Faroese Language - History

History

Around AD 900 the language spoken in the Faroes was Old Norse, which Norwegian settlers had brought with them during the time of the landnám that began in AD 825. However, many of the settlers were not from present-day Norway but descendants of Norwegian settlers in the Irish Sea. In addition, native Norwegian settlers often married women from Norse Ireland, Orkney, or Shetland before settling in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. As a result, the Irish language influenced both Faroese and Icelandic. There is some debatable evidence of Irish language place names in the Faroes: for example Mykines and Stóra & Lítla Dímun have been hypothesized to contain Celtic roots. Other examples of early-introduced words of Celtic origin are; "blak/blaðak" (buttermilk) Irish bláthach; "drunnur" (tail-piece of an animal) Irish dronn; "grúkur" (head, headhair) Irish gruaig; "lámur" (hand, paw) Irish lámh; "tarvur" (bull) Irish tarbh; and "ærgi" (pasture in the outfield) Irish áirge.

Between the 9th and the 15th centuries a distinct Faroese language evolved, although it was probably still mutually intelligible with the Old West Norse language and remained similar to the Norn language of Orkney and Shetland during the earlier phase of that language.

Until the 15th century Faroese had an orthography similar to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1536 the ruling Danes outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. 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.

This changed when Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb and the Icelandic grammarian and politician, Jón Sigurðsson, published a written standard for Modern Faroese in 1854 which is still in existence. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its Old Norse roots and similar to that of Icelandic. This had the advantage of being etymologically clear, as well as keeping the kinship with the Icelandic written language. The actual pronunciation, however, often differs 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 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, though around five percent of Faroe Islanders learn it as a first language and it is a required subject for students in third grade and up.