Bogspik

Bogspik(bogspik, [ˈbogʃpɪkʲ]) is the primary English creole spoken by the Bog people. It is one of three official languages in the Smokey Dog Reservation, alongside Bògh(which is currently endangered) and English. A Bogspik speaker is often called a Bogspeaker. In Bogspik, a Bogspeaker is called either a spiksin or a pijumno(from English pidgin).

The endonym of the creole, bogspik, is derived from bog, "a Bog person"(from Bògh bògh, "Bògh (adjective)") and spik, "language, dialect, accent, manner of speaking", which is derived from the verb spikim, "to speak, to communicate"(both of which are taken from English speak).

History

Bogspik initially developed as a collective pidgin between speakers of Bògh and English, before developing into a stable creole sometime in the early 20th century. It was probably first used between traders, and then gradually slipped into contemporary Bògh culture.

Bogspik was first reported as its own language in 1915, when a newspaper article reported on the rift in communication between older, Bògh-speaking generations and younger predominantly English-speaking generations. Near the end of the article, the author jokingly refers to the new speech of the younger generations as "bogspeak", probably as a reference to the concept of doublespeak in George Orwell's 1984. Though evidently being a joke, the term "bogspeak", ironically, stuck with the "bogspeakers" themselves, and from then on the creole was colloquially, then later on officially, considered bogspik.

Various common Bogspik words are actually taken from derogatory terms towards Bogspeakers used by non-Bogspeakers, bogspik being one of them. Other examples include wiskan, "delinquent, idiot", from Bògh oischám, "a young delinquent, typically a native Bogspeaker as well"; utahho, "stupid", from Bògh òtacho, "uneducated", also has similar origins.

A famous Bogspik phrase, created by Jonad Conhant, satirises the prevalence of these terms by only using said nouns in a single phrase:

Ay, y'wiskan yu! Wi kàneey utahho yuw, kunhan bogspik?
[aj jˈwiskaŋ ju || wɪ kɑɲeːj utaxo juw | knhan bogʃpɪkʲ]
Ay, you idiot! Why, can your stupid self not understand Bogspik?

Decline of Bògh

Since the 1950s, the number of native speakers of Bògh has steadily decreased, while the number of native Bogspeakers has mostly steadily increased. Though most linguists have primarily attributed this decline to the dramatic increase in English proficiency among ethnic Bog people, many Bog elders, who still primarily speak Bògh as their native language, have attacked Bogspik instead, portraying it as a "bastardisation" of Bògh and a corrupting force among the youth. Thus, many villages in Smokey Dog discourage or actively prohibit the public use of Bogspik, aiming to stigmatise the creole. In reality, most studies have shown that this has actually benefited Bogspik more than Bògh; because of the suppression of the language, Bogspik has been portrayed as a counterculture and a sort of "underdog language" among the youth in these villages, which attracts more young learners.

To these youths, Bògh, despite being endangered, is seen as a symbol of the so-called "Old Guard" in Bog society, as well as the generation rift, which leads to higher popularity of Bogspik over Bògh.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Palatal	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t		k g		(ʔ)
Fricative		f v	s z, ʃ (ʒ)	x		h
Nasal	m		n~ŋ
Liquid			r	ɫ
Semivowel	w				j

Plosives(/k, g, t, d, p, b/) are palatalised at the end of a word, e.g. spiksin [ˈʃpik.zɪn], but bogspik [ˈbogʃpɪkʲ]. When an /s/ precedes a /p/, it palatalises to an orthographically unmarked [ʃ]. When it is placed after a /k/ or /g/, it voices to a [z]. Though [n] and [ŋ] are phonemically the same, most speakers only pronounce /n/ as [ŋ] at the end of a word.

Vowels

Bogspik retains the Bògh vowel system, in that there are stressed and unstressed variants for each of the six main vowels: /a, ɑ, e, i, o, u/. The following table shows the typical phonetic pronunciation of the five vowels and their variants, all in IPA.

Stressed	a	ɑ	e	i	o	u
Unstressed	ə			ɪ	ɒ	ʊ~∅

When speaking quickly, most speakers pronounce all vowels in their unstressed forms, e.g. Affa yuse stilun?([ˈaf.fə jʊˈse stɪˈɫun?], "Do you have your pen?") would become [əfə jʊsə stɪɫʊn?]~[əfə jsə stɪɫn?].

Morphology

Personal pronouns

Pronouns can be gendered by adding màn or ràn after the pronoun, as in sa màn "he" or ha màn "him", or sa ràn "she" or ha ràn "her", though many speakers shorten gendered sa and ha, as in s'màn "he" and h'ràn "her". However this can be applied to any pronoun, so yu màn is "You (male)", and wis ràn is "we women".

Nominative

	Singular	Plural
1st person	ày	wis
2nd person	yu	yus
Third person	sa	saw

Objective

	Singular	Plural
1st person	mi	os
2nd person	yuw	yuws
Third person	ha	haw