Faroese Language

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Faroese languageFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Faroese

froyskt

Pronunciation [ f st]

Native to Faroe Islands, Denmark

Native speakers 66,000 (2007)[1]

Language family Indo-European

Germanic North Germanic Insular Scandinavian Old Norwegian Faroese

Writing system Latin (Faroese alphabet)

Faroese Braille

Official statusOfficial language in Faroe Islands

Recognised minority

language in

Denmark

Regulated by Faroese Language BoardFroyska

mlnevndin

Language codes

ISO 639-1 fo

ISO 639-2 fao

ISO 639-3 fao

Glottolog faro1244 [2]

Linguasphere 52-AAA-ab

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without

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Old West Norse dialect

Old East Norse dialect

Old Gutnish

Old English

Crimean Gothic Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility

Around AD 900, the language spoken in the Faroes was Old Norse, which Norse settlers hadbrought with them during the time of the settlement of Faroe Islands (landnm) that began in

AD 825. However, many of the settlers were not from Scandinavia, but descendants of Norsesettlers in the Irish Sea. In addition, women from Norse Ireland, Orkney, or Shetland oftenmarried native Scandinavian men before settling in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. As a result,the Irish language has had some influence on both Faroese and Icelandic. There is somedebatable evidence of Irish language place names in the Faroes: for example, the namesof Mykines, Stra Dmun and Ltla Dmun have been hypothesized to contain Celtic roots. Otherexamples of early-introduced words of Celtic origin are: "blak/blaak"(buttermilk), cf. MiddleIrish blthach; "drunnur" (tail-piece of an animal), cf. Middle Irishdronn; "grkur"(head , headhair), cf. Middle Irishgruaig ; "lmur"(hand, paw), cf. Middle Irishlmh; "tarvur"(bull), cf.Middle Irishtarbh; and "rgi" (pasture in the outfield), cf. Middle Irishirge.[5] Between the 9th and the 15th centuries, a distinct Faroese language evolved, although it wasprobably still mutually intelligible with Old West Norse, and remained similar to the Nornlanguage of Orkney and Shetlandduring Norn's earlier phase.Until the 15th century Faroese had an orthography similar to Icelandic and Norwegian, but afterthe Reformation in 1536 the ruling Danes outlawed its use in schools, churches and officialdocuments. The islanders continued to use the language in ballads, folktales, and everydaylife. This maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years the language was not used inwritten form.This changed when Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb and the Icelandic grammarian andpolitician Jn Sigursson published a written standard for Modern Faroese in 1854, which isstill in existence. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its OldNorse roots and similar to that of Icelandic. This had the advantage of being etymologicallyclear, as well as keeping the kinship with the Icelandic written language. The actualpronunciation, however, often differs from the written rendering. The letter , for example, hasno specific phoneme attached to it.Jakob Jakobsen devised a rival system of orthography, based on his wish for a phoneticspelling, but this system was never taken up by the speakers .[6] In 1937, Faroese replaced Danish as the official school language, in 1938 as the churchlanguage, and in 1948 as the national language by the Home Rule Act of the Faroes. However,Faroese did not become the common language of media and advertising until the 1980s.[citationneeded ] Today Danish is considered a foreign language, though around 5% of residents on theFaroes learn it as a first language, and it is a required subject for students in third grade[7] andup.

Learning Faroese in education as a secondary language [edit] Faroese is included as a course option in Scandinavian studies courses at University CollegeLondon, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Uppsala and the University ofHelsinki.[8]

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Majuscule forms (also calleduppercase orcapital letters )

A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Y

Minuscule forms (also calledlowercase or small letters )

a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v y

Notes:

Edd () can never come at the beginning of a word, but can occur in capital letters in logosor on maps, such as SUUROY (Southern Isle).

, can also be written , in poetic language, such as Froyar (the Faroes) (cf.Swedish-Icelandic typographic/orthographic tradition vs. Norwegian-Danish). Inhandwriting , is sometimes used. Originally both and were used: was used forthe vowel resulting from I-mutation of O, while was used for the vowel resulting from U-mutation of A. The practice of differentiating the two has fallen out of use though, and nowonly is used.

While C, Q, W, X, and Z are not found in the Faroese language, X was known in earlierversions of Hammershaimb's 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 is missing. In relatedFaroese words it is written as t or as h , and if an Icelandic name has to betranscribed, th is common.

Phonology [edit] Main article: Faroese phonology

Vowels [edit] As in several other Germaniclanguages, stressed vowels inFaroese are long when not followedby two or more consonants. Twoconsonants or a consonant clusterusually indicates a short vowel.Exceptions may be short vowels in

particles, pronouns, adverbs, andprepositions in unstressed positions,consisting of just one syllable.

As may be seen on the table to theleft, Faroese (like English) has avery atypical pronunciation of itsvowels, with odd offglides and otherfeatures. For example,long and sound almost like a

Grapheme Name Short[ falling or rising? ] LongA, a yrra a [ f a a ]("leading a") /a/ / a / , [ a ] / / / a / E, e e [e ] / / /e / I, i yrra i [ f a i ] ("leading i") / / /i / , yrra [ f a i ]("leading ") / i/ / i / O, o o [o ] / / /o / , [ u ] // / u /

U, u u [u ] / / /u / , [ u ] / / / u / Y, y seinna i [ sai dna i ]("latter i") / / /i / , seinna [ sai dna i ]("latter ") / i/ / i / , seinna a [ sai dna a ]("latter a") /a/ / a / , [ ] // / / EI, ei ei [ai ] /ai/ /ai / EY, ey ey [e ] / / / i / OY, oy oy [o ] / i/ / i /

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long Hiberno-English i , and long like an American English long o.

Short vowels in endings [edit] Although in other Germanic languages a short /e/ is common for inflectional endings, Faroeseuses /a, i, u/. This means that there are no unstressed short vowels except for these three.Even if a short unstressed /e/ is seen in writing, it will be pronounced like/i/:renn [ a n ] (before). Very typical are endings like-ur , -ir , -ar . The dative is oftenindicated by -um, which is always pronounced[ n].

[a] bt ar [ b a ta ] (boats), k all ar [ kadla ] ((you) call,(he) calls)

[ ] gest ir [ d st] (guests), d ug ir [ du ] ((you, he) can)

[ ] bt u r [ b a t ] (boat), gent u r [d nt ] (girls),rennu r [ en ] ((you) run, (he) runs).In some dialects, unstressed / / is realized as [] or is reduced further to[]. / / goes under asimilar reduction pattern so unstressed / / and / / can rhyme. This can cause spelling mistakesrelated to these two vowels. The table to the right displays the different realizations in differentdialects.

Glide insertion [edit] Faroese avoids having a hiatus between two vowels by inserting a glide. Orthographically, thisis shown in three ways:

1. vowel + + vowel2. vowel + g + vowel3. vowel + vowel

Typically, the first vowel is long and in words with two syllables always stressed, while thesecond vowel is short and unstressed. In Faroese, short and unstressed vowels can onlybe /a/, /i/, /u/.

and G asglides [edit]

Unstressed /i/ and /u/ in dialectsBoroy, Kunoy,Trshavn Vioy, Svnoy,Fugloy Suuroy Elsewhere( standard )

gulur (yellow) [ u l ] [ u l ] [ u l ] [ u l ] gulir (yellow pl.) [ u l ] [ u l ] [ u l ] [ u l ] bygdin (the town) [ d n] [ d n] [ d n][ d n]

bygdum (townsdat.l.) [ d n] [ d n] [ d n][ d n] Source: Faroese: An Overview and Reference Grammar , 2004 (page 350)

Glide insertion

First vowel

Second vowel

Examples i [ ] u [ ] a [a]

Grapheme Phoneme Glide I-surrounding Type 1

i, y [i ] [j] [j] [j] sigi, siur, siga , [ i ] [j] [j] [j] mgi, mgur, mga ey [ i ] [j] [j] [j] reyi, reyur, reya ei [ai ] [j] [j] [j] reii, reiur, reia oy [ i ] [j] [j] [j] noyi, royur, roya

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and G areused in Faroeseorthography toindicate one of anumber of glidesrather than any

one phoneme. Thiscan be:

1. [j] "I-

surrounding, type 1" after /i, y, , , ei, ey, oy/:ba [ b ija] (towait),deyur [ d ij ] (dead), seyur [ s ij ] (sheep)

"I-surrounding, type 2" between any vowel (except "u-vowels" /, u, /) and/i/:kvi [ kv aj ] (ballad), i [ j ] (rage).

2. [w] "U-surrounding, type 1" after /, u, /: in [ w n] (Odin),ganmorgun! [ wan m n] (goodmorning!),suur [ su w ] (south), sla [ sl wa] (to make a trace).

3. [v] "U-surrounding, type 2" between /a, , e, , / and/u/: ur [ av ] (before), leur [ le v ] (leather), klum [ kl av n] (inclothes), blum [ bl v n] (in newspapers).

"A-surrounding, type 2" These are exceptions ( there is also a regular

pronunciation): a [ ava] (eider-duck). The past participles always have [j]:elskaar [ lskaja ] (beloved, nom., acc.

fem. pl.)4. Silent

"A-surrounding, type 1" between /a, , e, o/ and /a/ and in some wordsbetween , and a : ra [ a] (to advise), glea [ le a] (to gladden,

please), boa [ bo a] (to forebode), kva [ kv a] (to chant), ra [ a ] (to makea speech)Skerping [edit] The so-called "skerping" (Thrinssonet al. use the term "FaroeseVerschrfung" inFaroese, skerping / p / means"sharpening") is a typicalphenomenon of fronting back vowelsbefore [ v] and monophthongizingcertain diphthongs before [d ].Skerping is not indicated orthographically. These consonants occur often after /, / (gv, gv)and /ey, , , ei, oy/ when no other consonant is following.

[ v]: Jgvan [ j van] (a form of the name John), Gjgv [d v] (cleft) [ v]: kgv [k v] (cow), trgva [ t va] (believe), but: trleysur [ t u l is ] (faithless) [ d ]: heyggjur [ h d ] (high, burial mound), butheygnum [ h i n n] (dat. sg. with suffix

article) [ d ]: nggjur [ n d ] (new m.), but ntt [n i t ] (n.) [ad ]: beiggi [ bad ] (brother)

U-surrounding Type 2u [u ] [w] [w] [w] sui, mugu, sua [ u ] [w] [w] [w] ri, ru, Na [ u ] [w] [w] [w] bi, bu, ta

I-surrounding Type 2, U-surrounding Type 2, A-surrounding Type 1a, [ a ] [j] [v] ri, u, glaa [ a ] [j] [v] ri, fur, ra e [e ] [j] [v] glei, legu, glea o [o ] [j] [v] togi, smogu, roa [ ] [j] [v] lgin, ru, hgan Source: Faroese: An Overview and Reference Grammar , 2004 (page 38)

SkerpingWritten Pronunciation instead of-gv- [ v] *[ u v] -gv- [ v] *[ u v] -eyggj- [d ] *[ id ] -ggj-, -ggj- [ d ] *[ id ] -eiggj- [ad ] *[aid ] -oyggj- [ d ] *[ id ]

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[ d ]: oyggj [ d ] (island), butoynna [ idn a] (acc. sg. with suffix article)Consonants [edit]

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar

Nasal

m

n

Stop p p

t t

t t

k k

Fricative (Lateral )

f

s

h

Approximant (Lateral )

v

j

w

l

There are several phonological processes involved in Faroese, including:

Liquids are devoiced before voiceless consonants

Nasals generally assume the place of articulation and laryngeal settings of followingconsonants. Velar stops palatalize to postalveolar affricates before /j/ /e/ / / /i/ / / and / i/ /v/ becomes /f/ before voiceless consonants /sk/ becomes / / after / i, ai, i/ and before /j/ / / retroflexes itself as well as following consonants in consonant clusters, yielding the

allophones [ ] while/ / itself becomes [ ], example: rd [ ]; preaspirated consonatsdevoice the rhotic: example: rt [ ]

Pre-occlusion of original ll to [dl] and nn to [dn]. Intervocalically the aspirated consonants become pre-aspirated unless followed by a

closed vowel. In clusters, the preaspiration merges with a preceding nasal or apicalapproximant, rendering them voiceless, example: nt [n t]

Omissions in consonant clusters [edit] Faroese tends to omit the first or second consonant in clusters of different consonants:

fjals [fjals] (mountain'sgen.) instead of *[fjadls] from [fjadl] (nom.). Other examples forgenitives are: barns [ bans] (child's),vatns [van s] (lake's, water's).

hjlpti [j t ] (helped) past sg. instead of *[ j pta] fromhjlpa [ j pa]. Other examples forpast forms are: sigldi [ s ld ] (sailed), yrkti [ t ] (wrote poetry).

homophone are fylgdi (followed) andfygldi (caught birds with net):[ f ld ].

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skt will be:1. [st] in words of more than one syllable:froyskt [ f st] (Faroese n.

sg.;) russiskt [ s st] (Russian n. sg.), slendskt [ l st] (Icelandicn. sg.).2. [kst] in monosyllables:enskt [ kst] (Englishn. sg.), danskt [da kst] (Danish n.

sg.), franskt [f a kst] (French n. sg.), spanskt [spa kst] (Spanish n.sg.), svenskt [sv kst] (Swedish n. sg.), tskt [t kst] (German n. sg.).

However [ t] in: rskt [ t] (Irishn. sg.), norskt [n t ] (Norwegiann. sg.)

Faroese Words and Phrases in comparison to other Germaniclanguages [edit]

Faroese

Norwegian

(bokml)

Norwegian

(nynorsk)

English

Frisian

Icelandic

Danish

Swedish

German

Dutch

Vlkomin Velkommen VelkomenWelcome

Wolkom

Velkomin

Velkommen

Vlkommen

Willkommen

Welkom

Farvl Farvel Farvel Farewell FarwolFar vel;Faruheill

Farvel Farvl Lebewohl Vaarwel

Hvussu eitur

t?

Hva heter

du?

Kva heiter

du?

What isyourname?

Wat isdyn

namme?

Hva

heitir ?

Hvadhedderdu?

Vadheterdu?

WieheitDu?

Hoe

heet je?

Hvussugongur?

Hvordangr det?

Korleisgjeng/grdet?

How isitgoing?(Howgoesit?)

Hoegiet it?

Hverniggengur?

Hvordangr det?

Hur grdet?

Wie gehtes?

Hoegaathet?

Hvussugamal(m)/gomul(f) ert t?

Hvorgammel erdu?

Kor gamaler du?

Howold areyou?

Hoe ld bist?

Hversugamallertu?

Hvorgammeler du?

Hurgammalr du?

Wie alt bist Du?

Hoe oud ben je?

Reytt/Reyur Rd(t) Raud(t) Red ReadRautt/rauur Rd(t) Rtt/Rd RotRood/R ode

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Faroese

Norwegian

(bokml)

Norwegian

(nynorsk)

English

Frisian

Icelandic

Danish

Swedish

German

Dutch

Bltt/blur Bl(tt) Bl(tt) Blue Blau(e) Bltt/blr Bl(t) Bl(tt) BlauBlauw(e)

Hvtt/hvtur Hvit(t) Kvit(t) White Wyt Hvtt/hvtur Hvid(t) Vit(t) Wei Wit(te)

Grammar [edit] Main article: Faroese grammar Faroese grammar is related and very similar to that of modern Icelandic and Old Norse. Faroese is an inflected language with three grammatical genders andfour cases : nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

Faroese numbers [edit]

Number Faroese

0 null

1 eitt

2 tvey

3 tr

4 fra

5 fimm

6 seks

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7 sjey

8 tta

9 nggju

10 tggju

11 ellivu

12 tlv

13 trettan

14 fjrtan

15 fimtan

16 sekstan

17 seytjan

18 tjan

19 ntjan

20 tjgu

21 einogtjgu

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22 tveyogtjgu

30 tredivu, trati

40 fjruti, frati

50 hlvtrss, fimmti

60 trss, seksti

70 hlvfjers, sjeyti

80 frs, ttati

90 hlvfems, nti

100 hundra

1000 (eitt) tsund

See also [edit]

Gtudanskt Faroese language conflict Old Norwegian

Further reading [edit] To learn Faroese as a language [edit]

Adams, Jonathan & Hjalmar P. Petersen. Faroese: A Language Course forbeginners Grammar & Textbook. Trshavn, 2009: Stiin (704 p.) ISBN 978-99918-42-54-7

W. B. Lockwood: An Introduction to Modern Faroese. Trshavn, 1977. (no ISBN, 244pages, 4th printing 2002)

Michael Barnes:Faroese Language Studies Studia Nordica 5, Supplementum 30.Trshavn, 2002. (239 pages) ISBN 99918-41-30-X

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Hskuldur Thrinsson (rinsson), Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jgvan Lon Jacobsen, ZakarisSvabo Hansen: Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar . Trshavn, 2004. (500pages) ISBN 99918-41-85-7

Richard Klbl:Frisch Wort fr Wort . Bielefeld 2004 (in German)Dictionaries [edit]

Johan Hendrik W. Poulsen: Froysk orabk . Trshavn, 1998. (1483 pages) ISBN 99918-41-52-0 (in Faroese)

Annfinnur Skla / Jonhard Mikkelsen:Froyskt / enskt enskt / froyskt , Vestmanna:Sprotin 2008. (Faroese English / English Faroese dictionary, 2 volumes)

Annfinnur Skla:Donsk-froysk orabk . Trshavn 1998. (1369 pages) ISBN 99918-42-22-5 (Danish Faroese dictionary)

M.A. Jacobsen, Chr. Matras: Froysk donsk orabk. Trshavn, 1961. (no ISBN, 521pages, Faroese Danish dictionary)

Hjalmar Petersen, Marius Staksberg: Donsk Froysk orabk . Trshavn, 1995. (879p.) ISBN 99918-41-51-2 (Danish Faroese dictionary)

Eigil Lehmann:Froysk norsk orabk . Trshavn, 1987 (no ISBN, 388 p.) (Faroese Norwegian dictionary)

Jn Hilmar Magnsson:slensk-freysk orabk . Reykjavk, 2005. (877 p.) ISBN 9979-66-179-8 (Icelandic Faroese dictionary)

Gianfranco Contri:Dizionario faroese-italiano = Froysk-italsk orabk . Trshavn, 2004.(627 p.) ISBN 99918-41-58-X (Faroese Italian dictionary)

Faroese Literature and Research [edit]

V.U. Hammershaimb:Frsk Anthologi. Copenhagen 1891 (no ISBN, 2 volumes, 4thprinting, Trshavn 1991) (editorial comments in Danish)

Trur Jansson: English loanwords in Faroese. Trshavn, 1997. (243 pages) ISBN99918-49-14-9

Petersen, Hjalmar P. 2009. Gender Assignment in Modern Faroese. Hamborg. Kovac Petersen, Hjalmar P. 2010. The Dynamics of Faroese-Danish Language Contact.Heidelberg. Winter Faroese/German anthology From Djurhuus to Poulsen Faroese Poetry during 100

Years, academic advice: Turi Sigurardttir, linear translation: Inga Meincke (2007), ed.by Paul Alfred Kleinert

References [edit]

1. Jump up^ Faroese at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)2. Jump up^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath,

Martin, eds. (2013). "Faroese". Glottolog 2.2 . Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

3. Jump up^ While the spellingFaeroese is also seen, Faroese is the spelling used ingrammars, textbooks, scientific articles and dictionaries between Faroese and English.

4. Jump up^ Language and nationalism in Europe, p. 106, Stephen Barbour, CathieCarmichael, Oxford University Press, 2000

5. Jump up^ Chr. Matras. Greinaval mlfrigreinir. FROYA FRSKAPARFELAG 20006. Jump up^ Snar.fo, Jakob Jakobsen (1864-1918) 7. Jump up^ Logir.fo Homepage Database of laws on the Faroe Islands (Faroese) 8. Jump up^ http://www.ucl.ac.uk/scandinavian-studies/faroese

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External links [edit]

F aroese

edition of Wikipedia, thefree encyclopedia

For a list of words relatingto Faroese language, seetheF aroeselanguage category ofwords in Wiktionary, thefree dictionary.

F aroese

edition of Wikisource, the

free library

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Faroese .

Froysk orabk (the Faroese Faroese dictionary of 1998 online) Sprotin (complete English-Faroese/Faroese-English and Danish Faroese online dictionary

requires a subscription) Faroese online syntactic analyser and morphological analyser/generator FMN.fo Faroese Language Committee (Official site with further links)

'Hover & Hear' Faroese pronunciations, and compare with equivalents in English and otherGermanic languages. Useful Faroese Words & Phrases for Travelers How to count in Faroese