my-server
← Wiki

Solombala English

Solombala English, or Solombala English–Russian Pidgin, () is a pidgin derived from both English and Russian. It was spoken in the port of Solombala, in the city of Arkhangelsk, Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to , the pidgin may have started forming as early as the 17th century.

The known Solombala-English corpus consists of only two short 19th-century texts: one in (Essays from Arkhangelsk Governorate) by Vasilij Vereščagin from 1849, and one in (Arkhangelsk Governorate News) from 1867. Mentions of the pidgin are also found in the works of Mikhail Prishvin (early 20th century).

A possible connection is noted between Solombala English and Russenorsk (a Russian–Norwegian pidgin used in trade between Russian Pomors and Norwegians in the 19th and early 20th centuries). In particular, both pidgins use the suffix -(o)mъ as a verb marker, which may also reflect the influence of Finno-Ugric languages.

Sample phrases

Further reading

Primary sources

Secondary sources

References