Folk's tongue

Folk's tongue (Folkstunge) is a language that is spoken by the Folk Nation in Northern California, and is one of their official languages alongside English. It is derived from English and other Germanic languages. It is a rich language with many different pronunciations and grammatical quirks. No standard form exists, making it a language of wide variety.

History
The Folk Nation is a small group of unique individuals from Northern California called the Folk Nation. The Folk Nation developed this language as a way to disguise their speech amongst non-members, as a way to increase intratribal unity, and as a way to better explain their experiences on this earth. It developed as a people's need for a collective and distinct identity. Originally this language was only used to perform ceremonies and rituals, or during legal processes, but recently it has become more popular as a daily language. The increase in the population of Folk Nation has led to the growth and expansion of this language, its vocabulary, and its use. Now there exists many poems and songs in the Folk's tongue.

Since this languages adaptation from ceremonial language to daily language, a number of changes occurred. The sound system began to evolve into a number of different dialects. However, during ceremonies the original pronunciation was kept. This developed a split in the language, one form that was more standardized for religious use and the other that began to develop into dialects specific to individuals. The ceremonial language was thought to sound softer and smoother to the ears and that's why the Folk Nation named it the Soft Language (softsprockin).

Many of the words and phrases have derived from their English counterparts. When a native English speaker hears folk's tongue being spoken they will instantly recognize many words and get a familiar feel from it. They will surely understand many of the words, but there is something strange about them. Folk's tongue has a more Scandinavian sound to it, and much of its vocabulary comes from Nordic-languages like Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. It also has some grammar features that are similar to German, but typically they are not as complicated.The language was also heavily influenced by Nordic languages and other Germanic languages.

Dialects
The Folk's Nation's creativity has led to an interesting phenomenon within the realm of the speakers. Each speaker may have their own unique pronunciation. This is one of the challenges of learning to communicate in this language, as one must be aware of the differences in the way people speak. They must also know that folk's tongue often has many grammatical features that are optional or redundant. Folk's tongue is also filled with words like arda, arth, jard, jord, and gord, which sound similar and mean similar things. The differences in the language are referred to as dialects, or bylieds. There are five principal dialects that are recognized (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Central), but even within these distinctions there exists so much variation in accent and one should pay attention when speaking with the Folk to get to know each individual's linguistic tendencies.

This language and its many ways of pronunciations and modes of expression allows for some of the most beautifully worded poetry in the world. The Folk Nation is known for its poetry, music, and great eloquence. They value people who can speak well and express things in unique ways to get the audience to think about things. They love spirituality and have many words to describe complex philosophical or religious ideas that can't be expressed in English. This is one of the unique advantages that this language allows its speakers.

Learning Folk's tongue can be a very easy, but sometimes a bit challenging, but the reward for learning it is great. Learning to communicate in this language will allow the speaker to have a unique voice in the world and have a hand in shaping the way the language is spoken in the future. It's a really wonderful way to deepen and develop one's perspective and worldview, and can bring immense benefits through the freedom it allows.

The dialect described in this wiki comes from the Central Dialect of Folk's tongue (midbyliedin). The Central Dialect is considered to be the most neutral dialect. We do not describe the Soft Language here, since this is the special form of the language that is only used on special occasions. We might create a couple new pages to learn more about the different dialects and the Soft Language.

Phonology
There are a total of 30 different phonemes in the Central Folk's Tongue Dialect. 12 of these are vowel sounds and 18 of them are consonant sounds. These 30 different phonemes are represented by letters or combination of letters in the following alphabet:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPRSTUVWY

Vowels
There exist 12 vowels in the Central Dialect of Folk's tongue, 6 short and 6 long. Vowels are similar to English in that they can be long or short. Typically a vowel is only long if it's in a stressed syllable and followed by no more than one consonant. The only vowels that may come at the end of a word are A, E, and Y. When in the final position, A and Y are reduced to schwas and the E is mostly considered to be silent.

Semi-vowels
There are two (or three) semi-vowels that exist in this dialect. They are J and V/W. An interesting feature about Folk's tongue is the recent development of the V and W sounds. In the Soft Language they were considered the same sound and the same letter. Now, they are considered different sounds and different letters, but they are often used interchangeably. In the Central Dialect, they only differ in sound when preceding a vowel sound, and only W is used to represent the semi-vowel sound in the initial position. Here are the sounds when they come before a vowel.

Diphthongs
The semi-vowels are also used to form diphthongs when they come after a vowel. A diphthong is when two vowels are formed together to make one sound. Here is a list of the acceptable diphthongs. * ie is the only diphthong that is created with two full vowels.

Silent E and Vowel Quality Shift
When an E comes at the end of a word, it is usually silent. However, if the end of the word is made up of a vowel followed by a single consonant with a silent E at the end, the internal vowel tends to change it's quality a bit. Here is a chart with the sound differences. Not that we use the N to represent the consonant sound for the example, but nearly any consonant could replace it in actuality.

Consonants
There are 16 distinct consonant phonemes in midbyliedin. Below is a list of the consonants and their pronunciation. * C is only used for stylistic purposes to replace the first k in a double k cluster (kk = ck)

** D is pronouned more like a voiced th sound like in there when after a vowel sound. These two sounds are considered to be the same sound.

*** G is never pronounced like the j in jam. When after a vowel, it is almost silent.

**** R is a letter that has two main sounds. The "hard-R" or the "soft-R." The soft-R only comes after vowels, and is almost not pronounced like the British R. The hard-R can come before or after vowels and is similar to the American R.

***** S is pronounced like the s in soon when coming in the initial position. It might be pronounced like a z when between two vowels or when following a voiced consonant.

The letters Q, X, and Z are not typically used, except in foreign names. In older times it was more common to change these letters so that the spelling of the name was matched with the Folk's sound system, (ex. Xavier would be Eksavier or Havier). Now, it is becoming more common to see the foreign letters in names like Xavier, Jacqueline, or Zosia.

Consonant Clusters
Many consonant clusters exist in Folk's tongue. Here is a list of all the acceptable clusters in the initial position and in the final position.

Stress
The stress of a word is typically on the first syllable. If the word is only one syllable, it may be stressed or not. It is important to know when a word is stressed because sometimes it changes the meaning of the word. (ex. an/an, when stressed an means one, when unstressed it means and).

Pronouns
There are three sets of pronouns in the Folk's tongue. Subject pronouns, object pronouns, and possessive pronouns. Subject pronouns are used to refer to who or what is doing an action and object pronouns are used to refer to who or what is on the receiving end of that action. Possessive pronouns are more like possessive adjectives and are used to describe who or what something belongs to.

Subject Pronouns
Han is used to refer to things which have a gender, animals or people. It can be translated as he or she. Det is used for things which have no gender and can be translated as it.

Direct Object Pronouns
Direct object is when someone verbs something. For example, I love the dog, the dog is the direct object.

Indirect Object Pronouns
Indirect object is when an action is being done to or for someone or something. For example, I throw the ball to the dog, the dog is the indirect object.

Indirect object pronouns can also be used to show relations between things, and can come before or after the noun they modify.

Possessive Pronouns
Ex:      my kop,  my cup (I own it).

mer fren/fren af mer, my friend (I don't own a person).

Nouns
Nouns in Folk's tongue have no gender or case, and only change depending on number. They can be singular or plural.

Plural
To make a noun plural, usually you add an "-s," just like English. But some irregular nouns undergo a vowel change to make the plural, and still other irregulars have the same form in singular and plural. Most nouns are regular and follow the add "-s" rule.

Ex: hund, dog → hunds, dogs

mann, man→ menn, men

barn, child→ barn, children

Definite Article
The definite article in English is the word "the." It is used to show that the noun it goes with is a specific thing that has already been defined. In Folk's Tongue Central Dialect, the definite article works similar to Scandinavian languages. It is attached to the end of a word as a suffix "-in."

Ex: hund/hunds, dog/dogs→ hundin/hundins, the dog/the dogs

S-Genitive
In the Folk's Tongue, the suffix "-s" also might signify the genitive, or possessive, case. This is similar to English.

Ex: hundins ball, the dog's ball

Verbs
Verbs come in many different varieties in Folk's Tongue. All verbs may have two forms to denote time, present or past. There is also another form called infinitive which is a neutral form. Verbs are always listed in the dictionary in their infinitive form. The infinitive form will always follow the preposition "fa" and the verb will end in an -a (ex: fa lera, to learn/teach). Most verbs follow regular patterns, but there are some irregulars.

Present Tense
The present tense of a regular verb is formed by dropping the fa and the final a (sometimes add a final e). Some verbs are a little irregular in the present tense and might have a vowel change in the verb root. Some verbs are highly irregular and have different present tense forms altogether.

Ex: Regular verb: fa drinka, to drink→ ig drink, I drink

Stem Change:   fa lera, to learn/teach→ ig lare, I teach

Irregular:  fa vera, to be→ ig ar, I am

Past Tense
The past tense can be formed one of two ways. Either the stem takes on a -t or -d suffix like all regular verbs, or the stem undergoes a vowel change in the stem.

Ex: Regular past: fa komma, to come→ ig komt, I came

Irregular past: fa drinka, to drink→ ig drenk, I drank

Some verbs that are regular in present tense might be irregular in past tense or vice versa. It is good to learn which patterns the verb must follow.