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 Vestfirðir, 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.