Burgendish
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Burgendish Borgenzco | |
Spoken in: | Burgundy (Borgonze) |
Conworld: | possibly Lucus |
Total speakers: | extinct |
Genealogical classification: | Indo-European
|
Basic word order: | V2 |
Morphological type: | inflecting |
Morphosyntactic alignment: | accusative |
Writing system: | |
Created by: | |
BPJ | 2007 |
Borgenzco /ˈboɾɣən(d)sko/was a sister language to Gothic which was still spoken by Burgundians in 12th century Gaul. In English it is called Burgendish — a supposed modern derivative of the Old English ethnonym Burgendan 'Burgundians'. In Lucal Inglisc it would rather be Burgændisc, also pronounced /ˈbɜʴɡəndɪʃ/ .
Phonologically Burgendish was about as advanced as Old English. It had shared its most recent phonological developments with the co-territorial Romance language Rhodrese as a result of long-term bilingualism.
Alphabet and pronunciation
A a | /a/ | A low unrounded vowel. It is unclear whether it was [a] or [ɑ]. Very occasionally a was used for [ə], especially after a g to show that it was to be pronounced /ɡ/ and not /ʤ/; thus [ˈborɣəndə] could be spelled borgande beside borgende and the equally occasional borghende. |
---|---|---|
B b | [b] | A voiced bilabial stop. The sound [b] occurred only initially, in the combination [mb] and geminated as [bb]. The phoneme /b/ had an allophone [β] which was usually spelled with v. |
C c | [k], [ts] | Usually a voiceless velar stop. Very occasionally c was used for the combination /ts/ before the letters e, i or y. The very unusual cz was a variant of tz or thz. |
Ch ch | [k], [x] | Used for the voiceless velar stop before the letters e, i or y. Before consonants and word-finally it stands for [x], which is an allophone of /h/ or /g/, e.g. chleifs, douchter, ouchſe, dachs (also dags), macht/magt, dach/dag, iach/iag < *jah. N.B. that ch and g for word-final [x] were in free variation, regardless of whether the underlying/etymological final was /h/ or /g/ |
D d | [d], [ð] | The phoneme /d/ had two allophones: [d] which occurred initially, in the combinations /nd/ and /ld/, in gemination and perhaps in the combination /dz/ written z. Since there was no contrast between /d/ and /θ/ after vowels th is occasionally found for [ð] in this position, and word finally th and d are practically in free variation for [θ]. |
E e | [e] | In stressed syllables a high mid unrounded front vowel, possibly even [ɪ], or a low or low mid unrounded front vowel [æ] or [ɛ] when it represents the i-umlaut of *a. The latter was very occasionally spelled æ, but the two were always kept apart in rimes. In unstressed syllables e stood for [ə]. |
Ea ea | [ɛɐ]/[æː] | A diphthong [ɛɐ]or a long low unrounded front vowel [æː]. The breaking to a diphthong may have taken place during the 12th century — thus somewhat later than in Rhodrese —, or the occasional æ spellings in the relevant words are mere slips. |
Ei ei (Ey ey) | [ɛɪ] | A front unrounded diphthong, e.g. in chleifs. Unlike the case in Rhodrese there was no contrasting [eɪ] diphthong. |
F f | [ɸ]/[f] | An unrounded bilabial or labiodental fricative. |
G g | [ɡ]/[ʤ], [ɣ], [x] | The most multivalued letter in Burgendish writing. Initially it ussually stood for [ɡ], but medial double gg before the letters e, i and y usually stood for [ʤ], as in degge, while medial single g usually stood for [ɣ] as in borgende, and final g stood for [x]. While [ɡ], [ɣ] and [x] arguably were allophones of a single phoneme /ʤ/ < *gj, *gi,e
was a distinct phoneme. |
Gh gh | [ɡ], [ɣ] | Was very occasionally used to differentiate [ɡ] or [ɣ] from [ʤ] before the letters e, i and y. |
H h (hh) | [h], Ø | Medial [h] was usually written hh, e.g. thoahhe. Perhaps it was still pronounced [x]? |
Hu hu uh | [ʍ] | The voiced counterpart of /w/ was written hu initially and medially, but uh finally: huaſug, ahua, sauh. Occasional spellings like saf, nief for sauh, nieuh may indicate that a merger was under way. |
I i (j) Y y | [i], [j] | I and y were used interchangeably for both /i/ and /j/, and as usual in medieval writing j was merely a graphic variant of i. Unlike the case in Rhodrese initial or medial i never stood for /ʤ/ in Burgendish. An i between two vowels was usually [jj] but was seldom written ii or ij, e.g. usually leie and only occasionally leiie. The usual spelling buiie should be interpreted as the ui digraph for /y/ followed by i for /jj/. Cf. the nonce spelling beuie for the same word. |
Ie ie (Ye ye) | ||
K k | ||
L l | ||
M m | ||
N n | ||
O o | ||
Oa oa | oals < *aɣlus vs. thoahhe < *þwahan | |
Oe oe | [ø] | |
Ou ou | ||
P p | ||
Qu qu | ||
R r | ||
S ſ ſſ ſs s | [s], [z] | While ſ was used word-initially and s word-finally for /s/, medially ſ, ſſ and ſs were distinct graphemes for the two phonemes /z/ and /s/ and the geminate /ss/, e.g. nexeſe /ˈnaʃəzə/ aſſens /ˈasəns/ uueſse /ˈwessə/. N.B. the occasional occurrence of triple ſſſ for /ss/ as in uueſſſo. This was an elaboration on the pattern in Rhodrese orthography where the use of ſ for /z/ and ſſ for /s/ was due to the fact that the voicing distinction went back to a distinction between single /s/ [z] and geminate /ss/ in Latin. |
T t | ||
Th th | θ | *þ |
Thz thz | θʲ, ɕ | *þj |
Tx tx | ʧ | *kj, *ki,e
|
Tz tz | ts | *tj |
V u v | ||
Vi ui | [y] | |
Vo uo | ||
VV uu w | ||
X x | ʃ | *sj |
xz | ʒ | *zj |
Z z | dz | *dj |
Historical phonology
Germanic | Early Burgundian | Burgendish | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Stressed | Unstressed | Final | ||
*a | a | e, Ø | -Ø | |
*an / _h, *aɣ / _{C,#} | *a:, [aː], [ɒː] | ea, oa | a | -a |
*an, *am | an, am | en, em | -a | |
*e, *i | *i, *-Ø | ¨e,Ø | ¨-Ø | |
*en, *in, *em, *im | *in, *im | ¨en, ¨em | ¨-e | |
*æ:, *e: | ie | i | -e | |
*i: | ¨i | ¨-e | ||
*o, *u | *u | °o | °e, °Ø | °-Ø |
*on, *un, *om, *um | *un, *um | °on, °om | °-a | |
*u: | u | °o | °-o | |
*o: | uo | o | -o | |
*ai | ei | e | -e | |
*au | ou | o | -o |