The Grammar of Borg

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Commentary:

1. Our informant is unclear on how these sounds are pronounced, saying only that the consonants "resemble Arabic" and the vowels "resemble Italian".
2. There is no letter y as such; it is used to indicate oblique case [see below] and actually represents the palatalization of the preceding consonant.
3. The letter r represents two processes in Borg: as an initial letter or part of a consonantal cluster, it is a true consonantal liquid flap; as the marker of the plural [see below], it represents the rhoization of the preceding vowel. A few words end in r, and in these, it seems to be pronounced like a French 'r', as a uvular trill, and is not the same sound as the r-coloring of the plural vowel.

Grammar

1. Words are built up from monosyllable roots of the form C₁pC₂, where C₁ can be any consonant and C₂ can be any consonant except r (with a few exceptions). The letter p is a vowel which indicates the part of speech of the word [see table]. The roots are used in different parts of speech simply by changing the p vowel: bid good; bad a good thing, a boon, bod good person, bed well. There are other basic words (prepositions, particles) which do not follow this pattern, and which are all of the pattern CCv (where v is unpredictable and does not indicate part of speech), eg. tve of, from, vli more.

   Commentary: Roots can be considered nominal, verbal or adjectival in their essence. Deriving words directly from the root requires only the addition of a p vowel, eg. b_gh perfectness: bagh perfect thing, bigh perfect.

2. The monosyllabic words of Borg can be modified by adding infixes after C₁ and before p. These infixes may be combined to render complex meanings (pattern C₁(i...)pC₂). The part-of-speech vowel p is always last, just before C₂, and the infix i added just before it. Any successive infixes are placed before those already present [see derivational infix list]. Examples: from Hud to study, Hudad period of study; from vagh language, vikutagh linguistics; from kus to speak, kutos spokesperson.

   Commentary:

   1. Occasionally word derivation simply involves changing the p vowel of the word, as above, but if the derived word builds on an existing word, then an infix must be used to preserve evidence of the meaning of the 'starting-point'. Thus, the word for perfection is baDagh and not bagh, since bagh is derived directly from the root, but baDagh derives from bigh (the final a indicating a noun and the infix -aD used to preserve the adjectival nature of the word from which it is derived).
   2. The accent of polysyllabic words always falls on the first vowel of the word.

3. Borg words (including infixed words) may be compounded with other words. In this case, the CvC pattern of the final syllable of the word being added changes to CCv. The part of speech of the word is still determined by the last vowel of the word, eg. Hlavan capital city (from Hil chief, main and van city.)

   Commentary:

   1. If the resulting CC pattern is hard to pronounce, a 'schwa e' sound may be introduced at the speaker's discretion.
   2. There are several 'official' elements that may be added to the word to change its meanings; the part of speech does not change [see prefix list].
   3. Besides the 'official' elements, virtually any preposition can be added to the word. Since they are already of the form CCv, no modification is required.
   4. When a word of form CvC is added to another word, the central v changes to the same vowel as the final vowel (as in Hil to Hla, above.) Thus, the vowel of the compounded element will change if the central vowel of the stem changes. Compounding elements derived from the derivational prefixes (noted in 2, above) or from words whose main dictionary entry is a particle (noted in 3, above) do not change their vowel.
   5. Compounds can be understood as versions of more general grammatical phrases. Thus, prefix/preposition+verb implies an adverbial relationship: dmakhut misunderstand = dem khut wrongly understand. Noun+noun stands for some prepositional relationship: DHghadhiqudat prosthesis repair station = DHagh pra dhiqudat repair station for prostheses. Verb+noun represents the idea N for V-ing: lnathab textbook = lun pra thab book for learning. Finally, adjective+noun stands for a simple N A phrase: Hlavan capital city = van Hil main city. In all cases,a more permanent or fundamental relationship is implied by the compound than by the phrase.

4. Verbs are inflected for tense by the addition of infixes immediately after C₁ and before (i...)p [ see verb infix list]: dukh to give, di'ukh gives, dilukh will give. In the case of compound verbs, the infix follows the C₁ of the original, uncompounded, stem: vlibiwajud became improved (bad > bajud > vlibajud). Person or number are not indicated in the verb. Participles (verbal adjectives) can be formed in the same way: do'ikh giving (note final vowel changed to adjectival i). Participles may also stand alone as nouns with a nominal vowel; eg.: Ho'od student.

5. Nouns may be marked plural by the addition of vocallic r following the p vowel. Nouns can be used in nominative and oblique cases. The nominative is the normal form of the word. The oblique case takes a y-glide before the final p vowel. Nominative: bad good thing, bard good things , Ho'ord students; Oblique: byad, byard, Ho'yord.

6. Word order is V-(P)-S-O. The Object is marked with the oblique case. Time and location stamps and conjunctions precede the rest of the sentence. The predicate can be a verbal nominative form in u and directly follows the main verb, although it does not take the oblique y.

7. Adjectives used attributively follow nouns and must agree in case and number with the noun they modify. Adjectives may be compared by addition of the adverbs vli more or vlo most before the adjective: bigh perfect, vli bigh more perfect, vlo bigh most perfect. Adjectives used as predicates follow the verb (usually HuH to be). They are marked for plural with plural subjects, but do not take the oblique y.

8. Adverbs precede the verb. Participles used as adverbs are inflected for tense. They always refer to the subject of the main verb, and perform many of the functions of subordinate clauses in English.

9. Prepositions follow the noun, or the adjective in a noun-adjective phrase. Prepositions indicating location change their meaning when used with a noun in the oblique case: zaj tro in the ship, zyaj tro into the ship. Prepositional phrases generally precede the verb. Prepositional phrases using tve, lwi and lhu precede the nouns to which they refer: borgh tve vagh language of the Borg, neqan lhu peDHan a certain amount of nutrients.

10. Sentences can be rendered as questions of fact by adding the word chqu to the beginning of the sentence. They can be rendered in the negative by adding qra to the beginning of the sentence. Neither particle is necessary if the sentence contains a question word or a negative.

© 1998, Terrence Donnelly