Folkspraak

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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.

1 Discussion and dialects
2 Middelsprake
3 Fůlkspræk / Folksprak
4 The Lord's Prayer
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Discussion and dialects

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).

[edit] Middelsprake

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.

[edit] Fůlkspræk / Folksprak

Fůlkspræk, also called Meta-Folksprak and Boksprak, has been developed by Stephan Schneider. Its 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).

[edit] The Lord's Prayer

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	Middelsprake	Folkspraak	Folksprak	ASCII Bas-Spraek	German	English
Ons Fader in Himmel,	User Fader we is in de hevel,	Ons Fater, whem leven in der Himmel,	Usser fader in de himmel,	Unser faather in the himel	Vater unser im Himmel,	Our father in heaven,
lat din Nam aren helig,	din name schal wese helliged	mai din Name werden helig	mag dain nam wes helig	hail\|ik wees thiin naam	geheiligt werde Dein Name,	hallowed be Your name,
Lat din Rikdom kommen.	din rik schal kom	Mai din Konigdom kommen.	dain koningdum/raik komm	thiin riik kom	Dein Reich komme.	Your kingdom come.
lat din Wil aren doede,	din wille schal schee,	Mai din will werden,	dain will wes dan/she	thiin wil skee	Dein Wille geschehe,	Your will be done,
aup de Erd als in de Himel.	so up erd as in de hevel	in der Erd und in der Himmel.	so up-an erd als in himmel	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,	geve us dis dag user daglig broed	Geven os distdag ons Brod,	Giv uss dis dag usser (daglig) brod,	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,	on forgeve us user skuld/synde	Und forgiv ons sindens,	end fergiv uss usser shuld,	und for\|geb uns unser skuld	Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,	And forgive us our sins,
als vi forgiv dem die skuld gegen os.	as wi forgeve dat af anderes	samme Weg als wi forgiv dem whem eren skuld to uns.	als wi fergiv dem we shuld gegen uss/dat av anders.	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,	on late us nik wese forsoeked	Und test os nihte,	End test uss nit/lad uss nit in fersuking,	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.	doch make us fri fran oevel	men spare os fraum der Sind.	end anstád spar uss fron yvel/doh mak uss frai fron yvel.	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.