Borgarmålet

Borgarmålet ('townsfolk language') was an early-18th-century Swedish-based pidgin of Lappland (specifically, of the Lule Lappmark), used seasonally between the rural Sami and the Swedish-speaking inhabitants of the towns. The vocabulary was largely Swedish, and the grammar was simplified (little to no morphology). From the limited data that's been preserved, it's not obvious to what extent Borgarmålet was a stable pidgin, as opposed to an ad hoc trade jargon. However, Yury Kuzmenko believes there is enough evidence to conclude that Borgarmålet was a typical pidgin with a stable grammar.[2]

Borgarmålet
Sámi-Swedish pidgin
Native toSwedish Lappland
Eraearly 18th century
Swedish-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologborg1236[1]

There was apparently some grammatical influence from the local Sami languages, such as conveying Sami grammatical aspectual distinctions by means of different Swedish words (that is, with lexical aspect). Specifically, the data preserves several Borgarmålet verbs for 'to give', which seem to differ in the type of action. For example, 'you give me my skins and I'll give you your alcohol' uses two different verbs for 'give', stick and sätt, despite Borgarmålet being a simplified language. Stick (from Swedish sticka 'to prick') apparently indicated a momentary action, sätt (from Swedish sätta 'to set') an inchoative action (the onset of giving), and kast (from Swedish kasta 'to throw') a subitive action (to give suddenly). In addition, släpp (from Swedish släppa 'to release') appears to have been causative (to let give). These corresponded to grammatical distinctions required by Sami languages, but not by Swedish.[3]

Data

Five sentences were recorded by Pehr Högström, a missionary at Gällivare and Skellefteå, which he published in 1747:[4]

Du stick uti mäg din skin, så ja sätt uti däg min bränwin
Du ger mig dina skinn, så ger jag dig brännvin igen.
"You give me my skins and I'll give you spirits in return."
Du släpp din räv uti min wåm, så få du din bak den pelsomesak
Du ger denna rot eller rova åt min mage, så ger jag dig tillbaka detta muddskinn.
"You give me this root or turnip for my stomach and I'll give you [you'll get] back this reindeer skin."
Den lapman kast sin renost bak i den borgar
Lappen ger renosten åt borgaren.
"The Lapp gives the reindeer cheese to the townsman."
Som du wara rätt stin
Du är mycket dyr.
"You are very expensive."
Hur sit din heit?
Vad heter du?
"What's your name?"

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Borgarmalet". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Jurij Kusmenko, 2017. Borgarmålet: A Sámi-Swedish pidgin from the beginning of the 18th century. NOWELE: North-Western European Language Evolution, 70:1.
  3. Yury Kuzmenko, 2015. Lexical Transfer of the Sámi Aspectuality in the Sámi-Swedish Pidgin in the 18th Century. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Language and Literature, no. 3.
  4. Högström, Pehr (1980) [1747]. Beskrifning öfwer de til Sweriges krona lydande lapmarker. Umeå: Två förläggare bokförlag.
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