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Faroese (føroyskt ˈføːɹɪst}}), often also spelled Faeroese, is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese in Denmark. It is one of three insular Scandinavian languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese.
History At one point, the language spoken in the Faroe Islands was Old West Norse, which Norwegian settlers had brought with them during the time of the landnám that began in AD 825. However, many of the settlers weren't really Norwegians, but descendants of Norwegian settlers in the Irish Sea. In addition, native Norwegian settlers often married women from Norse Ireland, the Orkneys, or Shetlands before settling in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. As a result, Celtic languages influenced both Faroese and Icelandic. This may be why, for example, Faroese has two words for duck: dunna (from Gaelic tunnag) for a domestic duck, and ont (from Old Norse ) for a duck in general. (This example has been criticized, however, by people claiming that the word is derived from Old Norse dunna, from Proto-Germanic Between the 9th and the 15th centuries, a distinct Faroese language evolved, although it was still intelligible with Old West Norse language. Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation 1538, the ruling Danes outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. The islanders continued to use the language in ballads, folktales, and everyday life. This maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years the language was not written down. This changed when Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb published a written standard for Modern Faroese 1854 that exists to this day. Although this would have been an opportunity to create a phonetically true orthography like that of Welsh, he produced an orthography consistent with a continuous written tradition extending back to Old Norse. The letter ð, for example, has no specific phonemes attached to it. Also, although the letter 'm' corresponds to the bilabial nasal as it does in English, it corresponds to the alveolar nasal in the dative ending -um . Hammershaimb's orthography met with some opposition for its complexity, and a rival system was devised by Jakob Jakobsen. Jakobsen's orthography (referred to as broyting) was closer to the spoken language, but was never taken up by speakers. In 1937, Faroese replaced Danish as the official school language, 1938 as church language, and 1948 as national language by the Home Rule Act of the Faroes. However, Faroese didn't become the common language in the media and advertising until the 1980s. Today, Danish is considered as a foreign language, though around 5% of the Faroe Islanders learn it as a first language and it is a required subject for students 3rd grade and up. Dictionaries The first scholar of the Faroese language was Jens Christian Svabo (1746-1824). His Dictionarium færoense (Faroese-Danish-Latin) was not printed until 1966/1970, however, so was not the first printed Faroese dictionary. Hammershaimb and Jakobsen presented the Færøsk anthologi in 1891 with volume 2 containing a glossary with 10,000 entries Faroese-Danish in Modern Faroese orthography. Mads Andrias Jacobsen and Professor Christian Matras followed with the Føroysk-donsk orðabók in 1928 and the enhanced edition in 1961, which is still useful. In 1967, Jóhannes av Skarði published the Donsk-føroysk orðabók (Danish-Faroese), which remains also the base for all newer editions up to now. Skarði also wrote the English-Faroese dictionary (Ensk-føroysk orðabók), which came out in 1985 for the first time. In the same year, G.V.C. Young presented the Faroese-English dictionary (Føroysk-ensk orðabók). In 1987, the Faroese-Norwegian dictionary (Færøysk-norsk ordbok) was issued. In 1993 a new Danish-Faroese dictionary was published, Donsk-føroysk orðabók, edited by Hjalmar P. Petersen. It is not a puristic dictionary as the former published, but reflects spoken Faroese of today. The Føroysk orðabók was not published until 1998 by Professor Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen (et al.) as the first monolingual dictionary with 65,700 entries of old and new words, synonyms and illustrations. In 2004, the first Faroese-Italian dictionary came out and won the National Literature Prize of the Faroes. In December 2005, the Icelandic-Faroese dictionary (Íslensk-færeysk orðabók) followed, and a Faroese-German dictionary is expected in 2006. Mutual intelligibility The former colonial language Danish has more importance than in Iceland. Dual education in Danish and Faroese in schools means the Faroese understand all Scandinavian languages better than any other population. An old regional variation of spoken Danish still exists, called gøtudanskt. However, this "charming accent" (as a Danish author once referred to it), is progressively being replaced by the Danish learned in school (rigsdansk). Although Danish today is purely considered a foreign language by the Faroese, this variation still colors their pronunciation of Danish and makes it easier for non-Danish Scandinavians to understand and communicate with the Faroese. Furthermore, in speaking a variety of Danish that more closely follows its written form, many Faroese school-age children are very competent in spelling Danish. Spoken Faroese is best understood by the speakers of Icelandic. Norwegian native speakers would not understand spoken Faroese without some training, and Swedish and Danish speakers will not understand it without extensive studies. Written Faroese is not much of a problem for those who can read Old Norse, Icelandic and very conservative Nynorsk, and just want to understand the sense of a text. However, to translate it, a dictionary is necessary. Too many words are different and no related words with the certain meaning to be found in the respective languages. This is also due to the fact that Faroese language policy today does not directly borrow from Icelandic, even though some neologisms are the same "by accident", i.e. from the same Old Norse heritage. Learning Faroese It is unusual for Faroese to be taught at universities outside the Faroes (within Scandinavian studies). So most students are forced to learn it autodidactically by books, listening to Faroese on the radio (there is an internet live stream) and trying to correspond with Faroese people. A good opportunity for learning Faroese is also visiting the websites of Postverk Føroya and reading their stories to the stamp editions both in Faroese and English (or German, French, Danish). However, the University of the Faroe Islands offers an annual Summer institute over 3 weeks including: Languages of instruction are Faroese and English. It is said to be very intensive and comprehensive. Alphabet The Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters: A, Á, B, D, Ð, E, F, G, H, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, O, Ó, P, R, S, T, U, Ú, V, Y, Ý, Æ, Ø Notes: is common.
| Vowels As in other languages, including English, stressed vowels in Faroese are long when not followed by two or three consonants. Two consonants or a consonant cluster usually indicates a short vowel. Exceptions may be short vowels in particles, pronouns, adverbs, and prepositions in unstressed positions, consisting of just one syllable. As may be seen on the table to the left, Faroese (like English) has a very atypical pronunciation of its vowels, with odd offglides and other features. Short vowels in endings While in other languages a short /e/ is common for inflectional endings, Faroese uses /a, i, u/. This means, that there are no unstressed short vowels except of these three. Even if a short unstressed /e/ is seen in writing, it will be pronounced like /i/: áðrenn (before). Very typical are endings like -ur, -ir, -ar. The dative is often indicated by -um which is always pronounced . In some dialects, unstressed is realized as or is reduced further to . goes under a similar reduction pattern so unstressed and can rhyme. This can cause spelling mistakes related to these two vowels. The table to the right displays the different realizations in different dialects. Glide Insertion Faroese avoids having a hiatus between two vowels by inserting a glide. Orthographically, this is shown in three ways: Typically, the first vowel is long and in words with two syllables always stressed, while the second vowel is short and unstressed. In Faroese, short and unstressed vowels can only be . Ð and G as glides <Ð> and Skerping (sharpening) The so-called "skerping" (Thráinsson et al. use the term "Faroese Verschärfung" - in Faroese, skerping means "sharpening") is a typical phenomenon of fronting back vowels before and monophthongizing certain diphthongs before . Skerping is not indicated orthographically. These consonants occur often after /ó, ú/ (ógv, úgv) and /ey, í, ý, ei, oy/ when no other consonant is following. Consonants There are several phonological processes involved in Faroese, including: Omissions in consonant clusters Faroese tends to omit the first or second consonant in clusters of different consonants: Grammar Not surprisingly, Faroese grammar is quite similar to the Icelandic and Old Norse. Below in the literature section, you'll find a comprehensive grammar to download (chapter 3 of the standardwork Faroese by Thráinsson et al. 2004). Nominal inflection Below is a representation of three grammatical genders, two numbers and four cases in the nominal inflection. This is just an overview to give a general idea of how the grammar works. Faroese actually has even more declensions. But in modern faroese genitive has a very limited use. Read: In the plural you will see that even the numeral tvey (2) is inflected. If the noun is definite, the adjective inflects weak, and the noun gets a suffix article as in any Scandinavian language (except for Old Norse). The interrogative pronoun is the same as above. In the plural, the plural form of the definite article is used. Read: Personal Pronouns The personal pronouns of Faroese are: Singular The 3rd person plural neuter tey will be used in all cases when both genders are meant, as in: Weak Inflection There are 4 classes of weak inflection of verbs (with some underclasses). E.g.: Strong Inflection These verbs are also referred to as regular. There are 7 classes (with underclasses), distinguished by the variations of the stem-vowel: Auxiliary verbs The auxiliary verbs in Faroese are: Note, that vera and verða are homonyms. Preterite-present verbs The preterite-present verbs in Faroese are the following: Further reading This is a chronological list of books about Faroese still available. Unfortunately, the English-Faroese and Faroese-English dictionaries are sold out. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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