An Austrian Pidgin?

[Paul T. Roberge]

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On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Alexis Manaster-Ramer wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi all, a friend of mine who is not a linguist says he has read somewhere
> that there was once a pidgin language used in the multinational armies of
> the far-flung Austrian/Hapsburg empire.  I am wondering if anyone has any
> references to such a thing.  Thanks.  AMR

Reports of such a pidgin or pidgins are sketchy.  Two possibilities come
to mind, the former dealing in general terms with contact varieties used
by settlers in Bosnia from various parts of Austria-Hungary, the latter
with language contact on the borders of Austria:

Mitrovic, Paul. 1972. Deux sabirs balkaniques.  Linguistique 8 (1):137-140.

Schuchardt, Hugo. 1884.  Dem Herrn Franz von Miklosich zum 20. November
        1883.  Slawo-deutsches und Slawo-italienisches.  Graz: Leuschner
        & Lubensky.

The latter work was reviewed by A. Marshall Elliott in the American
Journal of Philology 6:89-94 (1885), according to the Reinecke
bibliography of pidgins and creoles (1975).  I also note in Reinecke et
al. the following item, which I assume contains "Nachtr"age" to the
aforementioned monograph:

Schuchardt, Hugo. 1886.  Zu meiner Schrift "Slawo-deutsches und
        Slawo-italienisches.  Zeitschrift f"ur die "osterreichischen
        Gymnasien 37:321-352.

Paul Roberge
Chapel Hill, NC