Basque–Icelandic pidgin

Basque–Icelandic pidgin
Region	Iceland, Atlantic
Era	17th century
Language family	Basque-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	icel1248  (Icelandic–Basque Pidgin) basq1251  (Basque Nautical Pidgin)
Westfjords, the Icelandic region that produced the manuscript containing the Basque–Icelandic pidgin

The Basque–Icelandic pidgin was a pidgin spoken in Iceland in the 17th century. It is preserved in Icelandic manuscripts from the same and the following century. The pidgin consisted of Basque, Germanic and Romance words. 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.

In the manuscript AM 987 4to, kept at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík, there are two Basque–Icelandic glossaries called Vocabula Gallica ('French words') and Vocabula Biscaica ('Biscayan words'). Towards the end of Vocabula Biscaica, which contains a total of 278 words and short sentences, there are a few phrases where the 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.

The word numbers are the same as in AM 987 4to. The manuscript's Basque and Icelandic phrases are from Deen (1937:102-105). The modern Basque entries are from and . The English translations are based on the Icelandic text, which differs in some places from the Basque equivalents in the glossaries. For example, sagarduna 'cider' is not synonymous with Syrdryck 'sour drink'.

There are also many other French and Spanish words in the rest of Vocabula Biscaica and the other Basque-Icelandic glossaries. For example, Basque eliza 'church' in the beginning of the glossary is related to French église and Spanish iglesia. However, this is no 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 (modern spelling oui) at the end of Vocabula Biscaica.