An Introduction to Modern Faroese
- The descendants of Norwegians settled the island around 825 and the language began to form. By the mid 1500s, however, Danish rulers outlawed the language in schools and churches. Only its use in folktales and everyday transactions kept Faroese from becoming a dead language.
In 1854 Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb, a Lutheran minister, wrote an orthography for Faroese. This was a book that specified the rules to write and speak the language properly. This revived Faroese as a written language after centuries of suppression. - The Faroese alphabet has 29 letters. C, Q, W, X and Z are not present. However, there are two versions of the letters A, D, I, O, U and Y (with different accents). There are also two letters that are not commonly seen in English. The first is the represented by an "a" and an "e" joined together. This is the "ae" found in the traditional spelling of "encyclopaedia" and "archaeology."
- There are many rules governing pronunciation of Faroese but here are a few prominent ones:
--Vowels followed by two or more consonants are usually short.
--Glides are special letters inserted between two pronounced vowels. This prevents the occurrence of a hiatus, or pause in the middle of the word.
--There is a process in Faroese pronunciation called skerping. Skerping involves morphing the sound of the vowel during its pronunciation. This occurs with vowels that precede special consonants. - The grammar of Faroese is similar to that of Icelandic. Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The gender of the noun affects the spelling of its modifying adjectives. There are four grammatical cases in the language. Grammatical cases specify the function of a noun (subject, direct object or possessor). In Faroese, the four cases are nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. There are also four classes of verbs: weak inflection, strong inflection, auxiliary and preterite-present verbs.
- Unlike English, Faroese has a regulatory body, the Faroese Language Committee. The commission, creates standards for usage, introduces new words and encourages others to learn the language. The committee members serve four year terms. Their publications include four books and a monthly newsletter.
