Basque–Icelandic pidgin
pidgin spoken in Iceland in the 17th century
The Basque–Icelandic pidgin (Basque: euskara-islandiera pidgin, islandiera-euskara pidgin; Icelandic: Basknesk-íslenskt blendingsmál) was a Basque-based pidgin spoken in Iceland during 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 rudimentary communication with locals. It might have developed in Westfjords, where manuscripts were written in the language, 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. Basque entries are mixed with words from Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The Basque–Icelandic pidgin is therefore not a mixture of Basque and Icelandic, but between Basque and other languages. It was so named because it was written in Iceland and translated into Icelandic.
Only a few manuscripts have been found containing Basque–Icelandic glossary, and knowledge of the pidgin is limited.
Basque whalers in Iceland
Basque whalers were among the first to catch whales commercially; they spread to the far parts of the North Atlantic and even reached Brazil. They started coming to Iceland around the year 1600.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q810378. The first chronological checks are 1600.
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This entry incorporates text from “Basque–Icelandic pidgin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.