Folkspraak

Folkspraak (FS) is an International Auxiliary Language that is
currently in development. It is intended to serve as a lingua-franca
for communication with speakers of Germanic languages and it is based
on features common to the major modern Germanic languages.

The project is intended to be a co-operative and democratic effort
by a group of people who currently meet on a Yahoo group. The project
to develop Folkspraak has yet to be completed and it is beset with
disagreements over such features as phonology, orthography, vocabulary,
grammar and syntax. The failure to reach agreement means that there is
currently no “official” form of Folkspraak and there are a number of
“dialects”, which are individual group members´ versions of how they
think the language should be.

The primary source languages used for the development of Folkspraak
are English, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish – though
some members refer to further languages, such as Frisian, Low German and
Norwegian Nynorsk. The divergence of the source languages means it has
frequently proven harder than first anticipated to find elements sufficient
to operate the language that are truly common to a majority of the source
languages.

The Folkspraak described below is the “dialect” of Folkspraak Yahoo member
David Parke. The method of deriving phonology, vocabulary and grammar for
his dialect is inspired by the method used in the creation of Interlingua, but
the sample of source languages are different. The primary sample languages for
Parke’s Folkspraak are English, Dutch, German and Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
(the three Scandinavian languages are treated as one entity in a way analogous
to how the creators of Interlingua treated Spanish and Portuguese). There are
also two secondary sample languages, Interlingua and Slovio (both of them
constructed IAL themselves).

A lexical feature is present in Parke’s Folkspraak if a cognate feature is
present in three or more of the primary source languages. If a cognate feature
is present in only two of the primary source languages, it can still be present
in FS if it is present also in one or more of the secondary source languages.

The grammar includes features that are common to all of the primary source
languages. Controversially for an IAL, the implication of this is that Parke’s
FS has a number of irregular and strong verbs and also retains grammatical
cases and gender for personal pronouns. Parke intends his version of FS to be
used not just as a lingua-franca between speakers of Germanic languages, but
also to help native speakers of non-Germanic languages communicate with the
Germanic-speaking world. It is also intended as “primer” language leading on
to further study of real Germanic languages. The complex features such as
strong verbs help introduce students to features they will encounter in real
Germanic languages.

The phonology of Parke’s FS is based upon the most typical and predominant
evolution of phonemes from proto-Germanic into the phonemes of the modern
Germanic languages. For example proto-Germanic *î has regularly evolved into
[aɪ] in English and German and into very similar [ɛɪ] in
Dutch, and into [i:] in Scandinavian. Therefore the most common evolution of
*î is considered to be [aɪ] and Parke’s FS has this sound in such
words as wît (white) and mîn (my/mine).

The orthography is a compromise between total regularity and recognition
for as great a number of Germanic language speakers as possible. The orthography
is intended to provide clues to cognate words possibly form in the speaker’s
native Germanic language. As such, it has uni-directional regularity; where a
reader can know how to pronounce a word based on how it is spelt, but will not
necessarily know exactly how to spell a word on the basis of how it sounds.

Folkspraak pronunciation

A recording of the Folkspraak diphthongs by Jan Jurčík

A recording of the Folkspraak consonants by Jan Jurčík

Sample text in Folkspraak

All mensklik wesings âre boren frî on’ gelîk in
werđigheid on’ rejte. Đê âre begifted mid ferstand
on’ gewitt on’ skulde behandele êlkên in en gêst av
brôđerhêd.

A recording of this text by Crawford J. Bennett, Jr.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)