Folksprak

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Folksprak
ᚠᚩᛚᛣᛋᛈᚱᚪᛣ
Universal Language Map
Writingw:Runes
Region:w:
Genders:0
Cases:0
AlignmentNominative-Accusative
Proto-language:w:Proto-Germanic language
Typology:Fusional
Word-OrderV2
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
Flag of Folksprak

Africa: SEDESMiddle SemiticKintuGuosa Central Asia: JalpiCaucasZensDravindianNeo-Sanskrit Europe: IntralinguaFolksprakInterslavicBalkanSamboka Far East: Dan'a'yoIMMSEAL

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

  1. intelligible with little or no training to Germanic speakers
  2. simple enough for ease of learning to write or speak about normal topics
  3. 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/
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:

  1. stressed and
  2. 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. /Z, /Q, /Ŋ, and /Þ are not productive and part of "historic" name spellings only. Swedish /ɧ/ may be written . (Other "old" letters include /Ä, /Æ, /Ï, /ST, /Ȝ, and /KK.)

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/


Vowels

Round Front Middle Back
High /ʏ/ /yː/ /ɪ/ /iː/ /ʊ/ /uː/
Mid. /œ/ /øː/ /ɛ/ /eː/ /ə/ * /ɔ/ /oː/
Low /a/ /äː/

Morphology

  • 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

Word order

  1. the Subject may not be separated from the finite verb by any other word.
  2. the ordinary position for the verb in a declarative sentence is as second element and in imperatives or questions as the first element.
  3. 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 +e
  • Present and Imperative are the bare form (-e)
  • Past tense is +ᛞᛖde
  • Active participle +ᛖᚾᛞᛖende
  • Passive participle +t
  • 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