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Russenorsk

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Russenorsk
Russonorsk
RegionNorthern Norway
Era18th–19th centuries
Language codes
ISO 639-3None(mis)
qcu
Glottologruss1267

Russenorsk(Norwegian pronunciation:[ˈrʉ̂sːəˌnɔʂk];‹See Tfd›Russian:руссено́рск,[rʊsʲɪˈnorsk];English: Russo-Norwegian) is an extinct dual-source "restrictedpidgin"[1]language formerly used in theArctic,which combined elements ofRussianandNorwegian.Russenorsk originated fromRussian tradersand NorwegianfishermenfromTromsø(northernNorway) andKola(north-western Russia).[2]It was used extensively in Northern Norway for about 150 years in thePomor trade.Russenorsk is important as a test case for theories concerning pidgin languages since it was used far away from most of the other documented pidgins of the world.

As is common in the development of pidgins andtrade languages,the interaction of fishermen and traders with no common language necessitated the creation of some minimal form of communication. Like all pidgins, Russenorsk had a rudimentary grammar and a restricted vocabulary, mostly composed of words essential to Arcticfishingand trade (fish,weather,etc.); however, Russenorsk was used outside of fishing and trade context during the off-season as it was not uncommon for Russians to remain in Norway during the winter.[2]

History

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Barterexisted between Russians and Norwegians for 150 years inTromsandFinnmarkcounties. This barter was supported by the Norwegian government, and KingChristian VIIconferred city status to several settlements, such asTromsø,to facilitate it.[3]Norwegians mainly traded fish for flour and wheat from Russians. The trading went on throughout the sunny months of the year and was beneficial to both sides; Norwegians had access to cheap fish in the summer, whilst Russians had surpluswheat.[4]Traders came from the areas nearMurmanskand theWhite Sea,most often to the towns ofVardø,Hammerfest,and Tromsø, occasionally further south to theLofoten islands.[5][4][6]

The earliest recorded instance of Russenorsk was in 1785.[7]It is one of the most studied northern pidgins; many linguists, for example,Olaf Broch,studied it. Unlike equatorial pidgins, it was formed from only two languages, Norwegian and Russian. Furthermore, these languages are not from the same branch of Indo-European languages. Also unlike equatorial pidgins, Russenorsk was formed from one social class.[8]

Until 1850, Russenorsk was socially acceptable for all social classes. In 1850, Russenorsk became more limited to Norwegian fishermen, whereas Norwegian traders learnt Russian through exposure in Archangelsk and Russian trade centers,[1]often formally studying the language to the extent that they could communicate in rudimentary Russian.[4]This increase in Russian study caused the devaluation of Russenorsk in terms of social status.[5]

In 1917,Finland's declaration of independencefrom Russia caused the Russian–Norwegian border to decrease significantly. In 1919, the border disappeared completely.[7]Furthermore, theSoviet Unionlimited international contact significantly, decreasing the need for the common language between Norwegians and Russians. The last such Norwegian–Russian trade occurred in 1923.[7]

Phonology

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Russenorsk uses many of the phonemes common to both Norwegian and Russian, altering phonemes only used in one.[7][9][10]Pronunciation depended on the language background of the speaker.[1]

  • /mn/,absent in Norwegian, became/n/:много ли(mnogo li,'how many?') →nogoli.
  • /x/,absent in Norwegian, became/k/:хорошо(khorosho,'good') →korosho.
  • /h/,absent in Russian, became/g/:hal('half') →gal.
  • final voiced consonants, absent in Russian, became unvoiced:gav('sea') →gaf
Consonants in Norwegian Russenorsk
Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Postalveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Fricative f s ʂ ç
Approximant ʋ l j
Flap ɾ
Consonants in Russian Russenorsk
Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Postalveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Affricate ts tɕ
Fricative f v s z ʂ
Approximant l j
Trill r

More is known about the Norwegian variety of Russenorsk due to the fact that most of the texts in Russenorsk were written by Norwegians. In the few Russian records of the language, there are examples of both/z/and/ts/in the wordsпрезентоме(prezentome,'to give') andпринципал(printsipal,'captain'), for which the Norwegians used/s/.The Russian affricate/tɕ/in words such asчай(chaj,'tea') was substituted by the Norwegians with the fricative/ç/.

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e ə o
Open a

Vocabulary

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Corporaof Russenorsk consist of lists of individual words and phrases as well as records of dialogues compiled by linguists such asJust Knud Qvigstad.The corpora include c. 400 words, about half of those only appear once in the records (so-calledhapax legomena),[4][11]therefore, the vocabulary contained only 150–200 core words.[5]

The origin of its vocabulary is generally held to be approximately 40% Russian and 50% Norwegian, with the remaining 10% fromDutch,Low German,French,English,Sami,andSwedish.[7][12]

Many words in Russenorsk have a synonym from the other primary language.[9]

  • Balduska,kvejta(halibut)
  • Muzhik,man(man)
  • Eta,den(this)
  • Njet,ikke(not)

Some words can be etymologically traced to both Norwegian and Russian, for example,vin(Norwegian) andвино(Russian). Some words have an unclear etymology; for example,tovaraorvaracould have come from Russian, Swedish, or Finnish.[9]

Some Russenorsk words survive in the dialect ofVardø:[4]

  • kralle(Russenorsk:krallom,Russian:красть,romanized:krast','to steal')
  • klæba(Russian:хлеб,romanized:khleb,'bread')

Grammar

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One of the characteristics differentiating the pidgin fromjargonis its grammar; however, Russenorsk did not go through tertiary hybridization.[13][4]Russenorsk is mainly influenced by Norwegian grammar, leading some to conclude that it is a variant of Norwegian with some Russian influence.[14]

A lack ofmetalinguistic awarenessamongst Russenorsk speakers may have led them to believe they were speaking the language of their interlocutor; that is, that Russians believed they were speaking Norwegian and vice versa.[14]

There are no clear verb conjugations. The main indication of a verb is the suffix-om,for example,kapitan på kajuta slipom(the captain is asleep in his cabin). Nominative nouns usually end with-a.[14]Conjunctions used to make compound sentences or dependent clauses areja,i,andjes.Kakis used as an interrogative word. The general word order isSVO,with some alterations for questions and sentences with adverbs.[9]

Påis used as the only preposition for theoblique case:[7]

  • For possession:klokka på ju('your watch')
  • For location:mala penge på lamma('little money in the pocket'), andprincipal på sjib?('Is the captain aboard the ship?')
  • For temporal relation:på morradag('tomorrow'),på gammel ras('last year').
  • For direction:moja tvoja på vater kasstom('I will throw you in the water'),nogoli dag tvoja reisa på Arkangel otsuda?('How many days did you travel from here [to get] to Arkhangelsk?'),på Arkangel reisom('go to Arkhangelsk').

Morphology

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Russenorsk does not have extensive morphology, but has some unique characteristics. The ending-omdoes not come from Russian nor Norwegian, but it may come fromSolombala English.[4]The ending-mann,from Norwegian, is used to indicate nationality or profession, for examplerussmann('Russian'),burmann('Norwegian'), orkukmann('trader'). Other morphological features arereduplication,such asmorra-morradag('after tomorrow'), andcompounding,such askua('cow') andsjorta('shirt') tokuasjorta('cowhide').[7]

Syntax

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One characteristic syntactical attribute of Russenorsk is the tendency to move the verb to the final position when the sentence has adverbs. This is found in neither Russian nor Norwegian.[4]Another is that the negator (ikke,njet) precedes the verb, but can be separated from the verb. This is unlike negation in either Russian or Norwegian, but it may have come from Finnish, in which this syntax was probable.[9]Moreover, the use of barter-focused language established frequent use of interrogative speech in sentences.[1]

Examples

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Rmarks Russian origin,Nmarks Norwegian.

Moja på tvoja.
моя́R påN
поR[a]		 твоя́R
my in your
'I speak in your language.'
Kak sprek? Moja njet forsto.
какR språkN моя́R нетR forståN
how speak? my no understand
'What are you saying? I don't understand.'

Sentences

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Moja på tvoja. I'm talking in your language.
Kak sprek? Moja njet forsto. What are you talking about? I don't understand.
å råbbåte work
kleba bread
Ju sprek på moja kantor kom You said that you would come to my office.
Tvoja fisk kopom? Will you buy fish?
Saika kopom i på Arkangelsk på gaf spaserom I'll buy pollack and we'll swim in Arkhangelsk.
Kak pris? Mangeli kosta? What is the price? How much?
Eta grot dyr. Værsegod, på minder prodaj! It is very expensive. Please lower the price!

See also

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Notes and references

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Notes

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  1. ^/po/in both languages happens to mean 'in' when referring to speakingina language, though they are pronounced slightly differently.

References

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  1. ^abcdHasselmo, Nils (1983). ""Russenorsk — et pidginspråk i Norge. (Tromsø-studier i Språkvitenskap III.) Oslo: Novus, 1981. Pp. 164"".Language in Society.12(3): 405–410.doi:10.1017/S0047404500010125.S2CID145283995.
  2. ^abVelupillai, Viveka (2015)."The verb phrase and prediction" In Pidgins, Creoles & Mixed Languages edited by Miriam Meyerhoff and Umberto Ansaldo.Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 388–431.ISBN978-90-272-5271-5.
  3. ^"Port of Tromso".Retrieved2014-11-08.
  4. ^abcdefghBandle, Oskar; Braunmüller, Kurt; Jahr, Ernst Håkon; Naumann, Allan Karker Hans-Peter; Teleman, Ulf (2005).The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages.Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. p. 1538.ISBN3-11-017149-X.
  5. ^abcJahr, Ernest Håkon (1996).On the pidgin status of Russenorsk. "In Language Contact in the Arctic: Northern Pidgins and Contact Languages edited by Ernest Håkon Jahr and Ingvild Broch.Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 107–122.ISBN978-3-11-081330-2.
  6. ^"Pomor trade".Retrieved2011-11-01.
  7. ^abcdefg"Russenorsk – A Language Sketch"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-01-08.Retrieved2011-11-02.
  8. ^Broch, Ingvild; Jahr, Ernst Håkon."Russenorsk".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-06-05.Retrieved2011-11-02.
  9. ^abcdeBelikov, Vladimir."Some Fragments of Russenorsk Grammar".Retrieved2011-11-01.
  10. ^"Pidgin – Russisch – Am Beispiel von Russenorsk".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-11-27.Retrieved2011-11-01.
  11. ^Atlas języków: Pochodzenie i rozwój języków świata.Poznań: Oficyna Wydawnicza Atena. 1998. p. 146.ISBN83-85414-31-2.
  12. ^Serk-Hansen, Karoline."Руссенорск".Retrieved2011-11-01.
  13. ^Velupillai, Viveka (2015)."Theories on the formation processes of pidgins" In Pidgins, Creoles & Mixed Languages edited by Miriam Meyerhoff and Umberto Ansaldo.Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 132–169.ISBN978-90-272-5271-5.
  14. ^abcKortlandt, Frederik."On Russenorsk"(PDF).Retrieved2011-11-01.

Bibliography

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  • Broch, I. & Jahr, E. H. 1984.Russenorsk: Et pidginspråk i Norge(2. utgave), Oslo: Novus.
  • Broch, I. & Jahr, E. H. 1984. "Russenorsk: a new look at the Russo-Norwegian pidgin in northern Norway." In: P. Sture Ureland & I. Clarkson (eds.): Scandinavian Language Contacts, Cambridge: C.U.P., pp. 21–65.
  • Jahr, E. H. 1996. "On the pidgin status of Russenorsk", in: E. H. Jahr and I. Broch (eds.): Language contact in the Arctic: Northern pidgins and contact languages, Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 107-122.
  • Lunden, S. S. 1978. Tracing the ancestry of Russenorsk.Slavia Orientalis27/2, 213–217.
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