Languages of Svalbard

Svalbard has a population of approximately 2,400 people as of 2005. Approximately 70% of the people are Norwegian; the remaining 30% are Russian, Ukrainian and Polish. The official language of Svalbard is Norwegian. Russian is used in the Russian settlements, but formerly, Russenorsk was the "lingua franca" of the entire Barents Sea region.

The annual population growth is -0.02%, but as may be seen from the following chart, the ex-Soviet population has atrophied.

Norwegian

Norwegian is the official, and main language, of the archipelago. The weekly "Svalbardposten" is published in it.

Mainly Norwegian speaking settlements include Longyearbyen, the capital, Ny-Ålesund and Sveagruva

Polish

There is a Polish Station at Hornsund.

Russian

Mainly Russian-speaking settlements include Barentsburg

Some Russian is spoken in Svalbard's capital Longyearbyen, and appears in some signage.

Abandoned communites which spoke Russian include Grumant until 1961, Pyramiden until 2000.

Chinese

The Arctic Yellow River Station was established in 2003, by the People's Republic of China.cite news
url=http://www.pric.gov.cn/enindex.asp?sortid=17
title=Arctic Yellow River Station
publisher=Polar Research Institute of China
date=2006
accessdate=2008-01-29] http://www.pric.gov.cn/enindex.asp?sortid=1cite news
url=http://www.pric.gov.cn/enindex.asp?sortid=17
title=Polar Research Institute of China: A brief introduction
publisher=Polar Research Institute of China
date=2006
accessdate=2008-01-29] cite news
url=http://www.pric.gov.cn/enindex.asp?sortid=12
title=Polar Upper Atmosphere Physics
publisher=Polar Research Institute of China
date=2006
accessdate=2008-01-29]

Dutch

Smeerenburg was Dutch speaking until about 1660. The name itself is Dutch for "blubber town". There appears to have been a Dutch whaling station on the island of Ytre Norskøya as well.

The Netherlands still retains a research station at Ny-Ålesund.

Other languages

At present, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and South Korea all maintain research stations at Ny-Ålesund, although not all are inhabited year-round.

Former and extinct languages

Russenorsk

The history of Russenorsk or Russonorsk (Norwegian for "Russo-Norwegian") is mainly limited to 18th and 19th centuries. The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought about an end to its use; it is reported that the last Norwegian–Russian trade occurred in 1923, marking the last use of Russenorsk.

It was a pidgin language combining elements of Russian and Norwegian, created by traders and whalers from northern Norway and the Russian Kola peninsula. Another name for the language was "Moja på tvoja" that parodied a perverted Russian phrase, meaning something like "I can speak in your language" (from the Russian words _ru. моя ("moya") "my", _ru. по ("po") here used to mean "in" ( _ru. по-русски ("po russki") means "in Russian" in Russian) _ru. твоя ("tvoya") "your")

wedish

Swedish and Norwegian are mutually comprehensible to a considerable degree.

Pyramiden, which later became Soviet, was founded by a Swedish company in 1910.

References