Faroese language

Faroese and Icelandic are mutually intelligible in written language. Both modern language forms are still grammatically close to Old West Norse. The mutual intelligibility of the spoken languages Faroese and Icelandic, on the other hand, is limited. Hammershaimb (1891) speaks of mutual intelligibility between Faroese and West Norse dialects, with which it shows greater similarities in vocabulary. The extent to which this is still the case today is difficult to verify, because bilingualism also plays an important role among the Faroese: they learn Danish to a level approaching that of their mother tongue and can therefore also understand Norwegian well.

The Nordic dialect continuum is now assumed to apply only to the mainland Scandinavian dialects of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, yet the written Faroese language is said to be relatively easy for many Norwegians to understand.

The old colonial language Danish, on the other hand, is not mutually intelligible with Faroese in either writing or pronunciation, although it is descended from the common Ugric precursor language. Without further knowledge of Faroese, Danes can usually only decipher part of written texts and can only guess at individual words from the spoken language. Faroese, on the other hand, learn Danish at school from the 3rd grade onwards and often master it (in written language) at a native level. However, the Faroese accent - called gøtudanskt - can usually be heard.

Although Icelandic and Faroese are phonologically and grammatically closest to Old West Norse of all Scandinavian languages, Icelanders and Faroese alike need to practice to understand it. In general, it can be said that Faroese has moved more away from its origins than Icelandic. This is particularly evident in the inflection of nouns and verbs, which are simpler than in Old Norse, but far more complex than in Danish.

Despite the relatively small population and area of the Faroe Islands, there are large dialect differences due to the geographical situation (in contrast to the much more extensive Iceland). The main isoglossic runs along Skopunarfjørður as a waterway between Sandoy and Streymoy (marked red in the figure: "short ó"). It divides Faroese into the main groups:

• Northern dialect (Nordfjordsdialekt)
• Southern dialect (South Fjords dialect)

The separation of the two main dialects took place in the 15th century. Typical features are:

The nordfjords dialect group breaks down into:

• Eysturoy dialect (+Sundalag dialect)
• North Islands dialect (northeast of the blue isogloss on the picture)
• Tórshavn dialect (South Streymoy dialect with Hestur and Koltur)
• Vágar dialect (with Mykines)

These can also be grouped into two: Tórshavn-Vágar and Eysturoy-North Islands (separated by the green isogloss on the figure).

The dialect group of southern Fjords breaks down into:

• Dialect of Sandoy, Skúvoy and Stóra Dímun
• Suðuroy dialect (south of Suðuroyarfjørður with its own lexemes and forms and other local dialects - illustrated by the turquoise isogloss on the figure).

The dialects of Vágar or Tórshavn are considered "standard". Speakers of both the North Island and Suðuroy dialects can be most clearly distinguished. Therefore, it seems reasonable to speak of three main groups:

1. North Islands-Eysturoydialect (coloured blue on the map)
2. South Fjords dialect (red)
3. Tórshavn-South Streymoy Vágar dialect (green)

Here, 1. and 2. again form a group that can be clearly distinguished from 3. Skopunarfjørður therefore has a similar meaning for Faroese as the Benrath line has for German.

At the end of the 18th century, Jens Christian Svabo already reported on these three main dialects in his preface to the Dictionarium Færoense. He regarded the North Island dialect and the South Island dialect as the "purest" Faroese, while he described Tórshavnese as "corrupted". Svabo probably attributed the "corruptness" of the Tórshavn dialect to the influence of the colonial language Danish there.

Although there is still no standard pronunciation of Faroese, pronunciation data are roughly based on the dialect of Tórshavn/South Streymoy, which also has the highest number of speakers.