Written by Linden Alexander Pentecost, published by Linden Alexander Pentecost on the 4th of December 2025 and completed on the 6th of December 2025, this article was published from and in the UK, the author is also a UK resident and is from the UK. No AI was used in this article nor in any of my publications. This article/blog post is separate from any of my other publications and is only available on this website. This article/blog post contains a total of 1611 words.
This is my first blog post on this website, in which I will be discussing two languages spoken in wet temporate climates (although one of them is really a dialect, not that I am one for considering the definition important). These languages are: Stavanger Norwegian (Stavangersk) and Coast Tsimshian (Sm'algyax).
Stavanger Norwegian or Stavangersk is the Norwegian dialect, or group of dialects, spoken in and around the city of Stavanger in southwest Norway. Stavanger Norwegian borders the dialects of Jærsk, spoken natively along the adjascent coastal region of Jæren, and the Hardingmål dialects spoken in the Hardangerfjord region just to the east of Stavanger. Stavanger Norwegian shares a number of similarities with both of these other dialect groups, and within Stavanger itself there are also different variations of the local language, depending on how much a person's Stavangersk corresponds to the traditional dialect and how much it corresponds to more standard Dano-Norwegian speech.
Stavangersk and many other dialects in Southwest Norway contain similarities to Danish not found in other Norwegian dialects. This is often attributed to recent history, and in terms of more standard Dano-Norwegian influences this is probably the case. But things like the "uvular r" in the Stavanger region could I think be far older, especially considering that some of the megalithic architecture, e.g. passage tombs, near Stavanger, reflect an ancient archaeological connection to parts of Denmark, Western Germany and Holland, with passage tombs not being found throughout most of Norway.
The uvular "r" in Stavangersk is usually the uvular r sound [ʁ], but in certain positions it resembles more closely a fricative sound, [χ], similarly to in Danish. The initial t- in Stavangersk also approaches [tsʰ] or more likely [tˢʰ] similarly to in Danish. This is noticeable for example in the pronounciation of the name Tore Tang, which is the name of a song by the band Mods and was one of the first examples of Stavangersk which I came across - alongside the song Me to går alltid aleina - also by the band Mods and also in Stavangersk. Both of these songs I find really beautiful and touching, the song Me to går alltid aleina in particular has a beautiful and almost haunting melody I think.
One thing particularly noticeable about Stavangersk is that the vowels, in their basic articulation, can sometimes be more akin to those of Standard Swedish or even English in certain instances. So the "a" in Norwegian is often, especially in southeast Norway, pronounced [ɑ], and [a] is common in other areas, but in Stavanger [a] is most common especially in single-syllabled words, and sometimes it resembles something more like [æ]. Also in Stavangersk, the spelling skj- is sometimes pronounced /sj/ and not /ʃ/, at least to my ears. Note though that the soft k sound and kj is pronounced /ʃ/ in Stavangersk, similarly to in the Bergen dialect. As in Hardingmål, double ll in Stavangersk can become dl, e.g. eg elske adle fjedl vest fo Stavanger - "I love all mountains west of Stavanger", which in Bokmål Norwegian would be: jeg elsker alle fjell vest for Stavanger - although I am unsure to what extent this change affects all ll words in Stavangersk. Sometimes p, t, and k can become b, d, g in Stavangersk. Indefinite plural nouns in Stavanger of the masculine and feminine genders often take the suffix -år. The letters ei are generally, but not always, pronounced [ɛɪː]. The pronouns in Stavangersk are as follows:
eg - I
du - you singular
han - he
hu - she
de - it
me - we
dåkkår - you plural
di - they
Far from Norway, in a similarly wet, temporate climate to Stavanger, the Coast Tsimshian (Sm'algyax) language is spoken in coastal regions of northern British Columbia and Southern Alaska. Sm'algyax is a Tsimhianic language, a language, which, like others in the region, is consonant-heavy, but less so than the Salishan languages to the south for example. It has been many years since I studied Sm'algyax properly, it was one of the first Northwest Pacific languages I looked into, alongside Nuxalk. Even though the indigenous Sm'algyax speakers have been there in their present lands, in my opinion, since the dawn of time - and even though the language 100 % is indigenous American, Tsimshianic, and Salishan and many other indigenous American languages families do show similarities to languages on other continents, which I have published about a lot elsewhere. Here I will focus a little on some similarities between Sm'algyax and languages elsewhere. I have discussed some of these similarities in other publications, but will go over some, and some new ones here. Furthermore, due to having not studied Sm'algyax in many years, there is not much I can say about the grammar off the top of my head.
One thing I will mention though in terms of grammar are the amazing, and complex numerical systems of Sm'algyax, which differ depending upon what is being counted. In English and in most European languages, the higher numbers and how we express them can differ within a language, but generally we use the same numerals for all things. Exceptions are the extra-Brittonic counting systems used in parts of England and Scotland, and the extra-Goidelic counting systems once used in parts of Wales. This is where, for example, people of North Lancashire in the past would have used ordinary dialect numbers, and then would have employed a special "yan, tan, tethera" system for certain things, like in knitting or in counting sheep - essentially in certain indigenous practices.
The Sm'algyax numerical systems however are massively specific and varied. For example there is a set of numbers for counting canoes, and yet another set of numbers for counting people who are in canoes. There will no doubt be philosophical and indigenous spiritual connotations behind why this is, but I do not know the reasoning.
Another thing I will mention about the grammar, is that Sm'algyax makes common use of reduplication when making grammatical changes to the meaning of a root words. These reduplication patterns in Sm'algyax are pretty complex, and I will go on to include some examples of them in future publications. Below are some examples of curious words in Coast Tsimshian which show some similarity to words in other languages:
1. k'ul'on - "three" (1), the number 3 when counting fathoms of water for example. Compare Finnish kolme - "three", Northern Sámi golbma etc and many other similar words in Eurasian and other indigenous American languages, e.g. Mapuche küla - "three" etc.
2. gwülii - "three" (for round and abstract objects) (1), compare to the word above and also to similar words as mentioned above and in other publications in much more detail.
3. ayin - "no" (1), compare words for "no" and negative particles in Indo-European languages
4. lo'ox - "eel", compare Nordic words for "salmon" e.g. Swedish lax, Norwegian laks, also in for example in the place-name "Loch Laxford" in northwestern Scotland, "Laxford" being cognate to Icelandic Laxfjörður - "salmon fjord". Compare also Finnish lohi - "salmon" and other related words.
5. ts'al - "face" or "eye" (1), compare for example Scottish Gaelic sùil - "eye", Finnish silmä - "eye", and Northern Sámi čalbmi - "eye". There are far more root words potentially linked to these too.
6. münyaa - "ascend" or "go up", compare for example Nuxalk (a Salishan language) smt/smnt - "mountain", Squamish smánit - "mountain", etc, several other indigenous American words meaning "mountain" and "go", and for example West Indo European *men- "ascend", as in English "mountain", Welsh mynydd - "mountain", Welsh mynd - "go", Scottish Gaelic monadh - "mountain", Finnish mennä - "to go".
7. laakws - "light" (1), compare English "light", German Licht and many other Indo-European words for "light".
8. dii - "hill" (1), perhaps connected to the English place-name element "dod" - "hill"
9. ksuut - "autumn" (1), perhaps connected to Finnish syksy - "autumn", Northern Sámi čakča - "autumn" etc.
I have published many other examples of different possible cognates with Tsimshianic languages elsewhere. But I hope the ones I have included here, many of which I haven't published before, are interesting. All of the words marked with (1) were learned/sourced from the book SM'ALGYAX / A reference Dictionary and Grammar for the Coast Tsimshian Language, by John Asher Dunn. I am aware that the author of this book has also connected Tsimshianic languages with Indo-European, but I have not read his works about this, and my own study of Tsimshian cognates exists through my own independent research of the language. Other information in this article/blog post comes from my own research. Note I have also published other articles on this website in front of you recently (not on the website's blog), and in the next few days I will be publishing several unrelated PDF-only books (different books from each other and from this article and from any of my other works) on a different website (one of my other websites) and not on the website you are currently on.