Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost, published on the 31st of July 2025. No AI was used in this publication nor in any of my publications. This article was published in the UK. The 4 photos in this article were also taken by the author, back in the year 2011. This is one of the articles on this website which does not have immense linguistic detail, and so has more of a focus upon landscape, history and travel, as well as language. This is in part because I have been unable to find out much about the Norwegian dialect around Kvaløya itself and other languages present, but nevertheless I have included what I have learned. This article contains 2122 words. This article contains the following sub-sections:

I. Kvaløya, its name and etymology, and its Sámi etymology and other information (includes a photo of Kaldfjorden and later a photo of Bogen)
II. More information on the Kvaløya dialect, and other topics around islands (includes a photo of Tussøya from Sommarøya)
II. On the island of Tussøya, accessing the islands, other topics, and personal impressions of the islands (includes a photo of Håja from Sommarøya)

I. Kvaløya, its name and etymology, and its Sámi etymology and other information (includes a photo of Kaldfjorden and later a photo of Bogen)

Kvaløya in Troms is a large island, in fact the fifth largest island of Norway, not including the islands of Svalbard. The island of Senja is not far southwest of Kvaløya, whilst the island of Ringvassøya, (in Northern Sámi: Rávdnjevággi) lies a short distance to the north. All of these islands are large, although there are a large number of smaller islands also in the area, some of which I will discuss, namely Sommarøya, Tussøya and Håja. 

Photo below: a summer (July 2011) view on the innermost part of Kaldfjorden (The Cold Fjord), a fjord that extends into the island of Kvaløya, and which makes the northeastern part of Kvaløya into a large peninsula. In Northern Sámi, Kaldfjorden is known as Gállafierda, which seems to be essentially a Sámi phonetic adaption of the Norwegian Kaldfjorden.

The name Kvaløya means simply "Whale Island", from the words kval – whale, and øy – island. There are several other islands off the coast of Norway, which also bare the name Kvaløya, but only Kvaløya in Troms has also a Northern Sámi name, Sállir. The origin of the Northern Sámi name Sállir seems unknown, but I wonder if perhaps it bares some connection to Northern Sámi suolu, which means “island”, especially more-outlying islands. But the etymologies are not identical, only containing what may be the same, basic root structure. I have previously discussed in a lot of detail further connections and deeper meanings behind the root present in suolu as it occurs in Eurasia and elsewhere. A newly noticed similarity can be seen to the Tundra Nenets word саля, [sʌlʲɐ] meaning "cape". This aligns with other, related words I have found in Paleo-Siberian languages. In other words, it seems likely that the etymology of Sállir relates to Paleo-Scandinavian and Paleo-Siberian languages, although also having a relationship to the Sámi languages. I have discussed these connection elsewhere. 
Kvaløya was occupied during the Stone Age, and at Skavberg in southeast Kvaløya there are several ancient rock paintings, likely connected to the ancestors of the Sámi. Some of the paintings appear to depict reindeer, although elk, seals and humans or deities or ancestors with a human appearance, are also depicted. Some of the other paintings are seemingly more symbolic and do not depict humans nor animals.

Whilst I have written extensively about Northern Norwegian dialects, both individually and in general, I have not been able to find much about that of Kvaløya in Troms. The dialect of Kvaløya, is, from what I know, similar to that of the nearby island, and city of Tromsø, although the Kvaløya dialect has fewer Urban Norwegian features. The dialect of Kvaløya can thus be considered as a Coastal Troms dialect of Northern Norwegian, and one of the northernmost. There appear to be several similarities between Kvaløya Norwegian and the dialect of Senja, Senja being another large island to the south of Kvaløya (already briefly mentioned), where the linguistic situation of the dialect is much more thoroughly researched.

Photo below: The village of Bogen on the island of Kvaløya, and the bay known as Bogbukta, itself a bay on the outer parts of the Kattfjorden (The Cat Fjord), in Northern Sámi: Gáhttovuotna. The word vuotna is the original Northern Sámi word for "fjord". The village of Bogen faces out towards the island of Tussøya.

II. More information on the Kvaløya dialect, and other topics around islands (includes a photo of Tussøya from Sommarøya)

One example of a word used in Outer Kvaløya, and presumably on Sommarøya and Tussøya, is jenge or jænge, which refers to the innards of a fish, often used in the plural. Another word from Kvaløya is bonka, which refers to a wooden bowl used to hold milk. Both of these words have similar equivalents in the dialect of Senja, and are discussed in the online dictionary:  Dialektord fra Senja collected by Helga Stangnes, database by Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson, available on the website nordnorsk.uit.no . 

The Norwegian of Kvaløya will share much in common with Coastal Northern Norwegian dialects in a more general way, particularly with those of nearby islands, and with those of the Lofoten Islands in Nordland to the south. For example, I suspect that the Kvaløya dialect will have palatalisation, and apocope to some extent. For example ”the islands and the stones” would probably be øyan å steinan on Kvaløya, as opposed to the standard Bokmål Norwegian øyene og steinene. Similarly "I will drive to Kvaløya" would likely be something like: e ska kjør tell Kvaløya, which in standard Bokmål Norwegian would be: jeg skal kjøre til Kvaløya. Since, apart from a few words, two of which I have included, and some other comments and two sample sentences based upon my little knowledge of Kvaløya Norwegian, I have been able to find out very little about the Norwegian spoken on Kvaløya, and will likely return there at some point to research it in person.

A bridge from western Kvaløya takes one to the beautiful islands of Sommarøya and Hillesøya. Sommarøya simply means "The Summer Island". Ironically, when I went there, it was not very summery, but was dramatic and misty. The island, and the slightly less-flat island of Hillesøya, are both incredibly beautiful, with lush green vegitation and small forests of short birch trees, coral sands, and lots of small harbours and inlets. From these islands one can also see Senja to the south, and the island of Tussøya to the northeast, as well as several others from Sommarøya, such as Hekkinga, Edøya, Angstauren, and in the distance to the northeast: Håja, Bjørnøya and Sessøya, all of which look incredibly beautiful.

Photo below: a not-so-summery summer’s day on the island of Sommarøy, with Tussøya visible as the mountains rising out of the sea behind.

III. On the island of Tussøya, accessing the islands, other topics, and personal impressions of the islands (includes a photo of Håja from Sommarøya)

Whilst previously my research on Northern Norway and its languages has been primarily focused on Nordland, and later upon Kven, Troms was the first Norwegian county I ever visited, and I feel that my research and focus is returning to it more. Kvaløya is pretty mysterious; islands like Håja, Sessøya and Vengsøya to the north are perhaps even more mysterious to me though. Several of the more outlying islands of Troms are uninhabited, but have an incredibly long human history, and it is difficult to understand precisely how the history of these earliest peoples connects to that of the Sámis and Kvens today. The island of Vanna, far to the north, also has an interesting name. One can see similarities in its name to the Vanir of Icelandic tradition, and to the name Vienankarjala, which refers to the language of the White Sea Karelians. I have discussed this and related etymologies much more in other publications.

The island of Tussøya has itself an interesting history. In Northern Sámi, the island is known as Duđá. I have again been unable to find out what the Northern Sámi etymology means, and whether or not it is a Northern Sámi word or pre-Sámi word. But certainly the Norwegian name alludes to a Norse and possibly pre-Norse word: tuss, which means a kind of giant, primordial being or underground or underworld spirit being or ancestor. This word is related to the Icelandic word þurs and to the Faroese word tussur. I have commented on different aspects and examples of this root word in other publications. Whilst there was likely prehistoric activity on the island, the island also came to be quite important in the Iron Age or Proto-Norse period, although it is not certain who these people were at the time, or what language they spoke. The Iron Age site is located near to the settlement of Bø on Tussøya. 

It is possible to travel to Tussøya by boat, although I myself have not yet been, and have only seen it and photographed it from Sommarøya. Accessing Kvaløya and Sommarøya is straightforward from the city of Tromsø, one can take the Fylkesvei 862 from Tromsø across the short bridge to the much larger Kvaløya island, one can then follow the Fylkesvei 862 past Kaldfjord and the head of Kaldfjorden through the mountains to Kattfjordeidet, Nordfjordbotn and eventually to Bogen. Fylkesvei 862 then follows a general westerly course from Bogen, and after some distance, the Brensholmvegen comes off on the right, and leads one towards and over the Sommarøybrua towards Sommarøya and Hillesøya. 

Photo below: the mysterious island of Håja as seen from the island of Sommarøya in July 2011. The highest mountain on Håja is called Nipen, and is the sharp peak visible to the left, which rises steeply far above the sea. In Northern Sámi, the island is known as Hoajaidsuolu or as Hoavvá.