Since the Bogomol are machi and share the same physiology as the speakers of the language Machi, their method of sound production and of harmonizing pitches are the same. Differences lie in the way that the basic pitches of the machi vocal instrument are combined and in the grammar of the languages.
The basic phonemic unit of Bogomol is a three-tone syllable. Bogomol uses the 15 tones of Machi, but combines them differently. All the tones of the syllable are of equal duration and are smoothly legato. There is no division between syllables; each flows smoothly into the next. The machi skill at musical rythmn structures the stream of sound into three-note groups (it should be noted, however, that speakers of Machi find Bogomol difficult to understand).
Since Bogomol tribal bands are relatively small, speakers of Bogomol generally encounter individuals who are well-known to them. Thus, there is little need for the "reference syllable" that speakers of Machi use to establish their fundamental tone when dealing with strangers. Instead of a formal, established syllable, Bogomol machi simply precede their utterances when necessary with a long note at their fundamental tone as reference.
The Russians have developed their own transcription scheme for Bogomol. Since the 15 tones of the machi vocal apparatus are simply combined in Bogomol, the symbols needed in Machi for duration, staccato and triplets can be discarded. The Russian scheme for Bogomol involves making simple alphabetical equivalents for each tone, and then constructing three-letter syllables which directly represent the actual tones of the syllable. Note that the Russian scheme also by convention places Bogomol utterances in a chromatic key of F. Thus:
Tones: F-Gb-G-Ab-A-Bb-B-C- Db-D- Eb-E- f- gb-g Consonants: b-v- g-d -j-z- k-l- m- n- p- r- s- t- f Vowels: a-ye-i-o- u-y- e-yu-ya-aa-ee-ii-oo-uu-yy
The vowel symbols are used in the middle, and the consonant symbols at beginning and end, so each syllable is of the type CVC, and thus pronouncable (the symbol j stands for the Russian zh; the symbol y stands for Russian uy, and is a vowel). A great advantage of this system is that it directly relates to the actual sounds of Bogomol. The transcribed word gyar, for example, can be reliably converted back to its original G-Db-E just by reference to the above table.
This syllable structure yields only 3375 possible morphemes, which does not seem like a large enough number for a functional language, but this number is increased by the fact that many morphemes of Bogomol have up to 9 possible meanings, called zvania, or 'ranks'. This increases the number of morphemes to over 30300, but this number is reduced somewhat by the many morphemes which have only one rank. (The term 'rank' derives from written Bogomol, which is glyphic in nature: the rank of each glyph is indicated by a dot placed on the glyph higher or lower in relation to the base line. A sometime synonym for zvanie in Russian is uroven', or 'level', but zvanie was selected in preference for a less visually-oriented term.)
Bogomol has been called by the Russians a kvantoviy yazyk, or 'quantum language', for its unique method of assigning meaning to its morphemes: an Bogomol utterance is a string of syllables with polyvalent potential meanings, which are collapsed into a single possibility by a ranking syllable at the end. The Russians considered this similar to the way in which the imposition of the observer collapses the possible states of the atom in quantum physics, as explained by Ya. P. Griboyedov in his Bogomol: vnezemnoj jazyk neobyknovennyj (Bogomol: an unusual extraterrestrial language) ("Nauka" Publishers, Krasnoyarsk, 2234):
What this means in practice is that the morphemes of the utterance must be selected so that the proper meanings of all are expressed by the same rank. This rank is indicated only once, by a ranking morpheme given at the end of the utterance. Ranking morphemes all have the form of Db-D plus one of the 9 unflatted tones of the Bogomol scale; eg. Db-D-B maak = rank-4. The utterance is then terminated by a rest.
Certain important concepts have only a single rank; in this case, it is the speaker's task to select all the other words so that their meaning matches the rank of the important word. Other concepts are represented in every rank; for example, each personal pronoun has its representative in all 9 ranks. The speakers of Bogomol also make extensive use of compounds and circumlocutions if a word of the proper rank cannot be found.
We will attempt to illustrate this with an example. If we wish to say "I see you" in Bogomol, we might choose the pattern
pol vek moob maag I see you rank-2
The choice of rank here was somewhat arbitrary, since both 'I' and 'you' can be found in all 9 ranks, although a word for 'see' can be found only in ranks 2, 5, 7 and 8.
But in order to say "I see Mother", an entirely different set of syllables must be used:
med var myap saz maan I eye touch Mother rank-6
Here, 'Mother' exists only as the rank-6 word saz, so the other words had to be selected to match that rank. While there is a rank-6 word for 'I', med, there is none for 'see', and so a compound had to be chosen, both of whose components also had to be rank-6.
From this, one can see that the concept 'I' is represented in rank-2 sentences by the word pol, and in rank-6 sentences by the word med. Totally different words to express 'I' are found in the remaining ranks, as well. We should note also that the word pol means "fishing net" in rank-5 and med means "to surpass" in rank-1. The majority of Bogomol words have more than one meaning, depending on rank, and the majority of concepts expressable in Bogomol are realized by different words in different ranks. When we say that the word 'Mother' exists only as the rank-6 word saz, we mean that this concept is only expressible by this word used in this rank; saz exists in rank-1, rank-5 and rank-9, as well (meaning "tidepool", "tent peg" and a type of tree, respectively). In fact, the only word in Bogomol which is totally univalent is puuv, which means "stranger" in all ranks.
Bogomol grammar, mercifully, is very sparse. The language is almost totally isolating, and is very similar to Chinese and other Asian terrestrial languages. So, the grammar of the examples given above is close to accurate.
The Bogomol have a reputation for subtilty and ambiguity, and it is not hard to see how their language reinforces this image. Certain constructions seem very hard to translate into Bogomol. On the other hand, Bogomol seems tailor-made for word-play.
One example of this is the practice of selecting words which could be validly interpreted in more than one rank until the final ranking syllable collapses the meaning. Sometimes this is done for merely humorous effect (a cruder, human analogy: "She was bent down, and I rushed right over and kissed her on the ... back porch"), and skilled players at this are highly esteemed. But this technique often has more serious uses, as well. Someone attempting to negotiate a contract or treaty with a Bogomol would be at a serious disadvantage if they did not pay attention to the subtext conveyed by the "discarded" meanings of each utterance.
Indeed, the Bogomol themselves pay careful attention to "discarded" meanings, and certain combinations of valid rankings are avoided by them simply because the potential meanings are offensive or ill-omened. For example, the combination veef myj is almost never used. Although in rank-4 this phrase has the perfectly acceptable meaning of 'wash cups', in rank-8, it means 'corpse worm'. Since the unacceptable meaning would be potential until the proper ranking is uttered, it is simply not used.
The student of Bogomol is at a serious disadvantage. The Bogomol are a nomadic people who live in the Amaterasuan swamps, and are difficult to find. The only description of Bogomol, the above-noted work by Griboyedov, is available only in Russian, and is over 30 years old (it also has some serious methodological flaws). The Bogomol do not have a gestural language of the complexity of Machi, and, while there has been some success in the machine translation of spoken Machi, similar success with Bogomol has not been forthcoming. So the researcher wanting to make Bogomol a topic of study would be performing a laudable, but arduous, task.
© 1997, Terrence Donnelly
