Faroese language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Faroese
froyskt
Pronunciation

[fst]

Native to

Faroe Islands, Denmark

Native speakers

66,000 (2007)[1]

Language family

Indo-European

Writing system

Germanic
North Germanic
Insular Scandinavian
Old Norwegian
Faroese

Latin (Faroese alphabet)

Faroese Braille
Official status

Official language in

Faroe Islands

Recognised minority

Denmark

language in
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

proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or

other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Faroese[3] /froiz/ (froyskt, pronounced [fst]) is a North Germanic language spoken as a

native language by about 66,000 people, 45,000 of whom reside on the Faroe Islands and
21,000 in other areas, mainlyDenmark. It is one of four languages descended from Old West
Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn.
Faroese and Icelandic, its closest extant relative, are not mutually intelligible in speech, but the
written languages resemble each other quite closely, largely owing to Faroese's etymological
orthography.[4]
Contents
[hide]

1 History
2 Learning Faroese in education as a secondary language
3 Alphabet
4 Phonology
o 4.1 Vowels
4.1.1 Short vowels in endings
o 4.2 Glide insertion
4.2.1 and G as glides
o 4.3 Skerping
o 4.4 Consonants
4.4.1 Omissions in consonant clusters
5 Faroese Words and Phrases in comparison to other Germanic languages
6 Grammar
7 Faroese numbers
8 See also
9 Further reading
o 9.1 To learn Faroese as a language
o 9.2 Dictionaries
o 9.3 Faroese Literature and Research
10 References
11 External links

History[edit]

The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:

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 had
brought 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 Norse
settlers in the Irish Sea. In addition, women from Norse Ireland, Orkney, or Shetland often
married 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 some
debatable evidence of Irish language place names in the Faroes: for example, the names
ofMykines, Stra Dmun and Ltla Dmun have been hypothesized to contain Celtic roots. Other
examples of early-introduced words of Celtic origin are: "blak/blaak" (buttermilk), cf. Middle
Irish blthach; "drunnur" (tail-piece of an animal), cf. Middle Irish dronn; "grkur" (head,
headhair), cf. Middle Irish gruaig; "lmur" (hand, paw), cf. Middle Irish lmh; "tarvur" (bull), cf.
Middle Irish tarbh; and "rgi" (pasture in the outfield), cf. Middle Irishirge.[5]
Between the 9th and the 15th centuries, a distinct Faroese language evolved, although it was
probably still mutually intelligible with Old West Norse, and remained similar to the Norn
language of Orkney and Shetlandduring Norn's earlier phase.
Until the 15th century Faroese had an orthography similar to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after
the Reformation in 1536 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 used in
written form.
This changed when Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb and the Icelandic grammarian and
politician Jn Sigursson published a written standard for Modern Faroese in 1854, which is
still in existence. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its Old
Norse roots and similar to that of Icelandic. This had the advantage of being etymologically
clear, as well as keeping the kinship with the Icelandic written language. The actual
pronunciation, however, often differs from the written rendering. The letter , for example, has
no specific phoneme attached to it.
Jakob Jakobsen devised a rival system of orthography, based on his wish for a phonetic
spelling, 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 church
language, 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.[citation
needed]
Today Danish is considered a foreign language, though around 5% of residents on the
Faroes learn it as a first language, and it is a required subject for students in third grade[7] and
up.

Learning Faroese in education as a secondary language[edit]

Faroese is included as a course option in Scandinavian studies courses at University College
London, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Uppsala and the University of
Helsinki.[8]

The University of the Faroe Islands offers an annual three-week Summer Institute which
includes:

Forty-five lessons of Faroese grammar and language exercises.

Fifteen lectures on linguistics, culture (oral poetry and modern literature), society and
nature.
Two excursions to places of historical and geographical interest.[citation needed]

Alphabet[edit]
Main article: Faroese orthography

Some Faroese isoglosses

An example of Faroese

Faroese keyboard layout

The Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin script:

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital 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 called lowercase or small letters)

b d e

g h

l m n o p

u v y

Notes:

Edd () can never come at the beginning of a word, but can occur in capital letters in logos
or 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). In
handwriting , is sometimes used. Originally both and were used: was used for
the vowel resulting from I-mutation of O, while was used for the vowel resulting from Umutation of A. The practice of differentiating the two has fallen out of use though, and now
only is used.
While C, Q, W, X, and Z are not found in the Faroese language, X was known in earlier
versions 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 related
Faroese words it is written as t or ash, and if an Icelandic name has to be
transcribed, th is common.

Phonology[edit]
Main article: Faroese phonology

Vowels[edit]
Grapheme Name
Short[falling or rising?] Long
A, a
fyrra a [fa a]("leading a") /a/
/a/
,
[a]
//
/a/
E, e
e [e]
//
/e/
I, i
fyrra i [fa i] ("leading i")
//
/i/
,
fyrra [fa i]("leading ") /i/
/i/
O, o
o [o]
//
/o/
,
[u]
//
/u/
U, u
u [u]
//
/u/
,
[u]
//
/u/
Y, y
seinna i [saidna i]("latter i") //
/i/
,
seinna [saidna i]("latter ") /i/
/i/
,
seinna a [saidna a]("latter a") /a/
/a/
,
[]
//
//
EI, ei
ei [ai]
/ai/
/ai/
EY, ey ey [e]
//
/i/
OY, oy oy [o]
/i/
/i/

As in several other Germanic

languages, stressed vowels in
Faroese are long when not followed
by two or more 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. For example,
long and sound almost like a

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, Faroese
uses /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 [an] (before). Very typical are endings like -ur, -ir, -ar. The dative is often
indicated by -um, which is always pronounced [n].

[a]
btar [bat
Unstressed /i/ and /u/ in dialects
a] (boats), k
Elsewhere
Boroy, Kunoy,TrshavnVioy, Svnoy,FugloySuuroy
(standard)
allar [kadla]
gulur (yellow)
[ ul]
[ ul]
[ ul] [ ul]
((you) call,
gulir (yellow pl.) [ ul]
[ ul]
[ ul] [ ul]
(he) calls)
bygdin
(the
town)
[

d
n]
[

d
n]
[ dn][ dn]
[]
bygdum
(townsdat.
gestir [dst
[ dn]
[ dn]
[ dn][ dn]
] (guests), d pl.)
ugir [du] (( Source: Faroese: An Overview and Reference Grammar, 2004 (page 350)
you, he) can)
[] btur [bat] (boat), gentur [dnt] (girls), rennur [en] ((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[edit]
Faroese avoids having a hiatus between two vowels by inserting a glide. Orthographically, this
is shown in three ways:
1. vowel + + vowel
2. vowel + g + vowel
3. 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 /a/, /i/, /u/.
and G as
glides[edit]
First vowel
Grapheme

Phoneme

i, y
,
ey
ei
oy

[i]
[i]
[i]
[ai]
[i]

Glide insertion
Second vowel
i []

u []

a [a]

Examples

Glide
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]

I-surrounding Type 1
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]
[j]

sigi, siur, siga

mgi, mgur, mga
reyi, reyur, reya
reii, reiur, reia
noyi, royur, roya

 and G are
used in Faroese
orthography to
indicate one of a
number of glides
rather than any
one phoneme. This
can be:
1. [j]

U-surrounding Type 2
[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 1
a,
[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)
u

"Isurrounding, type 1" after /i, y, , , ei, ey, oy/: ba [bija] (to
wait), deyur [dij] (dead), seyur [sij] (sheep)
"I-surrounding, type 2" between any vowel (except "u-vowels" /, u, /) and
/i/: kvi [kvaj] (ballad), i [j] (rage).
2. [w] "U-surrounding, type 1" after /, u, /: in [wn] (Odin), gan
morgun! [wan mn] (good
morning!), suur [suw] (south), sla [slwa] (to make a trace).
3. [v]
"U-surrounding, type 2" between /a, , e, , / and
/u/: ur [av] (before), leur [lev] (leather), klum [klavn] (in
clothes), blum [blvn] (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 words
between , and a: ra [a] (to advise), glea [lea] (to gladden,
please), boa [boa] (to forebode), kva [kva] (to chant), ra [a] (to make
a speech)

Skerping[edit]
Skerping

The so-called "skerping" (Thrinsson Written

Pronunciation
instead of
et al. use the term "Faroese
-gv[ v]
*[u v]
Verschrfung" in
-gv[ v]
*[u v]
Faroese, skerping /p/ means
-eyggj[d]
*[id]
"sharpening") is a typical
-ggj-, -ggj[d]
*[id]
phenomenon of fronting back vowels -eiggj[ad]
*[aid]
before [v] and monophthongizing
-oyggj[d]
*[id]
certain 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 [jvan] (a form of the name John), Gjgv [dv] (cleft)
[v]: kgv [kv] (cow), trgva [tva] (believe), but: trleysur [tulis] (faithless)
[d]: heyggjur [hd] (high, burial mound), but heygnum [hinn] (dat. sg. with suffix
article)
[d]: nggjur [nd] (new m.), but ntt [nit] (n.)
[ad]: beiggi [bad] (brother)

[d]: oyggj [d] (island), but oynna [idna] (acc. sg. with suffix article)

Consonants[edit]
Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar

Stop

Nasal

p
p

t
t

t
t

k
k

Fricative
(Lateral)

Approximant
(Lateral)

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 following
consonants.
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 consonats
devoice 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 apical
approximant, rendering them voiceless, example: nt [nt]

Omissions in consonant clusters[edit]

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

fjals [fjals] (mountain's gen.) instead of *[fjadls] from [fjadl] (nom.). Other examples for
genitives are: barns [bans] (child's), vatns [vans] (lake's, water's).
hjlpti [jt] (helped) past sg. instead of *[jpta] from hjlpa [jpa]. Other examples for
past forms are: sigldi [sld] (sailed), yrkti [t] (wrote poetry).
homophone are fylgdi (followed) and fygldi (caught birds with net): [fld].

skt will be:

1. [st] in words of more than one syllable: froyskt [fst] (Faroese n.
sg.;) russiskt [sst] (Russian n. sg.), slendskt [lst] (Icelandic n. sg.).
2. [kst] in monosyllables: enskt [kst] (English n. sg.), danskt [dakst] (Danish n.
sg.), franskt [fakst] (French n. sg.), spanskt [spakst] (Spanish n.
sg.), svenskt [svkst] (Swedish n. sg.), tskt [tkst] (German n. sg.).
However [t] in: rskt [t] (Irish n. sg.), norskt [nt] (Norwegian n. sg.)

Faroese Words and Phrases in comparison to other Germanic

languages[edit]
Faroese

Norwe
gian
(bokm
l)

Norwe
gian
(nynor
sk)

Engl
ish

Vlkomin

Velkomm
Welco
Velkomen
en
me

Farvl

Farvel

Farvel

Fris
ian

Icela
ndic

Dani
sh

Hvordan
gr det?

Far vel;
Farewel
Farwol Faru
l
heill

Farvel

Hvussu
Hvor
How
Kor gamal
gamal(m)/go gammel er
old are
er du?
mul(f) ert t? du?
you?

Hversu
Hoe ld
gamall
bist?
ertu?

Reytt/Reyur Rd(t)

Read

Red

Dutc
h

Farvl

Lebewoh
Vaarwel
l

Vad
heter
du?

Wie
heit
Du?

How is
it
Korleis
going? Hoe
Hvernig Hvordan Hur gr
gjeng/gr
(How
giet it? gengur? gr det? det?
det?
goes
it?)

Raud(t)

Germ
an

Wolko Velkomi Velkom Vlkom Willkom Welko

m
n
men
men
men
m

Wat is
What is
Hvad
Hvussu eitur Hva heter Kva heiter
dyn
Hva
your
hedder
t?
du?
du?
namme heitir ?
name?
du?
?

Hvussu
gongur?

Swed
ish

Hoe
heet je?

Hoe
Wie geht
gaat
es?
het?

Hvor
Hur
Wie alt Hoe oud
gammel gammal
bist Du? ben je?
er du?
r du?

Rautt/rau
Rd(t)
ur

Rtt/Rd Rot

Rood/R
ode

Faroese

Norwe
gian
(bokm
l)

Norwe
gian
(nynor
sk)

Engl
ish

Fris
ian

Dani
sh

Swed
ish

Germ
an

Dutc
h

Bltt/blur

Bl(tt)

Bl(tt)

Blue

Blau(e) Bltt/blr Bl(t)

Bl(tt)

Blau

Blauw(e
)

Hvtt/hvtur

Hvit(t)

Kvit(t)

White

Wyt

Vit(t)

Wei

Wit(te)

Icela
ndic

Hvtt/hv
Hvid(t)
tur

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 and
four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

Faroese numbers[edit]
Number

Faroese

null

eitt

tvey

tr

fra

fimm

seks

sjey

tta

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

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 for

beginners 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, 244
pages, 4th printing 2002)
Michael Barnes: Faroese Language Studies Studia Nordica 5, Supplementum 30.
Trshavn, 2002. (239 pages) ISBN 99918-41-30-X

Hskuldur Thrinsson (rinsson), Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jgvan Lon Jacobsen, Zakaris

Svabo Hansen: Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar. Trshavn, 2004. (500
pages) 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 9991841-52-0 (in Faroese)
Annfinnur Skla / Jonhard Mikkelsen: Froyskt / enskt enskt / froyskt, Vestmanna:
Sprotin 2008. (FaroeseEnglish / EnglishFaroese dictionary, 2 volumes)
Annfinnur Skla: Donsk-froysk orabk. Trshavn 1998. (1369 pages) ISBN 99918-4222-5 (DanishFaroese dictionary)
M.A. Jacobsen, Chr. Matras: Froyskdonsk orabk. Trshavn, 1961. (no ISBN, 521
pages, FaroeseDanish dictionary)
Hjalmar Petersen, Marius Staksberg: DonskFroysk orabk. Trshavn, 1995. (879
p.) ISBN 99918-41-51-2 (DanishFaroese dictionary)
Eigil Lehmann: Froysknorsk orabk. Trshavn, 1987 (no ISBN, 388 p.) (Faroese
Norwegian dictionary)
Jn Hilmar Magnsson: slensk-freysk orabk. Reykjavk, 2005. (877 p.) ISBN 9979-66179-8 (IcelandicFaroese dictionary)
Gianfranco Contri: Dizionario faroese-italiano = Froysk-italsk orabk. Trshavn, 2004.
(627 p.) ISBN 99918-41-58-X (FaroeseItalian dictionary)

Faroese Literature and Research[edit]

V.U. Hammershaimb: Frsk Anthologi. Copenhagen 1891 (no ISBN, 2 volumes, 4th
printing, Trshavn 1991) (editorial comments in Danish)
Trur Jansson: English loanwords in Faroese. Trshavn, 1997. (243 pages) ISBN
99918-49-14-9
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 spelling Faeroese is also seen, Faroese is the spelling used in
grammars, textbooks, scientific articles and dictionaries between Faroese and English.
4. Jump up^ Language and nationalism in Europe, p. 106, Stephen Barbour, Cathie
Carmichael, Oxford University Press, 2000
5. Jump up^ Chr. Matras. Greinaval mlfrigreinir. FROYA FRSKAPARFELAG 2000
6. 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

External links[edit]
Faroese
edition ofWikipedia, the
free encyclopedia

For a list of words relating

to Faroese language, see
theFaroese
language category of
words in Wiktionary, the
free dictionary.

Faroese
edition ofWikisource, the
free library

Wikivoyage has a
phrasebook for Faroese.

Froysk orabk (the FaroeseFaroese dictionary of 1998 online)

Sprotin (complete English-Faroese/Faroese-English and DanishFaroese 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 other
Germanic languages.
Useful Faroese Words & Phrases for Travelers
How to count in Faroese