kukmann

Russenorsk

Alternative forms

• куфманъ (kufman)

Etymology

Probably from Dutch koopman. Compare also Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpmann and Russian купец (kupec). The /p/-sound has probably changed into /f/ (attested in Russian sources), and later changed into /k/, perhaps through Russian /x/ (the change of /f/ into /x/ or /xv/ was very common in colloquial Russian). The change of /x/ into /k/ in Russenorsk is attested e.g. in sokari, klæba and korosjo.

May also be from German Kaufmann.

Pronunciation

The vowel "u" has probably the sound /u/, and not /ʉ/, common in Norwegian spelling. This can be confirmed by Russian sources, although the Russian language has no /ʉ/-sound (the closest Russian alternative would be /ʲu/, but this sound is uncommon after /k/). From the Norwegian perspective, there is also a certain vulgarity connotation in the case if this word would be pronounced with /ʉ/ (see Norwegian Nynorsk kuk).

The Northern Norwegian palatalization is not attested for this word, and Russian sources do also give a spelling with a non-palatalized /n/-sound, although the palatalization is very common to see in Russenorsk both in Norwegian and Russian sources. The palatalized Norwegian spelling would be kukmain or something similar, but the normalized spelling is anyway kukmann.

• IPA^(key): /kukman/ (uncertain)

Noun

kukmann

1. a merchant