Bordurian
Bordurian is a fictional language, the national language of Borduria, a fictional Balkan dictatorship created by Hergé for the Tintin comics series. Little is known about Bordurian, as it is not extensively presented in the Tintin stories. The neighboring language Syldavian, for example, has been proven to be a Germanic language, but so few words of Bordurian are known that such an analysis for this language is more difficult. There are several words with an apparent Germanic origin, though, hôitgang, (cf. Dutch uitgang), mänhir (cf. Dutch mijnheer), ointhfan (cf. Dutch ontvangst) sztôpp, tzhôl (cf. German Zoll) and zsnôrr (cf. Dutch snor). The ultimate source for these words are uncertain, though. Unlike Syldavian, which also uses Cyrillic, it is written only in the Latin alphabet. Its orthography is apparently slightly different from Syldavian; the vowel ô, almost certainly [ɔ], is quite common in the language, and sz seems to be used for [s] instead of [ʃ], as in Hungarian.[original research?] Based on the Germanic vocabulary identified so far, it is suspected to be an intermediate language between the heavily Slavic-sounding Syldavian on one hand, and dialects of German on the other.[original research?]
As with other fictional languages and some personal and place names in the Tintin universe, Hergé modeled Bordurian on Marols, a dialect of Dutch spoken in and around Brussels.
Almost the complete corpus (except for Müsstler) is found in The Calculus Affair.
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[edit] Known words
- amaïh! - "hail!" (from the Flemish/Brussels word "amai" (meaning as much as "wow!")
- da - "of"
- hôitgang - "exit" (from Dutch "uitgang" and German "Ausgang")
- mänhir - "mister" (from German "mein Herr" and Dutch "mijnheer", literal translation of frz. "monsieur")
- ointhfan - "reception desk" (possibly from Dutch "ontvangst" or German "Empfang")
- opernska - "opera"
- platz - "square/plaza" (from German "Platz")
- Pristzy! - "Darn!" (from French "sapristi!")
- szonett - "bell" or "bell-push" (from French "sonnette")
- sztôpp - "Stop!"
- tzhôl - "customs" (from German "Zoll")
- zservis - "service"
- zsnôrr - "moustache" (From Dutch "snor")
- szplug! - "hey!" (Only in English edition)
[edit] Place names
- Bakhine
- Szohôd
[edit] Names of people
- Kardouk
- Kavitch
- Klûmsi - (Original French: Himmerszeck, akin to Dutch immer ziek (always sick))
- Krônik
- Kûrvi-Tasch - (From English curvy (mous)tache, Original French: Pleksy-Gladz, based on Plexiglas)
- Müsstler - (an obvious portmanteau of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler)
- Sponsz - From Dutch "spons", sponge
