Faroese language

Faroese
færøsk sprog
føroyskt mál
Pronunciation	[ˈføːɹɪst mɔaːl]
Native to	Faroe Islands, Denmark, Greenland
Ethnicity	Faroe Islanders
Native speakers	72,000 (2007)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic West Scandinavian Insular Scandinavian Faroese
Early forms	Old Norse Old West Norse Old Norwegian Old Faroese
Writing system	Latin (Faroese orthography) Faroese Braille
Official status
Official language in	Faroe Islands
Recognised minority language in	Greenland
Regulated by	Faroese Language Board Føroyska málnevndin
Language codes
ISO 639-1	fo
ISO 639-2	fao
ISO 639-3	fao
Glottolog	faro1244
Linguasphere	52-AAA-ab

Faroese (/ˌfɛəroʊˈiːz/ or /ˌfæroʊˈiːz/; Faroese: føroyskt mál, pronounced [ˈføːɹɪst mɔaːl]) is a North Germanic language spoken as a first language by about 72,000 people, around 49,000 of whom reside on the Faroe Islands and 23,000 in other areas, mainly Denmark.

It is one of five languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn and Greenlandic Norse. 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.

History

The Sheep letter (Faroese: Seyðabrævið) is the oldest surviving document of the Faroe Islands. Written in 1298 in Old Norse, it contains some words and expressions believed to be especially Faroese.

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

The Famjin Stone, a Faroese runestone

Around 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 (landnám) that began in 825. However, many of the settlers were not from Scandinavia, but descendants of Norse settlers in the Irish Sea region. 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 of Mykines, Stóra Dímun, Lítla Dímun and Argir have been hypothesized to contain Celtic roots. Other examples of early-introduced words of Celtic origin are: blak/blaðak (buttermilk), cf. Middle Irish bláthach; drunnur (tail-piece of an animal), cf. Middle Irish dronn; grúkur (head, headhair), cf. Middle Irish gruaig; lámur (hand, paw), cf. Middle Irish lámh; tarvur (bull), cf. Middle Irish tarbh; and ærgi (pasture in the outfield), cf. Middle Irish áirge.

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 Shetland during Norn's earlier phase.

Faroese ceased to be a written language after the union of Norway with Denmark in 1380, with Danish replacing Faroese as the language of administration and education. 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.

In 1823 the Danish Bible Society published a diglot of the Gospel of Matthew, with Faroese on the left and Danish on the right.

Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb and the Icelandic grammarian and politician Jón Sigurðsson published a written standard for Modern Faroese in 1854, which still exists. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its Old Norse roots and similar to that of Icelandic. The main purpose of this was for the spelling to represent the diverse dialects of Faroese in equal measure. Additionally, it had the advantages of being etymologically clear and keeping the kinship with the Icelandic written language. The actual pronunciation, however, often differs considerably from the written rendering. The letter ð, 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.

In 1908 Scripture Gift Mission published the Gospel of John in Faroese.

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. Today Danish is considered a foreign language, although around 5% of residents on the Faroes learn it as a first language, and it is taught in school from the first grade.

In 2017, the tourist board Visit Faroe Islands launched the Faroe Islands Translate, available in 13 languages including English, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Portuguese.

Old Faroese

Old Faroese (miðaldarføroyskt, ca. mid-14th to mid-16th centuries) is a form of Old Norse spoken in medieval times in the Faroe Islands. The language shares many features with both Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian; Old Norwegian appears closer to Old Faroese, whereas Old Icelandic remained rather archaic compared to other medieval varieties of Old West Norse. The most crucial aspects of the development of Faroese are diphthongisation and palatalisation.

There is not enough data available to establish an accurate chronology of Faroese, but a rough one may be developed through comparison to the chronologies of Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian. In the 12th/13th centuries, á and ǫ́ merged as /ɔː/; later on at the beginning of the 14th century, delabialization took place: y, øy, au > /i, ɔi, ɛi/; í and ý merged in addition to i and y, but in the case of í and ý, it appears that labialisation took place instead as is documented by later development to /ʊɪ/. Further, the language underwent a palatalisation of k, g and sk before Old Norse e, i, y, ø, au > /kʲ, ɡʲ, skʲ/ > /cᶜ̧, ɟᶨ, ɕcᶜ̧/ > /tʃʰ, tʃ, ʃ/. Before the palatalisation é and ǽ merged as /ɛː/ and approximately in the same period epenthetic u is inserted into word-final /Cr/ and /CrC/ clusters.

A massive quantity shift also operated in Middle Faroese. In the case of skerping, it took place after delabialization but before loss of post-vocalic ð and g /ɣ/. The shift of hv /hw/ to /kw/, the deletion of /h/ in (remaining) word-initial /h/–sonorant clusters (hr, hl, hn > r, l, n), and the dissolution of þ (þ > t; þ > h in demonstrative pronouns and adverbs) appeared before the end of the 13th century. Another undated change is the merger of ǫ, ø and ǿ into /ø/; pre-nasal ǫ, ǫ́ > o, ó. enk, eng probably became eing, eink in the 14th century; the development of a to /ɛ/ before ng, nk appeared after the palatalisation of k, g, and sk had been completed, such a change is quite a recent development, as well as change Cve > Cvø.

Development of vowels from Old Norse to Modern Faroese

9th century (Old Norse)				up to 14th century (Early Faroese)	14th–16th centuries (Old Faroese)		17th century (Late Old Faroese)				20th century (New Faroese)
					North	South	North		South		North		South
					long	long	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short
i				/i/	/iː/		/iː/	/ɪ/	/iː/	/ɪ/	[iː]	[ɪ]	[iː]	[ɪ]	i
y															y
e and æ				/e/	/eː/		/eː/	/ɛ/	/e/	/ɛ/	[eː]	[ɛ]	[eː]	[ɛ]	e
ø				/ø/	/øː/	/ø/	/øː/	/œ/	/øː/	/œ/	[øː]	[œ]	[øː]	[ʏ]	ø
u				/u/	/uː/		/uː/	/ʊ/	/uː/	/ʊ/	[uː]	[ʊ]	[uː]	[ʊ]	u
o				/o/	/oː/	/o/	/oː/	/ɔ/	/oː/	/ɔ/	[oː]	[ɔ]	[oː]	[ɔ]	o
ǫ				/ɔ͔/	/ɔ͔ː/		/øː/	/œ/	/øː/	/œ/	[øː]	[œ]	[øː]	[ʏ]	ø
a				/a/	/ɛː/		/ɛː/	/æ/	/ɛː/	/æ/	[ɛa]	[a]	[ɛa]	[a]	a
Long vowel -> Diphthong
í				/yː/	/ʊɪ/		/ʊɪ/	/ʊɪ̯/	/ʊɪ/	/ʊɪ̯/	[ui]	[ʊɪ̯]	[ui]	[ʊɪ̯]	í
ý															ý
é and ǽ				/ɛː/	/ɛː/	/eː/	/ɛaː/	/ɛa/	/eː/	/ɛ/	[ɛa]	[a]	[eː]	[ɛ]	æ
ǿ				/œː/	/œː/		/øː/	/œ/	/øː/	/œ/	[øː]	[œ]	[øː]	[ʏ]	ø
ú				/uː/	/ʉu/		/ʉu/	/ʉʏ/	/ʉu/	/ʉʏ̯/	[ʉu]	[ʏ]	[ʉu]		ú
ó				/oː/	/ɜu/	/ɔu/	/ɜu/	/ɜ/	/ɔu/	/ɔ/	[œu, ɛu]	[œ]	[ɔu]	[ɔ]	ó
á and ǫ́				/ɔː/	/ɔː/		/ɔː/	/ɔ/	/ɔː/	/ɔ/	[ɔa]	[ɔ]	[ɔa]	[ɔ]	á
True diphthongs
au				/ɶu/	/ɛɪ/		/ɛɪ/	/ɛɪ̯/	/ɛɪ/	/ɛɪ̯/	[ɛi]	[ɛ]	[ɛi]	[ɛ]	ey
øy				/œy/	/ɔɪ/		/ɔɪ/	/ɔɪ̯/	/ɔɪ/	/ɔɪ̯/	[ɔi]	[ɔ]	[ɔi]	[ɔ]	oy
ei				/æi/	/aɪ/		/aɪ/	/aɪ̯/	/aɪ/	/aɪ̯/	[ɔi]	[ɔ]	[ai]	[aɪ̯]	ei

Alphabet

Main article: Faroese orthography

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

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital 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

Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small 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

Phonology

Main article: Faroese phonology

Faroese vowels

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ	iː	ʏ	yː			ʊ	uː
Mid	ɛ	eː	œ	øː			ɔ	oː
Open					a	aː

As with most other Germanic languages, Faroese has a large number of vowels, with 26 in total. Vowel distribution is similar to other North Germanic languages in that short vowels appear in closed syllables (those ending in consonant clusters or long consonants) and long vowels appearing in open syllables. Árnason (2011) provides the following alternations:

Faroese vowel alternations

Monophthongs
/i/	linur	[ˈliːnʊɹ]	'soft'	lint	[lɪn̥t]	'soft (N.)'
/e/	frekur	[ˈfɹeː(ʰ)kʊɹ]	'greedy'	frekt	[fɹɛʰkt]	'greedy (N.)'
/y/	mytisk	[ˈmyːtɪsk]	'mythological'	mystisk	[ˈmʏstɪsk]	'mysterious'
/ø/	høgur	[ˈhøːʋʊɹ~ˈhøœʋʊɹ]	'high (M.)'	høgt	[hœkt]	'high (N.)'
/u/	gulur	[ˈkuːlʊɹ]	'yellow'	gult	[kʊl̥t]	'yellow (N.)'
/o/	tola	[ˈtʰoːla]	'to endure'	toldi	[ˈtʰɔld̥ɪ]	'endured'
/a/	Kanada	[ˈkʰaːnata]	'Canada'	land	[lant]	'land'
Diphthongs
/ʊi/	hvítur	[ˈkvʊiːtʊɹ]	'white (M.)'	hvítt	[kvʊiʰtː]	'white (N.)'
/ɛi/	deyður	[ˈteiːjʊɹ]	'dead (M.)'	deytt	[tɛʰtː]	'dead (N.)'
/ai/	feitur	[ˈfaiːtʊɹ]	'fat (M.)'	feitt	[faiʰtː~fɔiʰtː]	'fat (N.)'
/ɔi/	gloyma	[ˈklɔiːma]	'to forget'	gloymdi	[ˈklɔimtɪ]	'forgot'
/ɛa/	spakur	[ˈspɛaː(ʰ)kʊɹ]	'calm (M.)'	spakt	[spakt]	'calm (N.)'
/ɔa/	vátur	[ˈvɔaːtʊɹ]	'wet (M.)'	vátt	[vɔʰtː]	'wet (N.)'
/ʉu/	fúlur	[ˈfʉuːlʊɹ]	'foul (M.)'	fúlt	[fʏl̥t]	'foul (N.)'
/ɔu/	tómur	[ˈtʰɔuːmʊɹ~ˈtʰœuːmʊɹ]	'empty (M.)'	tómt	[tʰœm̥t~tʰɔm̥t]	'empty (N.)'

Faroese shares with Icelandic and Danish the feature of maintaining a contrast between stops based exclusively on aspiration, not voicing. Geminated stops may be pre-aspirated in intervocalic and word-final position. 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.

Faroese consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m̥ m	n̥ n	(ɳ̊ ɳ)	ɲ̊ ɲ	ŋ̊ ŋ
Stop	plain	p	t	(ʈ)	tʃ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		tʃʰ	kʰ
Fricative	central	f	s	ʂ	ʃ		h
	lateral		ɬ
Approximant	central	v	ɹ	(ɻ̊ ɻ)	j	w
	lateral		l	(ɭ̊ ɭ)

There are several phonological processes involved in Faroese, including:

• Nasals generally assume the place of articulation and laryngeal settings of following consonants.
• Velar stops palatalize to postalveolar affricates before /j/ /eː/ /ɛ/ /iː/ /ɪ/ and /ɛi/
• /v/ becomes [f] before voiceless consonants
• /sk/ becomes [ʃ] after /ɛi, ai, ɔi/ and before /j/
• /ɹ/ becomes retroflex following consonants in consonant clusters, yielding the allophones [ʂ ɭ ʈ ɳ] while /ɹ/ itself becomes [ɻ], example: /rt/ is realized as [ɻ̊ʈ].
• Pre-occlusion of original /ll/ to [tl] and /nn/ to [tn].
• Pre-aspiration of original voiceless stops [ʰp ʰt ʰk ʰtʃ] after non-high long vowels and diphthongs /ɛaː/ /ɔaː/ /eː/ /oː/ /øː/ or when a voiceless stop is followed by /n, l, r/. All long voiceless stops are pre-aspirated when doubled or in clusters [ʰpː ʰtː ʰkː ʰtʃː].

Grammar

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 Words and Phrases in comparison to other Germanic languages

Icelandic	Faroese	Norwegian (nynorsk)	Norwegian (bokmål)	Danish	Swedish	German	Dutch	Frisian	English
Velkomin	Vælkomin	Velkomen	Velkommen	Velkommen	Välkommen	Willkommen	Welkom	Wolkom	Welcome
Far vel; Farðu heill	Farvæl	Farvel	Farvel	Farvel	Farväl	Lebwohl	Vaarwel	Farwol	Farewell
Hvað heitir þú?	Hvussu eitur tú?	Kva heiter du?	Hva heter du?	Hvad hedder du?	Vad heter du?	Wie heißt du?	Hoe heet je?	Wat is dyn namme?	What is your name?
Hvernig gengur?	Hvussu gongur?	Korleis gjeng / går det?	Hvordan går det?	Hvordan går det?	Hur går det?	Wie geht's?	Hoe gaat het?	Hoe giet it?	How is it going? (How goes it?)
Hversu gamall (m) / gömul (f) ert þú?	Hvussu gamal (m) / gomul (f) ert tú?	Kor gamal er du?	Hvor gammel er du?	Hvor gammel er du?	Hur gammal är du?	Wie alt bist du?	Hoe oud ben je?	Hoe âld bisto?	How old are you?
Rautt / rauður / rauð	Reytt / reyður / reyð	Raud(t)	Rød(t)	Rød(t)	Rött / Röd	Rot	Rood / Rode	Read	Red
Blátt / blár / blá	Blátt / bláur / blá	Blå(tt)	Blå(tt)	Blå(t)	Blå(tt)	Blau	Blauw(e)	Blau(e)	Blue
Hvítt / hvítur / hvít	Hvítt / hvítur / hvít	Kvit(t)	Hvit(t)	Hvid(t)	Vit(t)	Weiß	Wit(te)	Wyt	White

See also

• Faroese language conflict
• Gøtudanskt accent
• Old Norwegian

Further reading

To learn Faroese as a language

• Adams, Jonathan & Hjalmar P. Petersen. Faroese: A Language Course for beginners Grammar & Textbook. Tórshavn, 2009: Stiðin (704 p.) ISBN 978-99918-42-54-7
• W. B. Lockwood: An Introduction to Modern Faroese. Tórshavn, 1977. (no ISBN, 244 pages, 4th printing 2002)
• Michael Barnes: Faroese Language Studies Studia Nordica 5, Supplementum 30. Tórshavn, 2002. (239 pages) ISBN 99918-41-30-X
• Höskuldur Thráinsson (Þráinsson), Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, Zakaris Svabo Hansen: Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar. Tórshavn, 2004. (500 pages) ISBN 99918-41-85-7
• Richard Kölbl: Färöisch Wort für Wort. Bielefeld 2004 (in German)

Dictionaries

• Johan Hendrik W. Poulsen: Føroysk orðabók. Tórshavn, 1998. (1483 pages) ISBN 99918-41-52-0 (in Faroese)
• Annfinnur í Skála / Jonhard Mikkelsen: Føroyskt / enskt – enskt / føroyskt, Vestmanna: Sprotin 2008. (Faroese–English / English–Faroese dictionary, 2 volumes)
• Annfinnur í Skála: Donsk-føroysk orðabók. Tórshavn 1998. (1369 pages) ISBN 99918-42-22-5 (Danish–Faroese dictionary)
• M.A. Jacobsen, Chr. Matras: Føroysk–donsk orðabók. Tórshavn, 1961. (no ISBN, 521 pages, Faroese–Danish dictionary)
• Hjalmar Petersen, Marius Staksberg: Donsk–Føroysk orðabók. Tórshavn, 1995. (879 p.) ISBN 99918-41-51-2 (Danish–Faroese dictionary)
• Eigil Lehmann: Føroysk–norsk orðabók. Tórshavn, 1987 (no ISBN, 388 p.) (Faroese–Norwegian dictionary)
• Jón Hilmar Magnússon: Íslensk-færeysk orðabók. Reykjavík, 2005. (877 p.) ISBN 9979-66-179-8 (Icelandic–Faroese dictionary)
• Gianfranco Contri: Dizionario faroese-italiano = Føroysk-italsk orðabók. Tórshavn, 2004. (627 p.) ISBN 99918-41-58-X (Faroese–Italian dictionary)

Faroese Literature and Research

• V.U. Hammershaimb: Færøsk Anthologi. Copenhagen 1891 (no ISBN, 2 volumes, 4th printing, Tórshavn 1991) (editorial comments in Danish)
• Tórður Jóansson: English loanwords in Faroese. Tórshavn, 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: Turið Sigurðardóttir, linear translation: Inga Meincke (2007), ed. by Paul Alfred Kleinert

Other

• Barnes, Michael P.; Weyhe, Eivind (2013) [First published 1994], "7 Faroese", in van der Auwera, Johan; König, Ekkehard (eds.), The Germanic Languages, Routledge, pp. 190–218, ISBN 978-0-415-05768-4

External links

• Føroysk orðabók (the Faroese–Faroese dictionary of 1998 online)
• Sprotin (complete English-Faroese/Faroese-English and Danish–Faroese online dictionary)
• 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
• Faroe Island Translate