Does this conlang exist?
First of all, I don't know much about conlangs and conworlds and stuff, but for a few years I've been on and off working on (out of boredom and self interest) a simplified English alphabet, and I decided to look around on Wikipedia about linguistics stuff and found out theres entire communities devoted to constructing languages. I realized there was finally a way I could find out a hypothetical situation that I always wanted to see realized. This is one of a handful of forums I found about conlangs, so thats why I am posting here, and I'm sorry if this is the wrong subforum to post this in. Anyways... has someone developed a conlang that deals with the Vikings in North America? Basically, if the Vikings had created a permanent settlement in North America and remained there until greater European exploration occurred, so that when the explorers got to America they found thriving communities based on a few centuries of Vikings and Native Americans living together and melting into a culture of their own, with a language to represent their culture. If there is a conlang like can anyone tell me where to find out information about it? If there isn't, well I'll be sad, but also happy because I think that would be a pretty cool project to work on. According to Wikipedia, I guess the kind of language I'm talking about is an 'Alternate Language?' I'd imagine this language would be similar to Icelandic and whatever kind of languages were predominant in the north eastern United States/south eastern Canada.

... has someone developed a conlang that deals with the Vikings in North America? Not that I am aware of, but I'm hardly aware of every conlang on the web. According to Wikipedia, I guess the kind of language I'm talking about is an 'Alternate Language?' Well, yes, the situation you describe is usually referred to as an Althistory (alternative-history), and a constructed language in this context would be described as an altlang (alternative language). I think what you might be describing is a type of creole based on Old Norse and a myriad of Native American languages. It would be very interesting to see and I think if you wanted to develop it you would likely received much praise if you truly put the right amount of effort into it. Good luck.

Answered here.

Yeah, I'm glad someone was able to dig something up for me. He had a pretty interesting thing going, but it seems to have been abandoned over a year ago, and it also seems to be a language derived only of Old Norse with no Native American influence, which someone else pointed out as being pretty weird. It would seem like Native American languages would have at the very least SOME influences, unless of course the Vikings slaughtered them all, but in his "conhistory" he said there was still a thriving population of Native Americans living in the area.

Sounds like it may be time to cinch up your belt and dive in. It's really an interesting idea, a Norse-Miqmac mixed language > pidgin > creole > etc. I had a similar idea about an East Coast pidgin similar to Chinook Jargon once, but AmLangs aren't my area of expertise. If you decide to undertake this project, please keep us posted.

If I do wind up working on something like this, I'd probably do an entire "conworld" (I'm not familiar how to use all of these terms) - so not only would I try to hammer out a language, but other cultural aspects as well, such as religion. I found some good sources (including but not limited to Wikipedia) on the Mi'kmaq language and the Algonquian language family as a whole. It also seems like the Vikings had some extensive contact with the Beothuk tribe, moreso than the Mi'kmaq, but even less is known about the Beothuk language, however it is also a part of the Algonquian language family, so at the very lease I can fall back on aspects of the language family to incorporate into Old Norse.

If I do wind up working on something like this, I'd probably do an entire "conworld" (I'm not familiar how to use all of these terms) - so not only would I try to hammer out a language, but other cultural aspects as well, such as religion. I would be extremely interested in seeing what you might come up with. Many of us have entire conworlds that we work on, while some of us only do conlangs, conscripts...etc. If you want help, need advice, or whatever, you're welcome to ask, as these things are always a learning experience for all of us.

I want to put out the invitation, if anyone wants to collaborate or contribute to this. I plan on seeing this project out to the end, so anyone who does wish to collaborate doesn't have to feel obligated. I would greatly enjoy anyone else working on this though, as I am new to this kind of thing.

I made this thread on the www.conlanger.com/cbb forum also because I didn't really know where to start with the whole conlang thing. On the other forum, theres some talks of starting an Earth alternate history conworld, which there seems to be some support to make the 'Vinlandic' language a part of that conworld. So, basically, if momentum picks up for a new Alternate History conworld, I will make this language a part of that project.

I could give you some assistance if you need. I'm fairly knowledgeable about Old Norse: I studied it as a hobby for a while after learning my own partial Scandinavian descent, and I have an Old Norse textbook along with an Old Icelandic dictionary of my own as well. As for creating an Old Norse/Native American language, a creole type language sounds to me like the best and most plausible outcome, especially given the vast differences in syntax between Old Norse and any Native American language.