Faroese language

Faroese (føroyskt ^*) is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by about 80,000 people in two main groups, about 48,000 in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark. There are also around 5,000 speakers in Iceland. 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

In the beginning, 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 *dusnō.) There is also some debatable evidence of Celtic language place names in the Faroes: for example Mykines and Stóra & Lítla Dímun have been hypothesized to contain Celtic roots.

Between the 9th and the 15th centuries, a distinct Faroese language evolved, although it was still intelligible with the languages within the realm of the Norwegian Viking Empire spanning from Norway Greenland and parts of North America.

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 pioneer of all scholars who studied the Faroese language was Jens Christian Svabo (1746-1824). His Dictionarium færoense (Faroese-Danish-Latin) was never printed in his lifetime but first issued in 1966/1970. So this 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 still more importance than in Iceland. The advantage of the remaining dual education in schools is responsible for the Faroese's understanding all Scandinavian languages better than any other neighboring people.

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 perhaps best understood by the speakers of nynorsk dialects in Western Norway (where most of the Viking settlers seem to have come from). Icelandic native speakers would not understand spoken Faroese without some training, and Danish speakers have almost no chance of understanding it without extensive studies.

Written Faroese is not much of a problem for those who can read Old Norse, Icelandic and perhaps 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:

50 lessons of Faroese grammar and language exercises.
20 lectures on linguistic subjects, culture, society and nature. The lectures on culture include oral poetry and modern literature.
2 excursions to places of historical and geographical interest.

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:

Ð, ð can never come at the beginning of a word, but can occur in capital letters in logos or on maps, such as SUÐUROY (Southern Isle).
Ø, ø can also be written ö in poetic language, such as Föroyar (the Faroes).
Common family names on the Faroes are e.g. Lützen, Müller, Winther, or the Christian name Zacharias. Even x was known in Hammershaimbs orthography, such as Saxun for Saksun.
While the Faroese keyboard layout allows one to write in Latin, English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, etc., the Old Norse and Modern Icelandic letter þ is missing. In related Faroese words it is written as <t> or as <h>, and if an Icelandic name has to be transcribed, <th> is common.

Phonology

Vowels

Grapheme	Name	Short	Long
A, a	fyrra a ("leading a")
Á, á	á
E, e	e
I, i	fyrra i ("leading i")
Í, í	fyrra í ("leading í")
O, o	o
Ó, ó	ó
U, u	u
Ú, ú	ú
Y, y	seinna i ] ("rear i")
Ý, ý	seinna í ("rear í")
Æ, æ	seinna a ("rear a")
Ø, ø	ø
Other vowels
ei	-
ey	-
oy	-

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.

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 .

- bátar (boats), kallar ((you) call, (he) calls)

{| align="right" id="toc" style="margin-right: 15px;" width="420" cellpadding="2" style="margin-left:10px;" Unstressed /i/ and /u/ in dialects Borðoy, Kunoy, Tórshavn Viðoy, Svínoy, Fugloy Suðuroy Elsewhere (standard) gulur (yellow) ^* ^* ^* ^* gulir (yellow pl.) ^* ^* ^* ^* bygdin (the town) ^* ^* ^* ^* bygdum (the towns dat. pl.) ^* ^* ^* ^* Source: Faroese : An Overview and Reference Grammar, 2004 (page 350)

- gestir (guests), dugir ((you, he) can)
- bátur (boat), gentur (girls), rennur ((you) run, (he) runs).

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:

vowel + ð + vowel
vowel + g + vowel
vowel + vowel

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

Glide insertion
First vowel		Second vowel			Examples
First vowel		i ^*	u ^*	a ^*
Grapheme	Phoneme	Glide
I-surrounding 1 + 2
i, y	^*	^*	^*	^*	sigið, siður, siga
í, ý	^*	^*	^*	^*	mígi, mígur, míga
ey	^*	^*	^*	^*	reyði, reyður, reyða
ei	^*	^*	^*	^*	reiði, reiður, reiða
oy	^*	^*	^*	^*	noyði, royður, royða
U-surrounding 2
u	^*	^*	^*	^*	suði, mugu, suða
ó	^*	^*	^*	^*	róði, róðu, Nóa
ú	^*	^*	^*	^*	búði, búðu, túa
I-surrounding 2, U-surrounding 2, A-surrounding 1 (regular)
a, æ	^*	^*	^*	-	ræði, æðu, glaða
á	^*	^*	^*	-	ráði, fáur, ráða
e	^*	^*	^*	-	gleði, legu, gleða
o	^*	^*	^*	-	togið, smogu, roða
ø	^*	^*	^*	-	løgin, røðu, høgan
Source: Faroese : An Overview and Reference Grammar, 2004 (page 38)

<Ð> and are used in Faroese orthography to indicate one of a number of glide rather than any one phoneme. This can be:

^*
- "I-surrounding, type 1" - after /i, y, í, ý, ei, ey, oy/: bíða (to wait), deyður ^* (sheep)
- "I-surrounding, type 2" - between any vowel (except "u-vowels" /ó, u, ú/) and /i/: kvæði (ballad), øði [ (rage).
"U-surrounding, type 1" - after /ó, u, ú/: Óðin ^*" target="_blank" >(good morning!), suður ^* (to make a trace).
^*
- "U-surrounding, type 2" - between /a, á, e, æ, ø/ and /u/: áður (before), leður ^*" target="_blank" >(in clothes), í bløðum [ (in newspapers).
- "A-surrounding, type 2"
  - These are exceptions (there is also a regular pronunciation): æða (eider-duck), røða [ (speech).
  - The past participles have always elskaðar [ (beloved, nom., acc. fem. pl.)
Silent
- "A-surrounding, type 1" - between /a, á, e, o/ and /a/ and in some words between <æ, ø> and : ráða (to advise), gleða ^*" target="_blank" >(to forbode), kvøða ^* (to make a speech)

Skerping

|*^*

|*^*

|*^*

|*^*

|*^*

|*^*

Skerping
Written	Pronunciation	instead of
-ógv-	^*
-úgv-	^*
-eyggj-	^*
-íggj-, -ýggj-	^*
-eiggj-	^*
-oyggj-	^*

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.

Jógvan Gjógv [" target="_blank" >^* (cleft)
kúgv ^*" target="_blank" >(believe), but: trúleysur [ (faithless)
heyggjur ^* (dat. sg. with suffix article)
nýggjur ^* (n.)
beiggi [ (brother)
oyggj ^* (acc. sg. with suffix article)

Consonants

	Labial	Apical	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal
Plosive
Affricate
Fricative
Approximant

There are several phonological processes involved in Faroese, including:

Voiced stops are devoiced word-finally and before voiceless consonants
Liquids are devoiced before voiceless consonants
Nasals generally assume the place of articulation and laryngeal settings of following consonants.
Velar stops palatalize to postalveolar affricates before and
/v/ becomes /f/ before voiceless consonants
/s/ becomes after and before /j/ and may assimilate the retroflexion of a preceding /r/ to become .

Omissions in consonant clusters

Faroese tends to omit the first or second consonant in clusters of different consonants:

fjalls (mountain's gen.) instead of *^*" target="_blank" >(nom.). Other examples for genitives are: barns ^* (lake's, water's).
hjálpti (helped) past sg. instead of *^*." target="_blank" >Other examples for past forms are: sigldi ^* (wrote poetry).
homophone are fylgdi (followed) and fygldi (caught birds with net): ^*.
skt will be:
1. in words of more than one syllable: føroyskt ^*" target="_blank" >(Russian n. sg.), íslendskt [ (Icelandic n. sg.).
2. in monosyllables: enskt ^*" target="_blank" >(Danish n. sg.), franskt ^*" target="_blank" >(Spanish n. sg.), svenskt ^* (German n. sg.).
  - However in: írskt ^* (Norwegian ''n. sg.)

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.

Read:

hvør, hvat? interrogative pronoun "who, what?"
ein indefinite article "a"
stórur adjective "big"
bátur noun "boat"

ein stórur bátur - a big boat (m.)
ein vøkur genta - a beautiful girl (f.)
eitt gott barn - a good child (n.)

In the plural you will see that even the numeral tvey (2) is inflected.

Indefinite phrases
Singular	?	Masculine	?	Feminine	?	Neuter
Nominative	hvør?	ein stórur bátur	hvør?	ein vøkur genta	hvat?	eitt gott barn
Accusative	hvønn?	ein stóran bát	hvørja?	eina vakra gentu	hvat?	eitt gott barn
Dative	hvørjum?	einum stórum báti	hvørj(ar)i?	einari vakari gentu	hvørjum?	einum góðum barni
Genitive	hvørs?	eins stórs báts	hvørjar?	einar vakrar gentu	hvørs?	eins góðs barns

Plural	?	Masculine	?	Feminine	?	Neuter
Nominative	hvørjir?	tveir stórir bátar	hvørjar?	tvær vakrar gentur	hvørji?	tvey góð børn
Accusative	hvørjar?	tveir stórar bátar	hvørjar?	tvær vakrar gentur	hvørji?	tvey góð børn
Dative	hvørjum?	tveimum stórum bátum	hvørjum?	tveimum vøkrum gentum	hvørjum?	tveimum góðum børnum
Genitive	hvørja?	tveggja stóra báta	hvørja?	tveggja vakra genta	hvørja?	tveggja góða barna

If the noun is definite, the verb 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:

tann stóru báturin - the big boat-the
tann vakra gentan - the beautiful girl-the
tað góða barn - the good child-the

Definite phrases
Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	tann stóri báturin	tann vakra gentan	tað góða barnið
Accusative	tann stóra bátin	ta vøkru gentuna	tað góða barnið
Dative	tí stóra bátinum	tí vøkru gentuni	tí góða barninum
Genitive	tess stóra bátsins	teirrar vøkru gentunnar	tess góða barnsins

Plural	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	teir stóru bátarnir	tær vøkru genturnar	tey góðu børnini
Accusative	teir stóru bátarnar	tær vøkru genturnar	tey góðu børnini
Dative	teimum stóru bátunum	teimum vøkru gentunum	teimum góðu børnunum
Genitive	teirra stóru bátanna	teirra vøkru gentunna	teirra góðu barnanna

Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns of Faroese are:

Personal pronouns
Singular	1.	2.	3. m	3. f	3. n
Nominative	eg	tú	hann	hon	tað
Accusative	meg	teg	hann	hana	tað
Dative	mær	tær	honum	henni	tí
Genitive	mín	tín	hansara	hennara	tess

Plural	1.	2.	3. m	3. f	3. n
Nominative	vit	tit	teir	tær	tey
Accusative	okkum	tykkum	teir	tær	tey
Dative	okkum	tykkum	teimum
Genitive	okkara	tykkara	teirra

Singular

1st person: eg - I, meg ^*" target="_blank" >- me (dat.), mín [ - my
2nd person: tú - you, teg ^*" target="_blank" >- you (dat.), tín [ - your (gen.)
3rd person masculine: hann - he, him (nom., acc.), honum ^* - his (gen.)
3rd person feminine: hon - she, hana ^*" target="_blank" >- her (dat.), hennara [ - her (gen.)
3rd person neuter: tað - it (nom., acc.), tí ^* - its (gen.)

Plural

1st person: vit - we, okkum ^* - our (gen.)
2nd person: tit - you (pl.), tykkum ^* - your (gen. pl.)
3rd person masculine: teir - they, them (m. nom., acc.), teimum ^* - their (gen.)
3rd person feminine: tær ^* - they, them (f. nom., acc.)
3rd person neuter: tey ^* - they, them (n. nom., acc.)

The 3rd person plural neuter tey will be used in all cases when both genders are meant, as in:

teir eru onglendingar - they are Englishmen (about males)
tær eru føroyingar - they are Faroese (about females)
tey eru fólk úr Evropa - they are people from Europe (both sexes)

Verbs

Weak Inflection

There are 4 classes of weak inflection of verbs (with some underclasses). E.g.:

stem-final -a, 2-3.pers.sg. -r - kalla! (imperative), tú/hann kalla-r (you/he call(s))
2-3.pers.sg. -ur - tú/hann selur (you/he sell(s))
2-3.pers.sg. -ir - tú/hann dømir (you/he judge(s))
2. pers.sg. -rt - tú rørt (you row). There occurs a Verschärfung in certain surroundings: eg rógvi I row; vs. eg róði [, I rowed.

Weak Inflection
Infinitive	1. kalla		2. selja		3. døma		4. rógva

Singular	Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past
1st pers.	kalli	kallaði	selji	seldi	dømi	dømdi	rógvi	róði
2nd pers.	kallar	kallaði	selur	seldi	dømir	dømdi	rørt	róði
3rd pers.	kallar	kallaði	selur	seldi	dømir	dømdi	rør	róði

Plural	Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past	Present	Past
1st, 2nd, 3rd pers.	kalla	kallaðu	selja	seldu	døma	dømdu	rógva	róðu

Supine	kallað		selt		dømt		róð

Strong Inflection

These verbs are also referred to as regular. There are 7 classes (with underclasses), distinguished by the variations of the stem-vowel:

í - ei - i- i; - at bíta - eg beit - vit bitu - vit hava bitið (bite)
ó/ú- ey - u- o; - at bróta - eg breyt - vit brutu - vit hava brotið (break)
e/i/ø - a- u- o/u; - at svimja - eg svam - vit svumu - vit hava svomið (swim)
e/o - a - ó - o; - at bera - eg bar - vit bóru - vit hava borið (bear)
- o - o - o - o; - at koma - eg kom - vit komu - vit hava komið (come)
e/i - a/á - ó - i; - at liggja - eg lá - vit lógu - vit hava ligið (lie)
a - ó - ó - a; - at fara - eg fór - vit fóru - vit hava farið (go)
a/á - e - i - i; - at fáa - eg fekk - vit fingu - vit hava fingið (get)

{| id="toc" style="margin-left: 15px;" width="700" cellpadding="2" Strong Inflection Infinitive 1. bíta 2. bróta 3. svimja 4. bera 5. koma 6. fara 7. fáa Singular Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past 1st pers. bíti beit bróti breyt svimji svam komi kom liggi lá fari fór fái fekk 2nd pers. bítur beitst brýtur breytst svimur svamst kemur komst liggur lást fert fórt fært fekst 3rd pers. bítur beit brýtur breyt svimur svam kemur kom liggur lá fer fór fær fekk Plural Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past 1st, 2nd, 3rd pers. bíta bitu bróta brutu svimja svumu koma komu liggja lógu fara fóru fáa fingu Supine bitið brotið svomið komið ligið farið fingið

Auxiliary verbs

The auxiliary verbs in Faroese are:

at vera - to be
at hava - to have
at verða - to be, become
at blíva - to be, become

{| id="toc" style="margin-left: 15px;" width="500" cellpadding="2" Auxiliary verbs Infinitive 1. vera 2. hava 3. verða 4. blíva Singular Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past 1st pers. eri var havi hevði verði varð blívi bleiv 2nd pers. ert varst hevur hevði verður varðst blívur bleivst 3rd pers. er var hevur hevði verður varð blívur bleiv Plural Present Past Present Past Present Past Present Past 1st, 2nd, 3rd pers. eru vóru hava høvdu verða vórðu blíva blivu Supine verið havt - blivið Note, that vera and verða are homonyms.

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs in Faroese are the following:

at kunna - to be able to
at munna - to want
at mega - to be allowed to
at skula - shall
at vita - to know
at vilja - to want

Preterite-present verbs

Infinitive

1. kunna

2. munna

3. mega

4. skula

5. vita

6. vilja

Singular

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

1st pers.

kann

kundi

man

mundi

má

mátti

skal

skuldi

veit

visti

vil

vildi

2nd pers.

kanst

kundi

manst

mundi

mást

mátti

skalt

skuldi

veitst

visti

vilt

vildi

3rd pers.

kann

kundi

man

mundi

má

mátti

skal

skuldi

veit

visti

vil

vildi

Plural

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

Present

Past

1st, 2nd, 3rd pers.

kunnu/
kunna

kundu

munnu/
munna

mundu

mugu/
mega

máttu

skulu/
skula

skuldu

vita

vistu

vilja

vildu

Supine

kunnað

munnað

skulað

vitað

viljað

External links

FMN.fo - Faroese Language Committee (Official site with further links)
Faeroese - English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
Ethnologue report on Faroese

Faroese language | Languages of Denmark | North Germanic languages

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Faroese language

History

Dictionaries

Mutual intelligibility

Learning Faroese

Alphabet

Phonology

Vowels

Short vowels in endings

Glide Insertion

Ð and G as glides

Skerping

Consonants

Omissions in consonant clusters

Grammar

Nominal inflection

Personal Pronouns

Verbs

Weak Inflection

Strong Inflection

Auxiliary verbs

Preterite-present verbs

Further reading

External links