Basque–Icelandic pidgin

The Basque–Icelandic pidgin (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) was a Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland during the 17th century. It consisted of Basque, Germanic, and Romance words.

Basque whale hunters who sailed to the Icelandic Westfjords used the pidgin as a means of rudimentary communication with locals.Template:Sfn It might have developed in Westfjords, where manuscripts were written in the language, but since it had influences from many other European languages, it is more likely that it was created elsewhere and brought to Iceland by Basque sailors.Template:Sfn Basque entries are mixed with words from Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The Basque–Icelandic pidgin is therefore not a mixture of Basque and Icelandic, but between Basque and other languages. It was so named because it was written in Iceland and translated into Icelandic.Template:Sfn

Only a few manuscripts have been found containing Basque–Icelandic glossary, and knowledge of the pidgin is limited.

Basque whalers in Iceland

Template:Multiple images Basque whalers were among the first to catch whales commercially; they spread to the far parts of the North Atlantic and even reached Brazil. They started coming to Iceland around the year 1600. In 1615, after becoming shipwrecked and getting into a conflict with the locals, some Basque sailors were massacred in an event that would be known as the Slaying of the Spaniards. Basques continued to sail to Iceland, but for the second half of the 17th century French and Spanish whalers are more often mentioned in Icelandic sources.

History of the glossaries

Only a few anonymous glossaries have been found. Two of them were found among the documents of 18th century scholar Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík, titled:

• Vocabula Gallica ("French words"). Written during the latter part of the 17th century, a total of 16 pages containing 517 words and short sentences, and 46 numerals.Template:Sfn
• Vocabula Biscaica ("Biscayan (Basque) words"). A copy written during the 18th century by Jón Ólafsson, the original is lost. It contains a total of 229 words and short sentences, and 49 numerals. This glossary contains several pidgin words and phrases.Template:Sfn

These manuscripts were found in the mid-1920s by the Icelandic philologist Jón Helgason in the Arnamagnæan Collection at the University of Copenhagen. He copied the glossaries, translated the Icelandic words into German and sent the copies to professor C. C. Uhlenbeck at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Uhlenbeck had expertise in Basque, but since he retired from the university in 1926, he gave the glossaries to his post-graduate student Nicolaas Gerard Hendrik Deen. Deen consulted with the Basque scholar Julio de Urquijo, and in 1937, Deen published his doctoral thesis on the Basque–Icelandic glossaries. It was titled Glossaria duo vasco-islandica and written in Latin, though most of the phrases of the glossaries were also translated into German and Spanish.Template:Sfn

In 1986, Jón Ólafsson's manuscripts were brought back from Denmark to Iceland.

The manuscript with the glossaries (University of Iceland):

• File:Basque-Icelandic pidgin Deen 17 40 22 467000.jpeg
• File:Basque-Icelandic pidgin Deen 17 40 14 552000.jpeg
• File:Basque-Icelandic pidgin Deen 17 40 07 688000.jpeg
• File:Basque-Icelandic pidgin Deen.jpeg

There is also evidence of a third contemporary Basque–Icelandic glossary. In a letter, the Icelandic linguist Sveinbjörn Egilsson mentioned a document with two pages containing "funny words and glosses"Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn and he copied eleven examples of them. The glossary itself has been lost, but the letter is still preserved at the National Library of Iceland. There is no pidgin element in the examples he copies.Template:Sfn

The fourth glossary

A fourth Basque–Icelandic glossary was found at the Houghton Library at Harvard University. It had been collected by the German historian Konrad von Maurer when he visited Iceland in 1858, the manuscript is from the late 18th century or the early 19th century.Template:Sfn The glossary was discovered around 2008,Template:Sfn the original owner had not identified the manuscript as containing Basque text. Only two of the pages contain Basque–Icelandic glossary; the material surrounding includes unrelated items such as instructions about magic and casting love spells. It is clear that the copyist was not aware that they were copying Basque glossary, as the text has the heading "A few Latin glosses".Template:Sfn Many of the entries are corrupted or wrong, seemingly made by someone not used to writing. A large number of the entries are not a part of Deen's glossary, and so the manuscript is thought to be a copy of an unknown Basque–Icelandic glossary. A total of 68 words and phrases can be discerned, but with some uncertainty.Template:Sfn

Pidgin phrases

The manuscript Vocabula Biscaica contains the following phrases which contain a pidgin element:Template:Sfn

Basque glossary	Modern BasqueTemplate:Better sourceTemplate:Circular reference	Icelandic glossary	Standard Icelandic orthography	English translationTemplate:Efn	Word numberTemplate:Efn
				Give me	193 & 225
				Wash a shirt for me	196
				Fuck you!Template:Efn	209
				Give me garters	216
				What do you give me?	217
				I will give you a biscuit and a sour drinkTemplate:Efn	218
				Buy a sweater	219
				For how many socks?	220
			Ekkert kaupi ég	I buy nothing	223
				If Christ and Mary give me a whale, I will give you the tail	224
				You are an evil man	226
				Give me hot milk and new butter	227
				What do you do?	228

A majority of these words are of Basque origin:

• atorra, atorra 'shirt'
• balia, balea 'baleen whale'
• berria, berria 'new'
• berrua, beroa 'warm'
• biskusa, (Lapurdian) loan word 'biscuit', nowadays meaning gâteau Basque (cf. Spanish Template:Wikt-lang, ultimately from Medieval Latin Template:Wikt-lang)
• bocataTemplate:Efn
• bustana, buztana 'tail'
• eta, eta 'and'
• galsardia, galtzerdia 'the sock'
• gissuna, gizona 'the man'
• locaria, lokarria 'the tie/lace(s)'
• sagarduna, sagardoa 'the cider'
• ser, zer 'what'
• sumbatt, zenbat 'how many'
• travala, old Basque trabaillatu, related to French and Spanish trabajar 'to work'
• usnia, esnea 'the milk'
• bura, 'butter', from Basque Lapurdian loan word Template:Efn (cf. French , Italian and Occitan )

Some of the words are of Germanic origin:

• cavinit, old Dutch equivalent of modern German 'nothing at all'Template:Sfn or Low German 'not a bit'Template:Sfn
• for in the sentence sumbatt galsardia for could be derived from many different Germanic languagesTemplate:Sfn
• for mi, English 'for me' (used both as subject and object; 'I' and 'me') or Low German ''
• for ju, English 'for you' (used both as subject and object) or Low German ''

And others come from the Romance languages:

• cammisola, Spanish 'shirt'
• fenicha, Spanish 'to fornicate'
• mala, French or Spanish 'bad' or 'evil'
• trucka, Spanish 'to exchange'Template:Efn

All nouns and adjectives in the pidgin are marked with Basque's definite article suffix -a, even in cases for which the suffix would be ungrammatical in Basque. The order of nouns and adjectives is also reversed. For example, pidgin berrua usnia ('warm milk-DET') versus Basque ('milk warm-DET').

Although there are quite a few Spanish and French words listed in the glossaries, this is not a sign of the pidgin language, but rather a result of French and Spanish influence on the Basque language throughout the ages, since Basque has taken many loan words from its neighbouring languages.Template:Sfn Furthermore, many of the people in the Basque crews that came to Iceland might have been multilingual, speaking French and/or Spanish as well. That would explain for example why the Icelandic 'yes' is translated with both Basque and French (modern spelling ) at the end of .Template:Sfn

Other examples

These examples are from the recently discovered Harvard manuscript:Template:Sfn

Basque glossary	Correct 17th century Basque	Icelandic glossary	Standard Icelandic orthography	English translation
		hvad heitir þu		What's your name?
		gief mier ad drecka	Gef mér að drekka	Give me (something) to drink
	Indazu ja-te-ra	gief mier ad eta	Gef mér að eta	Give me (something) to eat
	Indazu niri	syndu mier	Sýndu mér	Show me
	Hunat jin	kom þu hingad	Kom þú hingað	Come here
	Balea	hvalur	hvalur	A whale
Chatucumia	katakumeTemplate:Efn	kietlingur	kettlingur	A kitten
	Bai	ja	já	Yes
	Ez	nei	nei	No

The first phrase, nola dai fussu ("What's your name?"), might be written with standardized (but ungrammatical) Basque as "".Template:Sfn That is a morphologically simplified construction of the correct Basque sentence "".Template:Sfn

A section in Vocabula Biscaica goes over a few obscenities:

Basque glossary	Icelandic glossary	English translation	Word numberTemplate:Efn
Sickutta Samaria	serda merina	go fuck a horse	211
gianzu caca	jettu skÿt	eat shit	212
caca hiarinsat	et þu skÿt ur rasse	eat shit from an asshole	213
jet sat	kuss þu ä rass	kiss [my] ass	214

See also

• Algonquian–Basque pidgin, a Basque-based pidgin in Canada
• Russenorsk, a Russian–Norwegian pidgin

Bibliography

• Template:Cite thesis Re-printed in 1991 in Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo Vol. 25, Nº. 2, pp. 321–426 (in Basque). Archived on 2019-03-01.

Manuscripts

• – Written in the latter part of the 17th century, a total of 16 pages. A part of Jón Ólafsson's manuscript "AM 987 4to".
• – A copy written in the 18th century by Jón Ólafsson, a total of 10 pages. A part of his manuscript "AM 987 4to".
• – Two pages, a part of the manuscript "MS Icelandic 3" which contains 145 sheets.