Labrador Inuit Pidgin French

Labrador Inuit Pidgin French, also called Belle Isle Pidgin or Inuit French Jargon, was a French-lexified pidgin spoken between Breton and Basque fishermen and the Inuit of Labrador from the late 17th century until about 1760.^[1]

Labrador Inuit Pidgin French
Belle Isle Pidgin
Region	Straits of Belle Isle
Era	late 17th century until ca. 1760
Language family	French Pidgin
Writing system	Latin Script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	bell1264

History

The first traces of Labrador Inuit Pidgin French (LIPF) first appear in 1694, though it is first fully attested in the 1740s by a French Canadian entrepreneur named Jean-Louis Fomel. He said the pidgin was used by the Inuit and made up of a mix of French, Spanish, and possibly Breton. The last attestations were recorded in the 1760s, though the pidgin almost certainly survived past this date.^[2]

Lexicon

The lexicon of LIPF was mostly French based but contained influence from Spanish, English, Dutch, Basque, and Breton.^[2]

See also

• Algonquian-Basque pidgin, used in the same area
• NunatuKavut people