Basque–Icelandic pidgin


The Basque–Icelandic pidgin was a Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland in 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. It might have developed in Westfjords, where the manuscripts were written, 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. Basque entries are mixed with words from Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The Basque–Icelandic pidgin is thereby not a mixture between Basque and Icelandic, but between Basque and other languages. It was named from the fact that it was written down in Iceland and translated into Icelandic.
Only a few manuscripts have been found containing Basque–Icelandic glossary, and knowledge about the pidgin is limited.

Basque whalers in Iceland

were among the first to catch whales commercially; they spread to the far corners of the North Atlantic and even reached Brazil. They started coming to Iceland around 1600. In 1615, after becoming shipwrecked and getting into a conflict with the locals, 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:
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 called Glossaria duo vasco-islandica and written in Latin, though most of the phrases of the glossaries were also translated into German and Spanish.
In 1986 Jón Ólafsson's manuscripts were brought back from Denmark to Iceland.
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" 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.

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. The glossary was discovered around 2008, the original owner hadn't identified the manuscript as containing Basque text. Only two of the pages contain Basque–Icelandic glossary, the surrounding material includes unrelated things such as instructions about magic and casting love spells. It is clear that the copyist wasn't aware that they were copying Basque glossary, as the text has the heading "A few Latin glosses". Many of the entries are corrupted or wrong, seemingly made by someone not used to writing. A large number of the entries aren't 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 could be discerned, but with some uncertainty.

Pidgin phrases

The manuscript Vocabula Biscaica contains the following phrases which contain a pidgin element:
Basque glossaryModern BasqueIcelandic glossaryEnglish translationWord number
presenta for miEmadazugiefdu mierGive me193 & 225
bocata for mi attoraGarbitu iezadazu atorraþvodu fyrer mig skyrtuWash a shirt for me196
fenicha for juIzorra hadi!liggia þigFuck you!209
presenta for mi locariaEmazkidazu lokarriakgiefdu mier socka bondGive me garters216
ser ju presenta for miZer emango didazu?hvad gefur þu mierWhat do you give me?217
for mi presenta for ju biskusa eta sagardunaBizkotxa eta sagardoa emango dizkizutEg skal gefa þier braudkoku og SyrdryckI will give you a biscuit and a sour drink218
trucka cammisolaJertse bat erosikaufftu peisuBuy a sweater219
sumbatt galsardia forZenbat galtzerditarako?fyrer hvad marga sockaFor how many socks?220
Cavinit trucka for miEz dut ezer erosikoeckert kaupe egI buy nothing223
Christ Maria presenta for mi Balia, for mi, presenta for ju bustanaKristok eta Mariak balea ematen badidate, buztana emango dizutgefe Christur og Maria mier hval, skal jeg gefa þier spordennIf Christ and Mary give me a whale, I will give you the tail224
for ju mala gissunaGizon gaiztoa zaraþu ert vondur madurYou are an evil man226
presenta for mi berrua usnia eta berria buraEmadazu esne beroa eta gurin berriagefdu mier heita miölk og nyt smiorGive me hot milk and new butter227
ser travala for juZertan egiten duzu lan?hvad giorer þuWhat do you do?228

A majority of these words are of Basque origin:
Some of the words are of Germanic origin:
And others come from the Romance languages:
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. 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 ja 'yes' is translated with both Basque bai and French vÿ at the end of Vocabula Biscaica.

Other examples

These examples are from the recently discovered Harvard manuscript:
Basque glossaryCorrect 17th century BasqueIcelandic glossaryEnglish translation
nola dai fussuNola deitzen zara su?hvad heitir þuwhat's your name?
jndasu edamIndazu eda-te-ragief mier ad dreckagive me to drink
jndasu jaterraIndazu ja-te-ragief mier ad etagive me to eat
jndasunirjIndazu nirisyndu miershow me
Huna TeminHunat jinkom þu hingadcome here
Baljabaleahvalura whale
Chatucumiakatakumekietlingura kitten
BaiBaijayes
EsEzneino

The first phrase, nola dai fussu, might be written with standardized Basque as "Nola deitu zu?". That is a morphologically simplified construction of the correct Basque sentence "Nola deitzen zara zu?".
A section in Vocabula Biscaica goes over a few obscenities:
Basque glossaryIcelandic glossaryEnglish translationWord number
Sickutta Samariaserda merinago fuck a horse211
gianzu cacajettu skÿteat shit212
caca hiarinsatet þu skÿt ur rasseeat shit from an asshole213
jet satkuss þu ä rasskiss ass214

Manuscripts