Faroese language
Faroese [ˈfɛːʁø. ɪʃ] (Faroese føroyskt [ˈføːɹɪst], Danish færøsk; from this derived the German name Färöisch next to [rarer] Färingisch) forms together with Icelandic the island Nordic languages in contrast to the Scandinavian languages Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. An older classification speaks of West Norse and places Faroese, Icelandic, West Norse dialects, and extinct Norn there. Faroese is spoken by at least 44,000 people on the Faroe Islands, which politically belong to Denmark and have extensive autonomy rights, as well as other Faroese abroad.
The total number of native speakers in the world is unclear. Older estimates range from 60,000 to 100,000, depending on how well the descendants of native speakers outside the Faroe Islands still speak the language. By far the largest number of Faroese speakers outside the Faroe Islands live in Denmark, and in Copenhagen in particular. In 2007, the North Atlantic Group in the Folketing determined for the first time the total number of first generation Faroese speakers, i.e. with Faroese birthplace and residence in Denmark. 7737 persons were found. However, since 2008 there has been a steady increase in the number of this group. At the end of 2013, according to Danmarks Statistik, there were a total of 11,696 people living in Denmark whose place of birth was in the Faroe Islands, 4877 men and 6819 women. It can be assumed that this group of people (the first generation) speak Faroese as their mother tongue. In addition, there are people who were born in Denmark and grew up with Faroese-speaking parents or parents, the second generation, and in some cases the third generation. Recent estimates even assume a total number of 30,000 Faroese in Denmark, of which half, i.e. 15,000 persons, are said to live in the greater Copenhagen area. However, it is unclear how many of them can still actively speak the language.
Faroese thus belongs to the smaller Germanic languages (Indo-European language family).
Many books are published in Faroese. From 1822 to 2002, 4306 titles were published, with the year 2000 being the previous record with 170 titles (including 66 translations from other languages), one book title for about 325 inhabitants.
Not least because of its status as an official language in the Faroe Islands and because of the rich Faroese literature, it is no longer considered to be threatened by the dominance of Danish until the 20th century.
The oldest text in Faroese, the Seyðabrævið from the 14th century, is in the library of Lund University.
Mutual intelligibility Faroese-Icelandic-Norwegian
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.
The Faroese keyboard layout is almost identical to the Danish one, but has an additional ð.
Móðurmálið ("The Mother Tongue") by Janus Kamban 1948, is a monument in Tórshavn to the introduction of the Faroese written language by V. U. Hammershaimb.
Dialects
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:
| Main dialects since the 15th century | ||
| Old Norse | Faroese | |
|
| North | South |
| ó | [ɛu] | [ɔu] |
| ei | [ɔi] | [ai] |
| æ | [ɛː] -> [ɛa] | [eː] |
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:
- North Islands-Eysturoydialect (coloured blue on the map)
- South Fjords dialect (red)
- 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.
The most important isoglosses and main dialects of Faroese. The isoglossic marked in red divides Faroese into a northern and a southern dialect and is considered the main isoglossic. The main dialects are coloured flat: North Island dialect Tórshavn dialect South Island dialect
