ABSTRACT
Faroese is derived from the language of Norse (probably mainly Norwegian) settlers who established themselves in the islands in the ninth century. Owing to the virtual absence of Viking Age and medieval sources, little is known about the development of this language in pre-Reformation times. After the Reformation and until 1948 Danish was the official medium, and nothing of substance was written in Faroese before the 1770s, by which time most of the features associated with the modern language must have developed. Lack of official status in the post-Reformation period has had a number of consequences for Faroese. Speech is for the most part dialectally based and is heavily influenced by Danish, especially at the lexical level. The written language, in contrast, is relatively homogeneous and very puristic. Its orthography, established in the middle of the nineteenth century, owes much to Old Norse and something to Icelandic, and these languages have also had a certain influence on the morphology, syntax and lexicon of written Faroese. As in Icelandic, the lexicon is replete with neologisms, but many of these are used only in writing, the spoken language preferring Danish-derived equivalents. Although virtually every Faroese village has its own characteristic form of speech, mutual comprehension is no problem, and the capital, Tórshavn, where a sizeable proportion of the population now lives, has become something of a linguistic melting pot. It is not impossible that with time a spoken standard will develop based on Tórshavn speech. For the present chapter, the wide degree of variation in Faroese has necessitated the adoption of a somewhat abstract approach: by and large the description is based on those forms and features which are perceived to have the widest currency.
