Languages and dialects on the Faroe Islands

Faroese is traditionally classified as a West Nordic language along with Norwegian and Icelandic as opposed to East Nordic (Danish, Swedish). Such a classification is based on a historical perception of linguistic kinship. Faroese and Icelandic are often referred to as island Scandinavian languages as opposed to mainland Scandinavian. In recent literature, Faroese is classified as the Central Nordic language as structurally, it has an intermediate position between West and East Nordic. The oldest linguistic memorials are two runic stones from about the years 1000 and 1200. The language form of the youngest (Sandavágssteinurin) is classic Norse with preserved ð, þ and y as well as old diphthongs, au, and no svarabhakti sound, maðr. In modern Faroese, the diphthong au has changed to ey, and the svarabhakti sound has been inserted before the final r (maðr > maður). The sounds ð, þ and y do not exist in modern Faroese pronunciation. However, ð and y is used in orthography, which is historical.

The oldest sources, which are written in Latin letters, date back to late 1200s. The legal provision Seyðabrævið (The Sheep Letter) from 1298, which is an addendum to the Norwegian Gulating Law, contains some words that are not found in any other Norse literature, e.g. hagfastr (about sheep that stay in their particular pasture), styggr (wild, untamed) and lemba (lamb). At that time, the language was still Norse, and it also is in documents from the early 1400s, but in Seyðabrévið, changes are seen which give the texts a more Faroese character. Faroese innovations from this time include: skilgitin (older: skilgetin, ‘born in marriage’), fingid (older: fengit ‘got’) and girða (older: gerða ‘enclose, fence in’). Another change, the roots of which can be found in the early 1400s, is the so-called skerping (eng.: sharpening), which is a consonantal insertion (ggj or gv) after a vowel or between vowels, e.g. oy > oyggj ‘island’, trú > trúgv ‘faith’. An example of this change is tvá > tóa ‘two’, which later develops into tógva. A similar trend is seen in the word þrír > þríir ‘three’, which later changes to tríggir.

Major changes have occurred in pronunciation since the Middle Ages, both in vocalism and consonantism. One of the major changes was the quality change as a result of which long monophthongs were diphthongised, e.g. /i:/ > /ui:/, and old diphthongs had their sound value changed, e.g. /au/ > /ey/. Another innovation is the change in quantity, where originally short vowels were lengthened before short consonants, and long vowels were shortened before long consonants (consonant compounds).

In the 1500s, the official written language became Danish, and all written communication was in Danish. Thus, for example, cadastres and land registers were written in Danish. However, they can still provide interesting information about the Faroese language. In 1584, the following was written about the village of Kirkja on the island of Fugloy: ‘Fugløe Ad Kircke’, where the old preposition at ‘at’ was used together with the name. Later, at and á have merged, so the preposition today is á. In 1584, the village name við Norðskála was written ‘Norden vedt Schalle’, indicating that the name of the village at that time was Norður við Skála (which, by the way, makes good sense).

Faroese manuscripts from the 18th century onwards are written in dialect with phonetic orthography. The pioneer was the enlightener and cultural figure Jens Chr. Svabo. In the 1770s, he started a Faroese dictionary and made a register of Faroese ballads. In his written works, he devised his own phonetic orthography. This writing tradition continued through the 19th century, until the Faroese standard orthography, also known as Hammershaimb orthography, was launched.

The standard Faroese orthography was launched in 1846 as the result of a joint Nordic project in the spirit of Scandinavianism. The protagonist was the Danish professor N.M. Petersen whose view was that a dialect could never become a written language. Instead, orthography should unite the different dialects in a common written form and thus be above the dialects. In this process, N.M. Petersen won the support of Norwegian P.A. Munch. This point of view obviously had to end with a historical, etymological orthography. One of the project participants, the Icelander Jón Sigurðsson, was given the task of Icelandifying a phonetically written Faroese text, i.e. give the text an archaic touch. This text was to be published in Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed (Annals of Nordic Antiquarianism). When the linguists had commented on Jón Sigurðsson’s text, the material was submitted to Faroese V.U. Hammershaimb because it seemed only natural that a Faroese should have the final say in such a serious matter. V.U. Hammershaimb accepted Jón Sigurðsson’s proposal, and in Annaler (Annals) from 1846, the first Faroese text was published with the orthography that is today called the Hammershaimb orthography. This orthography is used today, albeit with some changes from 1954. One of the consequences of the historical orthography, which is based on medieval Faroese, is that the spelling insufficiently reflects the pronunciation. Therefore, in 1889, Jakob Jakobsen made a proposal for a phonetic orthography, but it was not accepted. In 1895, a compromise was attempted which was also not accepted.

Faroese has no official spoken language standard; therefore dialect use is accepted in public contexts. Faroese consists of many dialects, some of which can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The dialectal differences mostly apply to phonetics. Generally, the differences between the dialects in geographical areas tend to be evened out, while in turn regional languages emerge which cover larger areas. This process takes place in step with the expansion of the traffic infrastructure, the establishment of central schools and as a result of an increasing use of the standard written language, which serves as catalysts in the levelling of dialects. Faroese generally have a positive attitude towards dialect and dialect use, and there is no indication of a dialect hierarchy.

Purism came into use in the late 1800s, at the same time as people really started to use Faroese in writing. This was manifested in the newspapers, e.g. Føringatíðindi, where the editors and readers experimented with Faroese substitute words instead of foreign words. The scepticism towards foreign words was particularly expressed in the Faroese edition of the Copenhagen Observatory’s almanac from 1898, which included scientific articles. The attitude towards purism is generally positive, and it still leaves its distinct mark on the language in dictionaries, glossaries, personal names, in the media, etc. However, a more pragmatic attitude towards purism has been seen in some dictionaries over the last thirty years.

However, the purist ideology has also been criticised. In the 1970s, the term setursføroyskt (university Faroese) arose, which was a negative term for the ‘pure’ language with a clear reference to the linguists at Fróðskaparsetur Føroya (University of the Faroe Islands). The association Málfelagið is a movement whose purpose is to combat purism and to achieve greater acceptance of the informal colloquial language as it is expressed in everyday speech. Such acceptance can reduce the gap between the informal spoken language and the more formal written language. After purism had emerged as an ideology and up through the 20th century, diglossic features emerged in the Faroese vocabulary, where the purist innovations belong to the acrolect and the imported words belong to the basilect.

Further reading

• Association activities and volunteering on the Faroe Islands
• Film on the Faroe Islands
• Literature on the Faroe Islands
• Media on the Faroe Islands
• Museums of cultural history and heritage on the Faroe Islands
• Music on the Faroe Islands
• Theater on the Faroe Islands
• Tradition and tales on the Faroe Islands

Read more about Culture on the Faroe Islands