Bźatga/Colloquial Bźatga

Modern Bźatga is a high-status official and literary language. Like other written forms, it does not accurately reflect the language spoken by ordinary people in everyday life. This page explains the main differences between standard Bźatga and the most widespread spoken forms.

Final Vowels

The main divergence between standard and spoken Bźatga is the neutralisation and often loss of unstressed word-final vowels. This varies between dialects, but most spoken forms reduce final vowels to some extent.

• In some conservative dialects, all vowels except the high /i/ and /u/ are reduced to schwa /ə/.
• In many dialects, all final vowels are reduced, ranging between a clear vowel schwa /ə/ to a more obscure release-type articulation that could be interpreted as the total loss of the vowel.

Nasalisation

In standard Bźatga, nasal consonants merge with a preceding vowel when they stand before another consonant or word-finally. In spoken Bźatga this process has spread to all vowel + nasal combinations, leading to the phonemicisation of nasal vowels and the loss of word-internal nasals. The distinction between e / ê and o / ô is lost with nasalisation.

Nasal vowels are written with an ogonek: ą, ę, į, ǫ, ų (e.g. vǫe "one", dộe "brown", męe "wife", źįe "royal consort", trǫje "nose", cvęje "remember", mąe "mother").

Loss of l, ł, ĺ

Standard Bźatga has l /l/ before vowels with the allophonic ł /w/ before consonants. In all positions, l has become velarised /ɫ/ and has been vocalised to ł /w/ after a, o, ô u (e.g. bałe "penis", ścoułe "hawk, falcon").

Meanwhile, iotised/palatalised ĺ /ʎ/ is generally vocalised to /j/, although usually still written ĺ (e.g. caĺe /kajə/ "copse", ĺede /jedə/ "valley").

In very colloquial texts, ł and ĺ are sometimes written w and y (e.g. baw(e), ścouw(e), kay(e), yede).

Noun and Adjective Declension

The reduction of final vowels has a profound impact on the noun and adjective inflection, reducing or removing the distinction between cases and conflating many of the declensions.

Most nouns only have two forms: a singular form in -e (e.g. vêre 'man') and a plural form in -ⁱe, where ⁱ represents palatalisation (e.g. vêŕe 'men'). Third declension nouns and adjectives, traditionally with a NASg in -o and NApl in -ve, may take sg. -e, pl. -ve or merge with the common declension with pl. ^j-e (e.g. prêde 'shape', prêdve / prêḑi 'shapes',

Noygazz

Since the 1970s, an alternative written form of Bźatga called Noygazz developed as part of a counter- and popular culture movement. Influenced largely by colloquial forms of English orthography, and intended to reflect the spoken language of young people, the grammar and orthography of Noygazz were gradually codified into a formal system.

Orthography

Noygazz	IPA	Bźatga
A a	/a/
/ɐ/	Ă ă
B b	/b/
C c	/k/
Ć ć	/t͡ʃ/
D d	/d/
Ḑ ḑ	/d͡z/
E e	/ɛ/	Ĕ ĕ
Ê ê	/e/
G g	/g/
Ģ ģ	/d͡ʒ/	DŔ, dŕ
I i	/i/	Ĭ ĭ, Î î
J j	/j/
L l	/l/
Ĺ ĺ	/ʎ/
Ł ł	/w/
M m	/m/
N n	/n/
Ń ń	/ɲ/
O o	/ɔ/	Ŏ ŏ
Ô ô	/o/
P p	/p/
R r	/r/
Ŕ ŕ	/ʒ/
S s	/s/
Ś ś	/ʃ/
T t	/t/
Ț ț	/t͡s/
U u	/u/	Ŭ ŭ, Û û
V v	/β/
Z z	/z/
Ź ź	/ʒ/