The material presented in this paper came to the Starfleet Linguistics Division via a classified source. The only proof we have that this is truly the language of the Borg is the integrity of that source. Readers are welcome to make their own evaluation of the likelihood of the truth of the claim.
One question often asked when this material is presented is why a race linked into a collective mind requires a language at all. There can be no definitive answer to that at our present stage of knowledge about the Borg, but there are several theories. Perhaps Borg the language is used to communicate with members of races still undergoing assimilation, before they have fully joined the Collective. The artificial features of Borg lend some support to the notion that it was deliberately constructed for such a purpose. Or perhaps it is essentially a written language, used for datascreens and signage, although the grammar and vocabulary seem more complex than such a use would require. Perhaps it is a true medium of communication, although the vocabulary may be too restricted for this purpose (the rules of Borg phonology seem to leave room for only about 700 roots).
A likely answer to this puzzle lies in our ignorance of the nature of the Borg collective mind itself. We have no way of knowing what the experience of the Collective is like. Are the individual "units" of the Borg mind capable of independent thought, each mind adding to the Collective Overmind, or are the individual minds more like brain cells in a vast, disjunct organism? What we do know is that for Humans, and for every other humanoid sentient race, thought is embodied in language. While images do play a part in our consciousness, it seems impossible to engage in a complex interior monolog in any medium except words, the same words "spoken" in the mind to oneself that are spoken aloud to others. It seems plausible that the Borg collective mind, however its constituent parts interact, also needs some way to "talk" to itself. Perhaps the Borg language is the medium for the internal monolog of the borgh tve vemaq (Borg Collective) itself.
It's also been suggested that the Borg referred to in this paper aren't the same Borg as those who recently threatened the Federation, at all. Perhaps they are an entirely different race with a similar name, or maybe remnants of the units of the Borg Collective that were severed from the Collective after infection by Hugh's development of a personality. Or maybe Borg have lost their connection to the Collective through accident or equipment failures. Intriguing as these ideas are, they can't be explored until we are able to re-establish contact with our source, a possibility that, sadly, grows ever more remote.
© 1998, Terrence Donnelly