Folksprak
| Folksprak | |
|---|---|
| ᚠᚩᛚᛣᛋᛈᚱᚪᛣ | |
 | |
| Writing | w:Runes |
| Region: | w: |
| Genders: | 0 (3rd-sg pronouns) |
| Cases: | 0 (except on pronouns) |
| Alignment | Nominative-Accusative |
| Proto-language: | w:Proto-Germanic language |
| Typology: | Fusional |
| Word-Order | V2 |
| Languages: | w:German language,
w:Bavarian language, w:Luxembourgish language w:Yiddish w:Dutch language w:Flemish w:Afrikaans w:Frisian languages w:Norwegian language |
| Population: | 110 million |
 | |
|
Africa: SEDES • Middle Semitic • Kintu • Guosa Central Asia: Jalpi • Caucas • Zens • Dravindian • Neo-Sanskrit Europe: Intralingua • Folksprak • Interslavic • Balkan • Samboka Far East: Dan'a'yo • IM • MSEAL | |
Anthropology
The language can easily be understood by any speaker of a Germanic language (a group numbering over 110 million native speakers with an additional 300 to 900 million speaking English which is nearly-Germanic) without much teaching. For example, a native speaker of German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Afrikaans, Yiddish or some other Germanic language, can understand a sentence like ᛁᛣᛣ ᚻᚪᚹ ᛋᛣᚱᛁᚹᛏ ᛖᚾ ᛞᛖ ᛒᚢᛣ/Ik hav skrivt en de buk with little or no thought.
Design goals include
- intelligible with little or no training to Germanic speakers
- simple enough for ease of learning to write or speak about normal topics
- precise enough to deal with more complex topics (e.g. science, maybe philosophy)
where the importance descends from first to last.
Phonology
The rhotic varies across the region, and h is sometimes voiced, but neither of these pose a problem to intelligibility. Icelandic-speakers would have to learn the traditional voiced-unvoiced distinction whatever language they wanted to learn!
| Labial | Alveolar | Post. | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | *ŋ | ||
| Voiced Stop | /b/ | /d/ | /g/ | ||
| Unvoiced Stop | /p/ | /t/ | */θ~ð/ | /k/ | |
| Voiced Fricative | /v/ | */z/ | |||
| Unvoiced Fricative | /f/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /x/ | /h/ |
| Approximant | /r/ | /j/} | |||
| Lateral | /l/ |
There are set digraphs for non-Germanic sounds: Some non-Germanic sounds are used in transcription:
- zj = [ž] or [zh] or /ʒ/
- cj = [č] or [ch] or /tʃ/
Vowels
There are twelve vowels, six short and six long. All vowels raise when they lengthen, excepta, which moves further back. A vowel is long when it is:
- stressed and
- followed by no more than a single consonant
All other vowels are pronounced short, or even reduced. Vowels written twice are said over two syllables.
| Round | Front | Middle | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | /ʏ/ /yː/ | /ɪ/ /iː/ | /ʊ/ /uː/ | |
| Mid. | /œ/ /øː/ | /ɛ/ /eː/ | /ə/ * | /ɔ/ /oː/ |
| Low | /a/ /äː/ | |||
Diphthongs are oi, ou, ai, ei. au is the same as ou. eu is just long u.
Orthography
Consonants
English [th] and [z] are rather late additions to the alphabet, and not part of Folksprak today. There are, in fact, many such letters which would be needed for place names around Europe. ᛊ/Z, ᛢ/Q, ᛝ/Ŋ, and ᚦ/Þ are not productive and part of "historic" name spellings only. Swedish /ɧ/ may be written ᚺ. (Other "old" letters include ᛠ/Ä, ᚫ/Æ, ᛡ/Ï, ᛥ/ST, ᚸ/Ȝ, and ᛤ/KK.)
| Labial | Alveolar | Post. | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ ᛗ | /n/ ᚾ | *ŋ *ᛝ | ||
| Voiced Stop | /b/ ᛒ | /d/ ᛞ | /g/ ᚷ | ||
| Unvoiced Stop | /p/ ᛈ | /t/ ᛏ | */θ~ð/ *ᚦ | /k/ ᛣ | |
| Voiced Fricative | /v/ ᚹ | */z/ *ᛊ | |||
| Unvoiced Fricative | /f/ ᚠ | /s/ ᛋ | /ʃ/ ᚳ | /x/ ᛉ | /h/ ᚻ |
| Approximant | /r/ ᚱ | /j/ ᛄ | |||
| Lateral | /l/ ᛚ |
Vowels
| Round | Front | Middle | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | /ʏ/ /yː/ ᚣ | /ɪ/ /iː/ ᛁ | /ʊ/ /uː/ ᚢ | |
| Mid. | /œ/ /øː/ ᛟ | /ɛ/ /eː/ ᛖ | /ə/ * | /ɔ/ /oː/ ᚩ |
| Low | /a/ /äː/ ᚪ | |||
Morphophonology
- definite article ᛞᛖ/de
- indefinite article ᛖᚾ/en, same as 'one' (different vowel length)
- possessive (genitive) ending -ᛋ/s
- plural ending -ᛖᚾ/en (pronounced enn)
- Adjectives do not inflect for number, gender, or case
- comparative adjective ending -ᛖᚱ/er (pronounced err)
- superlative adjective ending -ᛖᛋᛏ/est
- ordinal number suffix -ᛞᛖ/de
ᛗᚪᚾᚾmann ᛗᚪᚾᚾᛖᚾmannen ᛗᚪᚾᚾᛋmanns ᛗᚪᚾᚾᛖᚾᛋmannens
Morphosyntax
- the Subject may not be separated from the finite verb by any other word.
- the ordinary position for the verb in a declarative sentence is as second element and in imperatives or questions as the first element.
- the grammatical Subject must always come before any objects
Pronouns
| # | Case | Person | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Second | Third | |||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Reflexive | ||||
| Singular | Nominative | ᛁᛣᛣ ikk | ᛞᚢ du | ᚻᛁ hi | ᛋᛁ si | ᛁᛏᛏ itt | No |
| Genitive | ᛗᛁᚾ min | ᛞᛁᚾ din | ᚻᛁᛋᛋ hiss | ᚻᛁᚱ hir | ᛁᛏᛋ its | ᛋᛁᚾ sin | |
| Poss. | ᛗᛁᚾᛋ mins | ᛞᛁᚾᛋ dins | ᚻᛁᚱᛋ hirs | ᛋᛁᚾᛋ sins | |||
| Accusative | ᛗᛁ mi | ᛞᛁ di | ᚻᛁᛗᛗ himm | ᚻᛁᚱᚱ hirr | ᛁᛏᛏ itt | ᛋᛁᚷ sig | |
| Plural | Nominative | ᚹᛁ vi | ᛄᛁ ji | ᛞᛖᛁ dei | No | ||
| Genitive | ᚢᚱ ur | ᛄᚢᚱ jur | ᛞᛖᛁᚱ deir | ᛋᛁᚾ sin | |||
| Poss. | ᚢᚱᛋ urs | ᛄᚢᚱᛋ jurs | ᛞᛖᛁᚱᛋ deirs | ᛋᛁᚾᛋ sins | |||
| Accusative | ᚢᛋ us | ᛄᚢ ju | ᛞᛖᛗᛗ demm | ᛋᛁᚷ sig | |||
Verbs
- Verbs inflect for tense, not number or person.
- The lexical form is the infinitive (+e)
- Infinitive is +ᛖe
- Present and Imperative are the bare form (-e)
- Past tense is +ᛞᛖde
- Active participle +ᛖᚾᛞᛖende
- Passive participle +ᛏt
- ᚹᚪᚱᛖvare (to be) is the only irregular verb
- ᚹᚪᚱᛖvare - infin.; ᚪᚱar - pres.; ᚹᚪᚱvar - imper.,preterite;
- Auxiliaries abound, normally with infin., but sometimes past part.
Adverb making suffix: -ᛚᛁᛣlik (cp. English -ly). Elatives need ᛗᛖᚱmer more and ᛗᛖᛋᛏmest most
Lexicography
see also Folksprak/Swadesh