Burgendish

Burgendish Borgenzco
Spoken in:	Burgundy (Borgonze)
Conworld:	possibly Lucus
Total speakers:	extinct
Genealogical classification:	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic Burgundian Burgendish (Borgenzco)
Basic word order:	V2
Morphological type:	inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment:	accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
BPJ	2007

Borgenzco /ˈboɾɣən(d)sko/was a sister language to Gothic which was still spoken by Burgundians in 12th century Gaul. In English it is called Burgendish — a supposed modern derivative of the Old English ethnonym Burgendan 'Burgundians'. In Lucal Inglisc it would rather be Burgændisc, also pronounced /ˈbɜʴɡəndɪʃ/ .

The approximate are where Burgendish was spoken (red outline) within 12th century Borgonze (black outline).

Phonologically Burgendish was about as advanced as Old English. It had shared its most recent phonological developments with the co-territorial Romance language Rhodrese as a result of long-term bilingualism.

Alphabet and pronunciation

A a	/a/	A low unrounded vowel. It is unclear whether it was [a] or [ɑ]. Very occasionally a was used for [ə], especially after a g to show that it was to be pronounced /ɡ/ and not /ʤ/; thus [ˈborɣəndə] could be spelled borgande beside borgende and the equally occasional borghende.
B b	[b]	A voiced bilabial stop. The sound [b] occurred only initially, in the combination [mb] and geminated as [bb]. The phoneme /b/ had an allophone [β] which was usually spelled with v.
C c	[k], [ts]	Usually a voiceless velar stop. Very occasionally c was used for the combination /ts/ before the letters e, i or y. The very unusual cz was a variant of tz or thz.
Ch ch	[k], [x]	Used for the voiceless velar stop before the letters e, i or y. Before consonants and word-finally it stands for [x], which is an allophone of /h/ or /g/, e.g. chleifs, douchter, ouchſe, dachs (also dags), macht/magt, dach/dag, iach/iag < *jah. N.B. that ch and g for word-final [x] were in free variation, regardless of whether the underlying/etymological final was /h/ or /g/
D d	[d], [ð]	The phoneme /d/ had two allophones: [d] which occurred initially, in the combinations /nd/ and /ld/, in gemination and perhaps in the combination /dz/ written z. Since there was no contrast between /d/ and /θ/ after vowels th is occasionally found for [ð] in this position, and word finally th and d are practically in free variation for [θ].
E e	[e]	In stressed syllables a high mid unrounded front vowel, possibly even [ɪ], or a low or low mid unrounded front vowel [æ] or [ɛ] when it represents the i-umlaut of *a. The latter was very occasionally spelled æ, but the two were always kept apart in rimes. In unstressed syllables e stood for [ə].
Ea ea	[ɛɐ]/[æː]	A diphthong [ɛɐ]or a long low unrounded front vowel [æː]. The breaking to a diphthong may have taken place during the 12th century — thus somewhat later than in Rhodrese —, or the occasional æ spellings in the relevant words are mere slips.
Ei ei (Ey ey)	[ɛɪ]	A front unrounded diphthong, e.g. in chleifs. Unlike the case in Rhodrese there was no contrasting [eɪ] diphthong.
F f	[ɸ]/[f]	An unrounded bilabial or labiodental fricative.
G g	[ɡ]/[ʤ], [ɣ], [x]	The most multivalued letter in Burgendish writing. Initially it ussually stood for [ɡ], but medial double gg before the letters e, i and y usually stood for [ʤ], as in degge, while medial single g usually stood for [ɣ] as in borgende, and final g stood for [x]. While [ɡ], [ɣ] and [x] arguably were allophones of a single phoneme /ʤ/ was a distinct phoneme.
Gh gh	[ɡ], [ɣ]	Was very occasionally used to differentiate [ɡ] or [ɣ] from [ʤ] before the letters e, i and y.
H h (hh)	[h], Ø	Medial [h] was usually written hh, e.g. thoahhe. Perhaps it was still pronounced [x]?
Hu hu uh	[ʍ]	The voiced counterpart of /w/ was written hu initially and medially, but uh finally: huaſug, ahua, sauh. Occasional spellings like saf, nief for sauh, nieuh may indicate that a merger was under way.
I i (j) Y y	[i], [j]	I and y were used interchangeably for both /i/ and /j/, and as usual in medieval writing j was merely a graphic variant of i. Unlike the case in Rhodrese initial or medial i never stood for /ʤ/ in Burgendish. An i between two vowels was usually [jj] but was seldom written ii or ij, e.g. usually leie and only occasionally leiie. The usual spelling buiie should be interpreted as the ui digraph for /y/ followed by i for /jj/. Cf. the nonce spelling beuie for the same word.
Ie ie (Ye ye)
K k
L l
M m
N n
O o
Oa oa		oals < *aɣlus vs. thoahhe < *þwahan
Oe oe	[ø]
Ou ou
P p
Qu qu
R r
S ſ ſſ ſs s	[s], [z]	While ſ was used word-initially and s word-finally for /s/, medially ſ, ſſ and ſs were distinct graphemes for the two phonemes /z/ and /s/ and the geminate /ss/, e.g. nexeſe /ˈnaʃəzə/ aſſens /ˈasəns/ uueſse /ˈwessə/. N.B. the occasional occurrence of triple ſſſ for /ss/ as in uueſſſo. This was an elaboration on the pattern in Rhodrese orthography where the use of ſ for /z/ and ſſ for /s/ was due to the fact that the voicing distinction went back to a distinction between single /s/ [z] and geminate /ss/ in Latin.
T t
Th th
Thz thz
Tz tz
V u v
Vi ui	[y]
Vo uo
VV uu w
X x
xz
Z z

Historical phonology

Burgendish vowel developments
¨ = i-umlaut of preceding vowel, ° = u-umlaut of preceding vowel.

Germanic	Early Burgundian	Burgendish
		Stressed	Unstressed	Final
*a		a	e, Ø	-Ø
*an / _h, *aɣ / _{C,#}	*a:	ea/oa	a	-
*an, *am		an, am	en, em	-a
*e, *i	*i, *-Ø	e,Ø		-Ø
*en, *in, *em, *im	*in, *im	en, em		¨-e
*æ:, *e:		ie	i	¨-e
*i:		i		¨-e
*o, *u	*u	o	e, Ø	°-Ø
*on, *un, *om, *um	*un, *um	on, om		°-a
*u:		u	o	-o
*o:		uo	o	-o
*ai		ei	e	-e
*au		ou	o	-o