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 bòghm) 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 òtachoh, "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 jˈwɪ̥skaŋ ju || wɪ kɑɲeːj utaxo juʊ̯ | kunhã(n) bogʃpɪkʲ]
Ay, you idiot! Why, can your stupid self not understand Bogspik?

Phonology

Consonants

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