Folkspraak

Introduction

Native Speakers Of Germanic Languages

Design Goals And Principles

Vocabulary Design

Proposed Grammar

Vocabulary

History

Introduction [Home/Hem]

Once complete, Folkspraak should be quickly learnable by any native speaker of a Germanic language (see table below), a group numbering over 465 million native speakers (with an additional 300 to 900 million speaking English as a second language).

Folkspraak is not meant to be designed by any one individual, but is a collective work created by all interested parties, according to the basic guidelines set below. You can contribute a word to the language just by sending an e-mail to Jeffrey Henning, listing your proposed word, its meaning and its form in three other Germanic languages (in addition to English). You can volunteer to have a greater part in the design of the language as well (see Further Design: How You Can Help!).

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Native Speakers Of Germanic Languages - circa 1985 [Home/Hem]

*Dead language.

All population estimates adapted from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 1987.

Design Goals And Principles [Home/Hem]

A secondary objective is simply to create a model language through the active participation of many contributors, providing for a less solitary, more interactive hobby.

A secondary goal of creating the Folkspraak vocabulary is to assist Rick Harrison in his creation of the Universal Language Dictionary (ULD). Once the Folkspraak dictionary has reached a suitable size, the cognate forms will be formatted in ULD format. (ULD already has German and Dutch lexicons, and an English definition file.)

Vocabulary Design [Home/Hem]

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1. Release Notes

   0.5.0 – Dan Dawe's initial version, June 29, 1999

   0.5.1 – Jeffrey Henning's first copy editing and formatting session, June 29, 1999

   0.5.2 – Jeffrey Henning's second editing and formatting session, correcting typos identified by Dan and integrating some of Dan's e-mailed comments into the introduction

   Your comments are welcome – please join the Folkspraak mailing list.

2. Introduction

   The primary tongues of the currently used Germanic languages of Western Europe can be viewed as one, if in each the traits that distinguish it from its sister Germanic languages are disregarded. The result is Folkspraak, which differs from the natural Germanic languages from which it is derived as a personality type differs from the individuals it represents. – Folkspraak is derived from English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, treated as one group. It is the common Germanic language of all Germanic speaking peoples and is understood, like a streamlined version of one's native Germanic tongue.

   While the Folkspraak lexical building is a separate effort, grammar of course cannot be formulated in the absence of words. Therefore, a few grammatical words have been chosen under the assumption that these words would be adopted in the Folkspraak lexicon. If this is not in fact the case, the grammatical point can be easily deduced and correctly applied to the intended word, which is adopted into the Folkspraak lexicon. If a word form or root appears or is understandable in three of the four Germanic languages (counting the Scandinavian languages as one), then it is adopted into Folkspraak.

   Here is the proposed grammar for Folkspraak. I have been thinking about this for awhile. I have not seen any other attempts. I modeled the approach closely after the grammatical approach of Interlingua, except I have Germanized it. This is an earnest approach to devise a grammar that would be simple, easy to learn and easy to master, and would seem familiar in some degree to any speaker of German, English, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages. The goal would be to have all speakers of German, English, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages
   be able to at least partially read Folkspraak without any prior exposure to
   it and be able to understand the gist.

   Now with the proposed grammar defined, we will circulate it on the web and see if we can move together in a reasoned manner to a consensus. Even in grammar it comes down in many cases to just making a judgment and a decision among a number of plausibly equally valid alternatives. If we could test the proposal by having a number of native speakers from each group evaluate the intelligibility of the grammar in some kind of survey, then we could be semi-objective. In a perfect world, we would have native speakers from each language with no exposure to the other languages try to read the text according to various grammars and
   lexicons. The most readily intelligible grammar and lexicon to such a reader would win.

3. Spelling & Pronunciation

   The letters are those of the standard Roman alphabet without stress marks or other diacritical signs. The PRONUNCIATION is on the whole "classical" (vowels as in modern German; 'c' before 'e', 'i', 'y' like 's' or 'ts', otherwise like 'k'; 'th' like 't'; 'ph' like 'f'; etc.). The STRESS is "natural" if it falls most frequently on the vowel before the last consonant.

4. Articles

1. Definite Article

   The word for "the" is der for all genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and numbers (singular and plural).

2. Indefinite Article

   The word for "a" / "an" is en for all genders (restricted to the singular).

3. Word Order

1. Nouns

1. Capitalization

   Nouns are capitalized as in German to assist in distinguishing when a word is used as a noun rather than another form. For example, the verb infinitives can be used as nouns simply by capitalizing the word.

2. Number
   1. Singular Nouns

      The canonical form of a noun is unmarked for singular (e.g., Man = "man").

   2. Plural Nouns

   The plural of nouns ends in -ens after consonants and –ns after vowels in all genders. For example, Man = "man" becomes Manens = "men".

3. Case

   Nouns do not change form for case.

   1. Dative Nouns

      Indirect objects (dative) are always formed by the preposition zu = "to", as in ik gebe der Buk zu hem = "I give the book to him."

   2. Possessive Nouns

1. Adjectives & Adverbs

1. Adjectives

   The adjective is invariable. It shows no agreement in form with the noun or pronoun it modifies.

   Word Order

   It precedes the noun that it modifies. For example, en gud Man = "a good man".

2. Adverb

   Derived Adverbs

   Adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of -lik. For example, neu = "new" becomes neulik = "newly".

   Primary Adverbs

   Folkspraak has, of course, so-called primary adverbs, which are not derived from adjectives and do not end in -lik.

3. Comparatives

1. Personal Pronouns, Possessive Adjectives

1. Capitalization

   Any form of the pronoun can be made into a formal form by capitalizing it where used, otherwise it is assumed to be the familiar form when used in lower case.

2. Word Order

   The object form normally follows the verb.

   The indirect form always takes the preposition zu = "to" and usually precedes the object.

   The possessive adjective occurs immediately before the noun it qualifies.

3. Subject Pronouns
   1. Singular

      English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
      I	ich	ik	jeg	jeg	Jag	ik
      you	du	Jij, Je	du	du	du, ni	du
      he	er	Hij	han	han	Han	hie
      she	sie	Zij	hun	hun	Hon	shie
      it	es	Het	det	det	den, det	det

   2. Plural

   English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
   we	wir	Wij	vi	vi	vi	vi
   you	Sie	Je, U	i, de	dere	ni	u
   they	sie	zij	de	de	de	de

4. Object Pronouns
   1. Singular

      English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
      me	mir, mich	mij, me	mig	meg	mig	mi
      You	dir, dich	jou, je, u	dig	deg	dig	di
      Him	ihm, ihn	hem	ham	ham	honom	hem
      Her	ihr, sie	haar	hende	heene	henne	hen
      It	es, ihm	het	dem	den, det	den, det	den

   2. Plural

   English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
   Us	uns	ons	os	oss	oss	os
   You	euch, Sie, Ihnen	je, u, jullie	jer, dem	dere	ede, r	jem
   Them	Sie, ihnen	hun, hen, haar, ze	dem	dem	dem	dem

5. Possessive Adjectives
   1. Singular

      English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
      my	mein	Mijn	min, mit, mine	min, mitt, mine	min, mitt, mina	min
      your	dein	Jouw, je, Uw,jullie	din, dit, dine	din, ditt, dine	din, ditt, dina	din
      his	sein	zijn	sin, sit, han, sine	hans	hans	sin
      her	ihr	Haar	sin, sit, hendes, sine	hennes	hennes	har
      its	sein	zijn	sin, sit, dens, dets, sine	dens, dets	dess	dets

   2. Plural

   English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
   our	Unser	Ons, onze	vores, vore	var, vart, vare	var, vart, vare	ons
   your	Euer	je, Uw, jullie	jeres, eders	deres	deras	eures
   their	Ihr	Hun	deres	deres	deras	deres

6. Possessive Pronouns
   1. Singular

      English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
      mine	meiner	Mijne	min, mit, mine	min, mitt, mine	min, mitt, mina	miner
      yours	deiner	Jouwe, uwe	din, dit, dine	din, ditt, dine	din, ditt, dina	diner
      his	seiner	zijne	sin, sit, han, sine	hans	hans	siner
      hers	ihrer	hare	sin, sit, hendes, sine	hennes	hennes	harer
      its	seiner	zijne	sin, sit, dens, dets, sine	dens, dets	dess	detser

   2. Plural

   English	German	Dutch	Danish	Norwegian	Swedish	Folkspraak
   ours	unserer	onze	vores, vore	var, vart, vare	var, vart, vare	onser
   yours	euerer	uwe	jeres, eders	deres	deras	eurer
   theirs	ihrer	hunne	deres	deres	deras	derer

7. Summary

   The Folkspraak pronouns are thus:

   1. Singular

      Subject	Object	Possessive Adjective	Possessive Pronoun	Reflexive
      ik	mi	min	miner	sich
      du	di	din	diner	sich
      hie	hem	sin	siner	sich
      shie	hen	har	harer	sich
      det	den	dets	detser	sich

   2. Plural

1. Verbs

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