"My-in-your-way": How Russians and Norwegians began to speak the same language

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Residents of border areas know: if you want to trade with your neighbors, find a common language with them. If you have delicious cod, and they grow the wheat you need, then sooner or later you will meet at the market. Once Norwegians and Russian Pomors met in this way. And soon Russenorsk appeared - a special Norwegian-Russian language.

Trade relations between the Pomors and the Norwegians have existed since the XIV century. It was trade with the Russians that helped "rise" Northern Norway - when in the middle of the XIX century the Russian consul visited these lands, he was surprised at how developed this province turned out to be.

Where was Russenorsk used?

At the end of the 17th century, Russian and Norwegian fishermen started talking in Russenorsk. This mixed language, or pidgin, facilitated communication during fishing and navigation. It was necessary to understand how much the goods cost, in exchange for what they were ready to give, where the ships were moving and where they came from. The vocabulary of the surviving texts in Russenorsk is mainly limited to nautical and commercial topics.

It is quite possible that Russenorsk was also used in “informal” situations, because Russians and Norwegians communicated a lot outside of trade. In the descriptions of their contacts, there is evidence that the fishermen played ball with each other, the Russians gave candy to the Norwegian children, and the Norwegians liked the singing of the Russians.

In the northern Norwegian lands, fairs were regularly held, ships that came to replenish fish stocks there, bought eiderdowns. Residents of the surrounding territories came to such fairs with their products, took their families with them. The Russians brought honey, soap, oats, canvas, flour, and manufactures for sale. At different times, trade was carried out with varying degrees of legality - the governments of both countries either imposed duties on the merchants, or, on the contrary, encouraged them.

How did you buy and sell on Russenorsk?

For many years, trade between the Pomors and the Norwegians was an exchange one - one commodity was directly exchanged for another. The texts in Russenorsk preserved evidence of this: “Slik slag, en og en halv voga treska, så en voga mukka”. (For a vogue of flour, two vogas of cod). At Russenorsk, one could express dissatisfaction with the price: “Njet, brat! Kuda moja selom desjevli? Grot dyr mukka på Rusleien dein år "(No, brother! Where can I sell cheaper? Flour is very expensive in Russia this year!").

And after a successful deal or talking about the sea and goods, one could relax: “Davai paa moia malenka tabaska presentom” (Give me a little tobacco as a gift), “Davai på kajut side ned så dokka lite kjai drinkom. Ikke skade (Go down to the cabin and have some tea. It won't hurt). The lexicon has also survived, showing that those who spoke Russenorsk also appreciated strong drinks.

I (speak) as you (speak) - moja på tvoja

Russenorsk stands out against the background of many other mixed languages: it is not a “simplified” language of the colonialists, but a means of communication for equal partners. It contains about 50% of Norwegian words, 40% of Russian and 10% of words that both sides can understand from other languages, such as English, German, Finnish. The sailors had a good command of the "international" maritime terminology, so it was easier to use it.

We do not know how Russenorsk sounded: Olaf Brock, the first linguist who described it, used the recordings of texts in Russenorsk. Under him, this language was no longer spoken. But most likely, gestures, facial expressions and intonation played an important role in it. Perhaps, it was precisely in attempts to describe what needs to be bought or sold, equipped with eloquent gestures, that the first sentences arose in Russenorsk.

Just learn, just speak

Words taken from different languages in Russenorsk were greatly simplified. Combinations of sounds that were difficult to pronounce on one side or the other disappeared: for example, the Russian “hello” began to look like “drasvi”. In Russenorsk, the genus and number of nouns familiar to a Russian person has disappeared - instead, many words of this part of speech acquired the ending “a”: “damosna” (customs), “vina” (wine), “balduska” (halibut).

It is interesting that instead of "I" and "you" in Russenorsk the forms "mine" and "yours" were used. Exactly the same forms were used in the Russian-Chinese pidgin (mixed language) - Kyakhta. It was from him that the famous phrase “mine yours understand no” came to the “big” Russian language.

If it was necessary to use any preposition, then they used "po" (på) - it is in both Norwegian and Russian, albeit with different meanings.

Using the records of texts in Russenorsk, linguists identified about 400 words in it - this amount was enough for communication on topics important for both sides. If it was required to describe some phenomenon or object for which there were no words in Russenorsk, then a whole phrase had to be invented. For example, "the church" has been called "the house where they talk about Christ." Sometimes the Norwegians who spoke Russenoran thought that they spoke Russian well, while the Russians thought that they understood Norwegian very well.

While Russenorsk was the only means of communication, it was highly appreciated and taught by everyone who contacted Russians or Norwegians on commercial matters. In Russenorsk it was impossible to speak "outright", it was incomprehensible to those who had never taught it. But by the middle of the 19th century, it became clear that Russenorsk was not enough for business contacts.

Wealthy Norwegian merchants began sending their children to learn real Russian in the cities of the Russian North. And Russenorsk began to be perceived as a strange and funny distorted language.

Ordinary fishermen did not have the opportunity to send their children to study in another country, so Russenorsk remained in use until the revolution, when contacts between the countries were severed. Many Pomeranian families did not want to live in the new conditions and went on their schooners to the Norwegian neighbors. Those accepted them. And now in Northern Norway there are Norwegians with Russian surnames. In the city of Vardø, a monument to Russian Pomors has even been unveiled.

And today there are very unusual artificial languages used by people … True, a very limited number of people speak to them.