“Basque–Icelandic pidgin”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

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 rudementary communication with locals.{{sfn|Miglio|p=2|2008}} 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.{{sfn|Guðmundsson|1979}} 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.{{sfn|Bakker|Bilbao|Deen|Hualde|1991}}

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

Basque whalers in Iceland

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.{{sfn|Guðmundsson|1979}}

In 1986 Jón Ólafsson's manuscripts were brought back from Denmark to Iceland.^[2]

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"{{efn|The two pages can be seen [https://www.arnastofnun.is/page/JS_248_8vo here.]}}{{sfn|Miglio|2008}} 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.{{sfn|Guðmundsson|1979}}

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.{{sfn|Etxepare|Miglio}} The glossary was discovered around 2008,{{sfn|Miglio|2008|p=36}} the original owner hadn't identified the manuscript as containing Basque text.^[3] 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".{{sfn|Etxepare|Miglio}} 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.{{sfn|Etxepare|Miglio}}

Pidgin phrases

The manuscript Vocabula Biscaica contains the following phrases which contain a pidgin element:{{sfn|Deen|1937|pp=102–105}}

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.{{sfn|Hualde|2009}} 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.{{sfn|Deen|1937|p=101}}^[6]

Other examples

These examples are from the recently discovered Harvard manuscript:{{sfn|Etxepare|Miglio|p=282}}

The first phrase, nola dai fussu ("What's your name?"), might be written with standardized (but ungrammatical) Basque as "Nola deitu zu?".{{sfn|Etxepare|Miglio|p=286}} That is a morphologically simplified construction of the correct Basque sentence "Nola deitzen zara su?".{{sfn|Etxepare|Miglio|p=305}}

Further reading

Notes

References

1. ^¹{{Citation|last=Edvardsson|first=|title=Basque whaling around Iceland: archeological investigation in Strákatangi, Steingrímsfjörður|url=http://www.galdrasyning.is/baskarnir.pdf|volume=|pages=|year=2006|publisher=|last2=Rafnsson}}
2. ^{{Cite web |last=Knörr |first=Henrike |year=2007 |accessdate=2012-05-13 |title=Basque Fishermen in Iceland Bilingual vocabularies in the 17th and 18th centuries |url=http://www.euskosare.org/euskara/basque_fishermen_iceland_bilingual_vocabularies_17_18_centuries |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501170612/http://www.euskosare.org/euskara/basque_fishermen_iceland_bilingual_vocabularies_17_18_centuries |archivedate=2012-05-01 |df= }}
3. ^{{Cite web |last=Belluzzo |first=Nicholas |year=2007 |accessdate=2012-05-13 |title=Viola Miglio and Ricardo Etxepare - "A new Basque - Icelandic glossary of the 17th century." |url=http://www.euskosare.org/komunitateak/ikertzaileak/ehmg/7/viola_miglio_and_ricardo_etxepare_-_a |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505121657/http://www.euskosare.org/komunitateak/ikertzaileak/ehmg/7/viola_miglio_and_ricardo_etxepare_-_a |archivedate=2012-05-05 |df=}}
4. ^From the Basque Wikipedia and the French Wikipedia.
5. ^{{Cite book|authorlink = Koldo Mitxelena|last = Mitxelena|first = Koldo|url=http://www.euskaltzaindia.net/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=413&catid=228|title=Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia|year= 2005|publisher=Euskaltzaindia|accessdate=23 October 2012}}
6. ^Miglio 2006, p. 200.{{full citation|date=February 2019}}