Thursday, November 29, 2018

Amerysk and Folkspraak

Amerysk is a conlang (constructed language) created by Paal Filssunu in 1978. It was meant to give English-speakers in North America a more Germanic language experience, since Modern English has so many Latinate and other non-Germanic loanwords. The creator and early users of the language were Odinists (Norse Neopagans.)

Folkspraak began in 1995, and is meant as an inter-Germanic language. There are several variants of Folkspraak. See the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folkspraak

It is traditional to 'road-test' a conlang by translating the Our Father, or Lord's Prayer. This is not only a good test, it's practical. Christian users of the conlang--- and others who pray--- can use the Our Father in prayer.

Here is the Our Father in Folkspraak.


Ons Fater,
whem leven in der Himmel,
Mai din Name werden helig,
Mai din Konigdom kommen,
Mai din will werden,
in der Erd und in der Himmel.
Geven os distdag ons Brod,
Und forgiv ons sindens,
samme Weg als wi forgiv dem whem eren skuld to uns.
Und test os nihte,
men spare os fraum der Sind.

Amerysk does not have an Our Father translation that I know of. Or a translation of any Odinist prayer or proverb. Good things for Odinists to translate can be found in the Poetic Edda. I am going to be translating the Our Father into Amerysk, and the Hail Mary prayer as well And maybe the Glory Be, for that matter. (As you may have guessed, I am now Catholic.)

I need the text for a science-fictional story I am writing, in which an order of Catholic brothers prays the rosary in a variety of conlangs, including Universalglot, VolapΓΌk, Esperanto, Ido, Slovio, and, of course Amerysk. Once I translate something for it, anyway.

Is anyone other than myself interested in Amerysk? Probably not. I searched on Duck Duck Go, and everything I found was something I put on the internet myself. I found Amerysk by accident. When I was an Odinist, I met a fellow Odinist and he showed me some old Odinist papers he had. A booklet on Amerysk was among them. I thought it was my responsibility to put these things up online, since I didn't know if anyone else even had these papers.

I have an interest in conlangs, especially unusual ones. I want to do my bit for Amerysk. I am going to fix up this blog a bit, do some translating of stuff into Amerysk, and help anyone who wants to learn or use the language.

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