam, |
| kwe*mĕ đin rik, | kome din rik, |
| găskeƕĕ đin wėlj, | geskehe din will, |
| ƕe in đă ħemmĕn, sa up đă erŧ. | we in de hemmen, sa up de ert. |
| Geb ůns ħidag ůnsĕr dãglĭk brḁđ. | Gev ons hidag onser dæglik brod. |
| Ůnđ fĕrgeb ůns ůnsĕr skuld, | Ond fergev ons onser skuld, |
| ƕe ḁk wi fĕrgeb đem ůnsĕr skuldĕrĕn. | we ok wi fergev dem onser skulderen. |
| Ůnđ lid ůns ne in fĕrsȍkung, | Ond lid ons ne in fersøkung, |
| abĕr ŭrlḁs ůns af đă ȕbĕl. | aver erlos ons af de yvel. |
*
Germanic IAL*
International Auxiliary Language*http://www.langmaker.com/folksprk.htm Lang Maker
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/folkspraak/ Yahoo! Discussion Group
*http://www.forumscaniae.net/folkspraak/forum Folkspraak Discussion Forum
*http://www.geocities.com/folkspraak/ - Der Folkspraakinstitut
*http://www.tidingkonien.com/drupal/ - Tidingkonien (Newsrabbit), Folkspraak community site
*http://www.susning.nu/Folkspraak - (in Swedish)
*http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Folksprak - (in German)
