Russenorsk

Russenorsk (Russian: Руссено́рск, ; Russo-Norwegian) was a dual-source pidgin language in the Arctic combining elements of Russian and Norwegian, created by Russian traders and Norwegian fishermen from northern Norway and the Russian Kola peninsula. It was used extensively in Northern Norway for about 150 years in the so-called Pomor trade, that is, the barter trade between Russians and Norwegians in the north. The first attested word in Russenorsk is from the 18th century; the 19th century, however, was the main period of its use. Russenorsk is important as a test case for theories concerning pidgin languages since it was used far away from most of the other documented pidgins of the world. An interesting sociolinguistic feature is that there was no social difference between its users. A special morphological feature is the verb ending -om, probably taken from a (poorly attested) Russian-English pidgin in Arkhangelsk.