Wikibooks: Faroese/Introduction

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Faroe Islands; Mykines; Dímun; Lítla Dímun; Faroes; Iceland
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Faroese/Introduction

dewikify Faroese While the spelling Faeroese is also seen Faroese is the spelling used in grammars textbooks scientific articles and dictionaries between Faroese and English. ( føroyskt pronounced IPA [ˈføːɹɪst] or IPA [ˈføːɹɪʂt] ) is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48 000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25 000 Citation needed date=April 2010 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere. It is one of four languages descended from the Old West Norse language spoken in the Middle Ages the others being Icelandic Norwegian and the extinct Norn which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese. Citation needed date=April 2010 Faroese and Icelandic its closest extant relative are not mutually intelligible in speech but the written languages resemble each other quite closely. Stephen Barbour Cathie Carmichael Oxford University Press 2000 =History= At one point 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 weren t really Norwegians 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 Celtic languages influenced both Faroese and Icelandic. There is some debatable evidence of Celtic 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 . Chr. Matras. Greinaval málfrøðigreinir. FØROYA FRÓÐSKAPARFELAG 2000 Between the 9th and the 15th centuries a distinct Faroese language evolved although it was still intelligible with the Old West Norse ...