Ebook: On Russenorsk

Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 54 (2000), 123-127 p.In the following I shall discuss another example of a mixed language, viz. Russenorsk, a pidgin which was spoken by Norwegian and Russian fishermen along the Arctic coast of Norway in the 19th century. Our major source of in-formation on this language is Broch & Jahr 1984; other important contributions are Lunden 1978 and Peterson 1980. Note that Russenorsk was a ‘seasonal’ language, not used continuously throughout the year but only during part of the summer fishing season (Lunden 1978: 213). It cannot therefore be compared with a natural language but illustrates the process of language mixing in a situa-tion where creolization never had a chance.