Folkspraak language

From Freepedia

Folkspraak (also Folksprák, Folksprahk, Folksprak, and hyphenated versions such as Folk-Spraak) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) 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.

At present there are a number of 'dialects' of Folkspraak in use. These 'dialects' might better be described as people's 'versions' on the language - that is, their individual take on what Folkspraak should be. The members of the Yahoo! group are working steadily toward a consensus, but it has generally been decided that these 'dialects' are to be fully tolerated, and that only once all issues have been thoroughly discussed, and a large majority of those partaking in the language's design 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 choice of which vocabulary to use is often not agreed on. The original idea is that a word from the same root, with the same or similar meaning should be common in, or at least exist in three out of four languages (core languages) including (General) English, (High) German, Dutch and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish (often counted as one language, where a word wouldn't need to be common in more than one of the languages). Since many common words often could only be found in two core languages, or being different in all core languages, this method has not been proven sufficent for creating a complete Germanic auxiliary language, so several different methods has been elaborated to get cross the problem, including:

1. Accept that a word only found in two different core languages should hold valid. This method would often create many synonyms when one word is found in English/Scandinavian and another one in German/Dutch or English/Dutch, German/Scandinavian.

2. Using more common synonyms or compounds for words different in all languages, such as "werk-schy"/"arbeid-schy" (work-shy) for "lazy".

3. Using the vocabulary from smaller, less common Germanic languages, including Low German, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Frisian, Icelandic etc.

4. Deciding which word was the most common in Proto-Germanic, and using that word even if it has only survived as a common word in one single core language.

5. Referring to other auxiliary languages, such as Interlingua and Slovio to see if any of the vocabulary is common in other large language families.

There is also the related Inter-Germanic conlang Middelsprake (MS), designed independently, without its creator Ingmar Roerdinkholder (now a member of the Folkspraak Yahoo! group too) having heard about Folkspraak; still Middelsprake turned out to be rather close to FS. A difference between MS and some dialects of FS is that the latter tend to include archaic orthography and phonology that aren't present in the modern Germanic languages, and the more regular and simple grammar, spelling and pronunciation of MS. However, some FS dialects are very much based on the modern languages and have a highly regular spelling system and grammar, at least as regular as that of MS (for example, the version of Roland Sookias). Middelsprake is based on the comparison between eight living Germanic languages: English, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Low Saxon, Frisian and New Norwegian, and is a real 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.

Contents 1 The Lord's Prayer 1.1 Folkspraak 1.2 Folkspraak 1.3 folksprak 1.4 Middelsprake 1.5 German 1.6 English 2 External links 3 See also

The Lord's Prayer

As an example of Folkspraak in comparison to other Germanic languages, consider four proposed versions of the Lord's Prayer next to the standard German and English prayer:

Folkspraak	Folkspraak	folksprak	Middelsprake	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,	Vater unser im Himmel,	Our father in heaven,
lat din Nam aren helig,	mai din Name werden helig	mag dain nam ves helig	diin name schal wese helliged	geheiligt werde Dein Name,	hallowed be Your name,
Lat din Rikdom kommen.	Mai din Konigdom kommen.	dain koningdom/raik komm	diin riik schal kom	Dein Reich komme.	Your kingdom come.
lat din Wil aren doede,	Mai din will werden,	dain vill ves duet/she	diin wille schal schee,	Dein Wille geschehe,	Your will be done,
aup de Erd als in de Himel.	in der Erd und in der Himmel.	so up erd als in himmel	so up erd as in de hevel	wie im Himmel, so auf Erden.	on the Earth as in Heaven.
Giv os dis Dag ons daglik Brod,	Geven os distdag ons Brod,	gif uss diss dag usser (daglig) brod,	geve us dis dag user daglig brööd	Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute,	Give us this day our daily bread,
Ond forgiv os ons Skuldens,	Und forgiv ons sindens,	ond fergif uss usser shuld,	on forgeve us user 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 vi fergif dem ve shuld gegen uss/datt af andere.	as wi forgeve det af anderes	wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern.	as we forgive those who sin against us.
Ond test os nit,	Und test os nihte,	ond test uss niht/lad uss niht in fersuking,	on late us nik wesed forsöked	Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,	And lead us not into temptation,
men spar os fron Uvel.	men spare os fraum der Sind.	ond anstád spar uss fron ofel/doh mak uss fre fron ofel.	doch make us fri fran övel	sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen.	but deliver us from evil.

External links

• http://www.langmaker.com/folksprk.htm
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/folkspraak/ Yahoo Discussion Group
• http://www.forumscaniae.net/folkspraak/forum Folkspraak Discussion Forum
• http://www.geocities.com/folkspraak/ - This page is now rather outdated (and the story about Folkbier is a fabrication!).
• http://www.newsrabbit.com/drupal/ - Tidingkonien, (FS for Newsrabbit), FS community site
• http://www.susning.nu/Folkspraak - This page is in Swedish.

See also

• Middelsprake, a constructed language based on the modern, living Germanic languages.