The vocabulary of Insular Scandinavian:
Lexical
purism,
neologisms and language contact in Icelandic and Faroese
Written:
2004; Last
updated:
3 Aug 2014
Language
colours:
red
= Early
Modern & Modern Icelandic;
blue
= Modern
Faroese;
green
= Modern
Danish;
maroon
= Old Norse;
violet
= Middle
Low German
“hreintungustefna Íslendinga...forðað tungu
okkar frá því að drukkna í flóði
erlendra áhrifa.” (Jakob
Benediktsson, “Þættir úr sögu íslenzks orðaforða.” In Þættir
um íslenzkt mál
eftir nokkra íslenzka málfræðinga, ed. H. Halldórsson,
Reykjavík, 1964;
p.109).
Icelandic
and Faroese are both West Scandinavian
languages and both are descended from West Norse dialects related to
the Old
Norse now so familiar from the Icelandic literature of the Middle Ages.
Icelandic is spoken almost entirely in the
Faroese
is very closely related to Icelandic, as
well as certain west Norwegian dialects. Just as in the case of
Icelandic, the arveord
or native word-stock of Faroese is of West Norse
origin, and almost all the core vocabulary and all the words relating
to
peculiarly Faroese objects and customs descend from the Old Norse
spoken by the
original settlers. A small number of words can only be found in Faroese
and no
corresponding words have been traced in Icelandic, Old Norse or in the
more
distant Norwegian. Although its core vocabulary is of West Norse origin
(and
closest to some West Norwegian dialects), a not inconsiderable number
of
Faroese words are of international origin, as we shall see below. The
Faroe
Isle group comprises about 18 islands in the north Atlantic, lying
about
half-way between
Clearly
in terms of native speakers these two
insular West Norse languages are, even in Scandinavian terms, of a
rather minor
stature. Yet both have a unique role in shedding much light on the
earlier
development of the now much mightier Mainland Nordic languages. Without
Faroese, and especially, Icelandic, we would have to rely on Old
Norwegian,
Danish and Swedish literature which are poorly represented on the
whole. Our
knowledge of the historical development of Scandinavian literature,
language
and culture would be patchy to say the least. The nature and position
of
Icelandic is almost unique in international linguistics. Icelandic is a
linguistic time capsule. I cannot think of another case in which a
small
medieval society populated a remote land whose culture and language
remained
very static for centuries, while the country which originally populated
it, and
those neighbouring it, changed almost beyond recognition.
Faroese
and Icelandic are apparently mutually
intelligble. This probably means in reality that a certain amount can
be orally
communicated at a simple level with slow articulation. When we come to
the
written languages the situation is very different. Icelanders and Faroe
Islanders have, generally speaking, very little difficulty in reading
each
others' languages. Orthographically and lexically speaking the two
languages
probably differ little more than Danish and Norwegian bokmål - if that.
Certainly one simple explanation for this is that Faroese and Icelandic
share a
common West Norse word-stock which has remained very much intact down
the
centuries. Icelandic and Faroese are dominated by indigenous lexical
elements
even for everyday concepts, while the Mainland Scandinavian languages
have
tended to accept international words. Likewise the modes of expression,
idiom,
syntax and grammatical systems of the two languages differ very little,
although Icelandic grammar is marginally more complex. It has been said
that
the vocabulary of Faroese is closest to Nynorsk, while its form system
is
closest to Icelandic. However this situation is in part deceptive. The
orthography of Faroese is artifical, little resembling the phonetic
realities
of the language, and masking greatly the sometimes very different
sounds of
spoken Icelandic and Faroese. It is these differences in pronunciation,
which
have grown up over time and are unfortunately hidden by the
orthography, that
constitute the difficulties Icelanders and Faroe Islanders find in
understanding each other.
This
article, however, will consider some of the
lexical differences between the two. I have decided to concentrate on
the
respective vocabularies because firstly I personally find them most
interesting, second, they are quite simple to compare and contrast due
to many
greater or lesser differences and third, information for this
linguistic area
is easiest to obtain. Most of the vocabulary differences can be
explained by
interference from other languages, and the humbler Faroese is certainly
more
marked by this process. Danish has unquestionably been the most
influential
outsider on both these languages - often the outcome of politcal
wrangling
between the greater Scandinavian nations. However, Danish has left its
mark
much more noticeably on Faroese, thanks to a conscious policy among
Icelanders
of political independence and linguistic purism, as explained below.
This
modest survey will proceed in the following
manner:
i)
A brief overview of the main developments in Icelandic and Faroese
language
history, including foreign interference, with condensed background to
the
policies of lexical purism pursued in both countries. For much fuller
discussion than can be given here, interested readers are referred
especially
to Ottósson, Clausén and West, detailed in the booklist below.
ii)
A section considering the differences in the vocabulary between Faroese
and
Icelandic, a situation to a great extent explained by the more vehement
policy
of purism pursued in Iceland (but see also iii)
below). This section will consider in more detail and with reference to
examples, the foreign influence exerted on both languages.
iii)
A examination of the main resources open to Icelandic and Faroese when
coining
new words from the native stock, with examples. The varying methods
open to
each language help explain to a small extent some of the lexical
differences
between the two. This section concludes with extensive comparative
wordlists.
[
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Icelandic
language history and the málhreinsunarstefna
This
is not the place to give an account of
Icelandic literary and linguistic history, which has been admirably
done
several times elsewhere and this article is mainly concerned with the
period
after the Renaissance (Faroese is given more historical background
information,
however, because it is assumed that most readers will be less familiar
with its
development). Suffice to say that Icelandic was the main language of
literature
and poetry - and not Latin, as was the case in most medieval European
socities.
Iceland's geographical situtation, combined with limited sailing
periods,
strong folk-traditions and beliefs inherited from Norway, an early
native
literary tradition, lack of major dialectal variation (to have one language was an important element in
the battle for Icelandic political and national independence), an
agrarian- and
fishing-based society until into the 1900s, native schooling, a
democratic
policy towards education and entertainment, the popularity of Icelandic
scalds
in foreign courts and a considerable amount of cultural conservatism
and
inherent pride all served to maintain Icelandic as the preferred
language of
literature and official documents. We can also note that there were no
foreign-based trading centres in
Of
course with the earlier coming of Christianity
(officially adopted by resolution of the Alþing in 1000 AD) words of
Greek and
Latin origin entered into the language - mainly via Old English and Old
Saxon.
But the position of Icelandic remained safe for several centuries until
1262,
when Iceland was annexed to Norway and then to Denmark in 1380. During
the late
1200s, the whole of the 1300s and well into the 1400s, Icelandic came
under a
new threat to its status from outside - the Middle Low German of the
Hanseatic
League (often mediated through Danish). The Icelandic literary language
was
moving further away from the classic language of the Sagas, Landnámabók,
Hávamál
and the other great works of medieval Iceland and
becoming an increasingly hybrid language (somewhat akin to the
development of
Old English after the Norman Conquest). However, the spoken, everyday
language
was less affected by this outside influence. By the eve of the
Renaissance, the
Icelandic literary vocabulary was larded with abstract and specialist
terms
loaned in from Middle Low German, Danish, French and Latin, and was in
danger
of becoming an endangered language. It was during this period of
cultural
reawakening, antiquarianism and the re-birth of learning, the
Renaissance, that
some leading Icelandic scholars and clergy first began to take an
interest in
restoring their language back to its former purity - or at the very
least, stop
it from corrupting further.
Although
not yet given a name, a policy of
conscious purism can be said to have began with the work of Bishop
Guðbrandur
Þorláksson (1542-1627). His publication of an Icelandic bible in 1584
had a
great influence on the preservation of Icelandic at the very time it
was most
threatened by Danish and High German. Icelandic remained the language
of the
church and was not suppressed by the Danish authorities (one wonders
what the
fate of the Icelandic language would have been had the Protestant faith
been
preached in Danish – as it was in
“Die altskandinavischen Sprachen hatten genügend
Ausdrucksmittel, um die
Bibel adäquat zu übersetzen. Die isländische Übersetzung setzte ihre
Tradition
fort...” (p.407).
Despite
these efforts, Danish continued its influence
over Icelandic for the next two centuries.
The
learned Arngrímur Jónsson (1568-1648) supported
Guðbrandur and became the first man to actively express in print a
policy known
as málhreinsunarstefna (“policy
of linguistic
purification”), with which (strongly influenced by the dominant spirit
of
Humanism) he opposed the imitation in Icelandic of Danish and German
models. In
1609 he published his book “Crymogæa”
in which urged his compatriots to preserve the purity and strength of
their
native language by using the sagas as a model and reject foreign
imports:
“En ég vildi
að landar mínir nú á dögum bættu við hinu þriðja, það er að þeir öpuðu
ekki
eftir Dönum eða Þjóðverjum í ræðu og riti, heldur leituðu sér
fyrirmynda í
auðlegð og snilld móðurmáls síns....”. (quoted from Guðrún
Kvaran, p. 41).
Arngrímur’s view may have been a reaction to the German- and
Danish-influenced
translations of Protestant literature being published at the time.
Against a
wider background, this was going on during a time when the Danish
political
influence on Icelandic was reaching its peak with a Danish trade
monopoly from
1602 and the absolute monarchy of the Danish king from 1662.
The
first dictionary involving Icelandic was
published in 1683 by Guðmundur Andrésson and entitled Lexicon
Islandicum.
By
the 1700s there were many scholars who defended
purism. The stress was put on fashioning new words from native
resources rather
than borrowing foreign ones (the so-called nýyrðastefna
“policy of new words”).
Even prior to 1750 learned Icelanders in
The
establishment of Hið íslenzka Lærdómslistafélag
(“Society of the Icelandic learned artists”) in 1779, however, gave new
impetus
to this kind of work within Icelandic. Stated objectives of the Society
were
published in 1780 to defend and preserve the language and to cleanse
foreign
words and alien expressions from it:
“5. Einninn
skal félagið geyma og varðveita norræna tungu sem eitt fagurt
aðalmál...og
viðleitast að hreinsa hina sömu frá útlendum orðum og tálsháttum, er nú
taka
henni að spilla. Skal því ei í félagsritum brúka útlend orð um
íþróttir,
verkfæri og annað, svo fremi menn finni önnur gömul eður miðaldra
norræn
hetiti.
6. Því má og í stað slíkra útlendra orð smíða ný orð, samansett af
öðrum
norrænum, er vel útskýri náttúru hlutar þess, er þau þýða eigu....”
(the policy goes on to state that foreign imports already in use in the
13th
and 14th centuries are acceptible when more common or better West Norse
forms
do not exist; quoted from Halldórsson, 1971, p.223).
Substantial
quantities of neologisms were devised,
sanctioned and published by the Lærdómslistafélag
with the express aim of replacing the banished foreign academic loans
with
terms wholly native (i.e. West Norse) in idiom and thus be transparent in meaning to the general public. This
democratic principle
– a product of the Enlightenment – of making scholarship and learning
available
to the ordinary people was a key aim of the society and enshrined in
its
statutes. There was a strongly-held belief that loanwords excluded most
ordinary people from the learned world. What was needed was words that
could be
easily analyzed (and therefore transparent) to the average speaker. The
guiding
ideal for the language purists was, as their policy states, the
classical Old
Icelandic of the sagas, although they also encouraged people to speak
the rural
speech of the common folk which had remained largely unchanged since
the Middle
Ages and drew upon it themselves. This policy became known as the hreintungustefna (“policy
of a pure language”) and continued throughout the 1800s. Guðrún Kvaran
in her
article “Þættir úr sögu orðaforðans”
notes:
“Í ritum
félagsins mátti ekki nota erlend orð, nema þau væru orðin gömul í
málinu, en
reyna í stað þess að finna orð í fornu máli eða búa annars til ný.
Þangað er
t.d. að rekja orðin farfugl,
fellibylur,
gróðurhús
og steinolía”.
(p. 43)
The
policy was aided by the fact that there were no
real dialect differences in Icelandic and nor was there any class-based
speech.
Some
of the topics taken up by members of the
Lærdómslistafélag had never been tackled in Icelandic before and there
was a
clear need for new native terms. Published items by the
Lærdómslistafélag
(appearing during the years 1781-98) clearly show that the scholars and
scientists affiliated with it did their best to live up to its ideals -
for
their works heave with neologisms, of which, some are inspired by
foreign forms
and some are entirely new. However, only a small number of such words
have
survived into the modern language. Of these, the following were noted
in university
dissertations within the natural sciences: blásteinn
“bluestone” (copper sulphate), brjóskfiskur
“cartilaginous fish”, mannapi
“anthropoid ape” and svartþröstur
“blackbird”, as well as those mentioned in the
quotation from Kvaran directly above which mean “migratory bird”,
“hurricane”,
“greenhouse” and “paraffin” respectively.
Jón
Sigurðsson, who advised Hammershaimb on his new
Faroese orthography, was one such writer who expressly adhered to this
policy
in his works. The hreintungustefna has
undoubtedly done a great
deal to protect the Icelandic language from the forces that so
threatened it in
the past. The policy seeks to maintain Icelandic's strength and purity
by
stressing its link with Old Norse - the language's golden age. Even in
this
century when so many English loans have been imported (especially in
slang),
the aim is still to find or devise purely Icelandic equivalents.
The
struggle against Danish, German, French and
Latin loan-words in the educated Icelandic urban dialects began in the
mid-1700s
with the Icelandic poet Eggert Ólafsson. He travelled around Iceland in
order
to gauge the actual speech patterns and lexis used by unlettered rural
folk and
the common people. Many learned Icelanders felt it was a mark of
erudition that
their writings were littered with scholarly foreign imports. The
average man,
however, used an Icelandic far less tainted by borrowings from abroad
and
Ólafsson regarded this Icelandic as much closer to the pure Icelandic
of the
sagas. Loans entered into the language mainly as a result of the Danish
supremacy in the island. The Danes enjoyed a trade monopoly and legal
and
public documents were written in Danish.
No
doubt influenced by the seminal work of
Ólafsson, who, among other things, produced a spelling book for
Icelandic, Hið Íslenska Landsuppfræðingarfélag
(“The Icelandic Society for National Education”) was founded in 1794
with the
aim of disseminating knowledge to ordinary Icelanders and teaching them
to
read. Such measures appeared to have had widespread success, for by the
early
1800s Icelandic literary and scholarly works were noticeably more
native in
lexis and idiom.
In
1800 Reykjavík
only had around 300 inhabitants –
almost the entire population was resident in the rural areas. It is on
the
speech of these ordinary people, including those that later moved to
the
capital, that the model of a pure Icelandic language was based. This
version of
Icelandic had the advantage of being purer and less “tainted” by Danish
loans.
Although at no time were the population officially required to learn
Danish,
many did so of their own accord, since the only literature of that time
was in
Danish, and those who wanted to have higher education were required to
go to
Copenhagen. Obligatory teaching of Danish in schools did not actually
begin
until 1946. Despite this, Danish was unquestionably the foreign
language with
which most Icelanders were familiar until well after the Second World
War.
The
great Danish linguist Rasmus Kristian Rask on a
visit to Reykjavík in 1813 was horrified by the Danish-Icelandic
admixture used
by local merchants, but found, much to his comfort, that the older
speech was
still preserved in the rural districts. Rask nevertheless predicted the
demise
of the Icelandic language in the capital within 100 years - a
prediction which
thankfully did not come to pass. He founded Hið Íslenska Bókmenntafélag
(“The
Literary Society of Iceland”) in order to help preserve Icelandic
language and
literary activity. Icelandic gained prestige following the publication
of
Rask's Vejledning til det Islandske eller gamle
Nordiske Sprog
(1811)
and the language became a model for Romantic
and purist users of Faroese and Norwegian. At the same time, new edited
and printed
editions of some Icelandic sagas were published (before then Icelanders
had to
read them from manuscripts) and an improved Bible appeared, translated
directly
from the Hebrew. These undertakings served to reinforce the position of
Icelandic in both writing and speech.
Fjölnir,
a literary periodical which was published off and
on in the period through 1835-47, was used as a medium to attack what
was
criticised by Icelandic purists as the Danish-coloured lexis, syntax
and
morphology of certain prominent Icelanders' publications. As such, Fjölnir
had
quite an important role to play in Icelandic linguistic conservatism.
In the
second half of that century, the Icelandic literary and general written
language as we know it began to be formed.
Indeed,
language conservation played a major role
in
Jónas
Hallgrímsson proved to be a master within the
creative sphere of neologisms. This ability can be best appreciated in
his
translation of 1842 titled Stjörnufræði Ursins
(“The Astronomy of (G.F.)
Ursin”). Neologisms which were first promoted in that work and are
still
current today are for example aðdráttarafl,
hitabelti,
ljósvaki
and sporbaugur
(these are glossed later on).
By
the close of the 1800s much was being translated
into Icelandic within such natural sciences as astronomy, zoology,
physics and
botany. The authors of these books and articles coined new words to
refer to
the things and concepts they were describing. The policy of creating
and
promoting neologisms has continued in these sciences up to the present
day.
An
important lexicographical work Nýdönsk orðabók með íslenzkum þýðingum
was published in Reykjavík in 1896 with Jónas Jónasson as chief author.
This
dictionary was much used, even by those writing on scientific and
technological
topics, as it was the only Danish-Icelandic dictionary at the time. The
work
includes many neologisms and Jónasson also appears to add some of his
own
making. Verified for the first time are for example sími
“telephone” and smásjá
“microscope”. From this dictionary words were
spread through books and teaching, eventually filtering down into the
everyday
speech. The orðabók was a small milestone of
linguistic purism in
Icelanders
took to prose once more with the result
that religious, legal, educational and commercial texts were all
produced
increasingly in the native language. Gradually Icelandic became the
preferred
language in all areas. It had never been officially ruled that
Icelanders
should speak or understand Danish – not even when the Danish king had
supreme
sovereignty over the island. The policy of purism and the need to
create a
modern cultural language able to express all facets of modern existence
meant
that the native word-stock had to perform the role often previously
taken by
loanwords, so it is especially during the present century that språkvård has become an issue of
increasing importance. Iceland is no longer a purely rural-agricultural
society
and this must be reflected in Icelandic vocabulary. Changes in society,
greater
scientific and academic knowledge among Icelanders, in addition to the
widespread uptake of modern technology has, since the turn of the
century,
required even greater numbers of neologisms be admitted into the
language more
quickly than ever before. The role of the authorities has also been
significant
(e.g. reading and writing Icelandic became obligatory subjects in
schools in
1907 and official spelling rules were passed in 1918) but success
ultimately
depends upon the acceptance and use of new terms by the general
population. Språkvård in
While
the conscious programme of purism is difficult
to exercise consistently in practice, with especially foreign words for
modern
cultural phenomena being difficult to replace in the spoken language,
the
efforts of the language purists have largely met with success. In
certain areas
such as the fields of aviation, medicine and IT the development of
terminology
is so rapid that even the very pro-active Icelandic language planning
has had a
tough task keeping pace. It should be clear from the above that the
main focus
of Icelandic language planning is not spelling, syntax or pronunciation
but
vocabulary. It has the aim of making Icelandic a better, more
effective, pliant
means of expression without changing its structure or switching to
another
language. Icelandic purism is general – it counteracts loans from all
languages, no matter what the source.
Lars.
S. Vikør provides a useful summary of the reasons
for Icelandic purism. Purism
uses indigenous words:
a)
for
reasons of purity
b)
because
it is more democratic – indigenous elements
are easier for users to comprehend
c)
for
reasons of structure – foreign words which do
not easily assimilate may threaten the very structure of the language
to
these I would add:
d) to maintain an unbroken link with Icelandic cultural heritage and maintain a feeling of nationhood
Halldórsson
provides a useful summary of the principles
of such purism, namely to:
a)
follow
the patterns of speech used by ordinary
people, especially those from rural areas or those who have moved into
urban
areas (intellectuals are more influenced by foreign languages than
ordinary
people!)
b)
follow
the style used in classical Old Icelandic
literature
c)
follow
the style used by the best writers much read
by the ordinary people
d)
avoid
loans, unless they can be easily adopted into
the linguistic system (e.g. bíll,
gír,
jeppi)
In
general it can be said that drastic changes to
structure and/or vocabulary would estrange Icelanders from their
cultural
heritage and weaken their sense of being a unique people. The most
important
premise for Icelandic purism is that Icelanders consider modern
Icelandic and
Old Icelandic as one and the same language, Old Icelandic being,
arguably, the
vehicle of the finest literature of the Middle Ages. Purism has become
a part
of the Icelandic identity – indeed perhaps the largest part – and many consider
Icelandic a more noble
language than others by virtue of it being more pure.
The
influence of purism remains strong, at least in
the written language. Purism is supported by both left- and right-wing
political parties.
The
effect of loanwords on Icelandic and the
methods used by Icelanders to coin new native words will be considered
in the
section on word-formation and neologisms below.
Faroese language history and purism
There
are no substantial undisputed Faroese texts
written before the early 1800s. Two medieval runestones dating from
approximately (even these dates are debated) the 1000s and 1200 are to
be found
at Kirkjubø and Sandvág on the islands. A few examples of medieval
legal
documents written on the islands are still extant, but these seem to
have been
written by Norwegians (or at any rate Faroemen imitating Norwegian) and
are of
limited value in determining how far Faroese had deviated from the
classical
Old West Norse of the sagas. The scanty evidence suggests it had
changed rather
little, although there are certain idiosyncrasies and forms which
appear
characteristic of Faroese. As might be expected this earlier language
resembles
the western Norwegian dialects comtemporary with it. During the late
medieval
period Norway ruled the Faroes as a crown possession and with a few
exceptions
the written language used there must have been Norwegian or Latin.
Control
later passed to Denmark in 1380 and Danish became the language of the
courts, the
government, the school-house, and the church - especially after the
Reformation. Danish indeed remained the primary language of the state
until
well into this century.
Færeyingasaga
is written in Icelandic,
and not Faroese, but it describes the background surrounding the
settlement of
the islands from the time of Grím Kamban (c.825) until the death of
Trond the
Geat in about
The
period from the late 1200s until the late 1400s
have handed down a few legal documents in a Faroese-coloured Norwegian
to us.
The so-called Seyðabrævið
is by far the most important of these. It is dated
about 1298 and is both the most extensive and earliest document extant
concerning the Faroe Isles. As the name suggests the document deals
with the
regulation of animal husbandry in the Faroes, in addition to a few
other
specially Faroese issues. A few later legal documents exist but none
are very
illuminating when trying to determine the nature of the Faroese
language in
those days. One has to wait more than five centuries until anything
resembling
a continous literary tradition appeared in the native language.
After
about 1540 Danish influence on Faroese life
becomes enormous. As in
A
consequence of the Danish language dominance was
that the Faroese lexicon did not develop much in fields outside of
traditional
areas such as farming and fishing. All new impulses from outside came
in
through Danish, and the Danish influence became so great that it
threatened to
destroy Faroese.
Despite
all this, Faroese still largely remained
the spoken language of the common
people and to a large extent kept its West Norse character intact. This
continuing use among the common folk alone allowed it to survive.
Although
Faroese has not had any noteworthy literary tradition like Icelandic,
its
survival relatively intact can probably be mainly explained by the
Faroe
Islanders’ strong tradition of oral
literature, folk-songs and kvæði,
which acted as a brake on too rapid lexical
change. Thus Faroese survived without a standard written norm for 400
years of
Danish domination. The
folk-songs may have had an
especially pivotal role, as Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen suggests: “At
sproget
dog stort set beholdt sit arkaiske norrøn præg både med hensyn til
bøjning og
ordforråd kan muligvis tilskrives en bevarende indflydelse fra den
store skat
af folkeviser (kvæði)
og anden mundtlig tradition, der blev overleveret ned
gennem tiderne”
(Språkene i Norden,
p.127). This oral literary tradition was the most
precious cultural heritage of the Faroese people and one which
distinguised
them from other European nations.
The
earliest work about Faroese was written by Jens
Christian Svabo (1746-1824) - the Faroe Islanders' first major
folklorist.
Svabo produced a justly famous account of the economic resources and
physical
characteristics of the Faroe island group. But it is for his
philological
enquiries that he will be most remembered. He prepared a magnificent
Faroese-Danish-Latin dictionary which strangely enough has only seen
publication within the last 30 years as Dictionarium
Færoense ed. Ch. Matras, 1966-70.
Svabo
recorded Faroese words in his own dialect of
the island of Vágar, and did so, he said, because he did not expect the
Faroese
language to survive for long. He abandoned his earlier plans of
recovering what
had been lost from Faroese from Old Norse as unrealistic and not likely
to be
accepted by everyday users of the language. His efforts in the sphere
of
literature helped preserve Faroese. In his lifetime Svabo collected a
manuscript of 52 traditional Faroese ballads (some of medieval descent)
as
handed down in oral tradition. Unfortunately, only one of them was ever
printed
while he lived and thus, in 1814, became the first Faroese text ever
printed.
Svabo's Faroese orthography however had the unfortunate drawback of
being
almost impenetrable for Old Norse scholars and readers of Scandinavian
languages
to understand - however faithfully it represented the phonology of his
local
dialect. This was a problem to be resolved by the later language
enthusiasts
and conservationists.
Svabo's
well-intentioned and pioneering work may
well have sparked off the passion in ballad collection that now began
in
earnest. A collection of kvæði
(traditional songs) was compiled by Dane H.C.
Lyngbye during a botanical investigation on the islands. Professor P.
Müller
recognised a Faroese version of the Völsunga Saga
among
Lyngbye's collection and he commissioned two local clergymen to begin
collecting oral poetry. The material was collected with great zeal,
with the
upshot that Lyngbye was soon able to publish his Færøiske Quæder om Sigurd Fofnersbane og
hans Æt,
which was the first complete book using Faroese
as the primary language.
Faroese
as an independent language with a literary
history (albeit in oral form) was now brought to the attention of
Nordic
scholars, and not long after this two important publications appeared
in
Faroese: The Gospel
of
St. Matthew and the Icelandic Færingasaga.
A
native Faroeman Johannes Klemensen collected the
most voluminous anthology of ballads ever seen - some 900 pages - which
was duly
acquired by the great Danish philologist and theologian Nikolai
Frederik
Severin Grundtvig. Grundtvig named Klemensen's collection the Sandoyarbók
and it has begun to appear in printed form within the last 30 years.
Another
Danish scholar Jørgen Bloch and Grundtvig managed to compile and edit
between
them almost the entire corpus of traditional Faroese poetry. This was
given the
title Føroyja Kvæði: Corpus Carminum
Færoesium and was completed by 1905.
Among
other important conservationists of traditional
Faroese oral literature were inventor of the conventional orthography,
Vencelaus Hammershaimb (1819-1909), and linguist Jakob Jakobsen
(1864-1918).
During the 1850s texts were collected by Hammershaimb, who travelled
the isles
collecting dialect information. Hammershaimb was a Romantic like the
Norwegian
language purist Ivar Aasen and had the same natural ideals. His
orthography of
1846 is a product of its age: the age of Romanticism and
Scandinavianism. Some
of the prose Hammershaimb collected appeared in his noted Færøsk Anthologi,
published between 1886-91 and became the beginning of the Faroese prose
tradition. The language in it was free of Danicisms which characterised
the
spoken language (most Faroese writers, it can be said, have kept to
this style,
while some like Heðin Brú have introduced many regionalisms into normal
prose).
His Færøsk Sproglære
(the first Faroese grammar)
appeared in 1846 and paved the way for later developments within
written
Faroese, the production of descriptive grammars of the language and a
new
independent national literature. Jakobsen, however, was to become the
single
most important enthusiast regarding the recording of traditional prose.
Between
the years 1898 and 1901 he published his Færøske folkesagn og æventyr
which comprised the typical stuff of folk-tales and romantic and
magical
adventure.
The
recording and editing of Faroese ballads and
prose literature required the formation of a stable orthography, and
that of
Svabo, being local and near phonetic, was not suited to this task. Many
Danes
regarded Faroese as a corrupt dialectal admixture of Danish and
Icelandic and
not suitable as a medium of instruction in schools or as a viable
language of
government. Rask was one such eminent scholar who believed this, a
belief he
stated when including a small grammar of Faroese in his grammar of
Icelandic.
Orthographies based on etymological principles had been tried before,
e.g. by
Jacob Nolsøe, but it was the writing system devised by Hammershaimb,
with
advice from Icelandic friend Jón Sigurðsson, that finally gained
acceptance.
This new orthography took into account the historical source of the
words and
had the advantages of being suitable for the representation of all
Faroese
dialects, providing a stable and dignified written tradition and
preserving a
link with historical West Norse. Until this time there was no written
or
prestige language which could act as a unifying force on the various
dialects.
Now any oral text could be recorded for posterity and be readily
comprehensible
to Old Norse and Scandinavian scholars. Hammershaimb’s orthography was
in part
an attempt to embrace all dialects without preferring one over the
other. It
represents a reconstruction of a past stage in the history of Faroese,
as it
conceals significant sound changes. A disadvantage still felt are the
barriers
such an etymologically derived spelling system creates for children
learning
the language. But this is a price felt worth paying for a system which
preserves the historical links and tradition between Faroese, Old
Norse,
Icelandic and certain western Norwegian dialects. This problem has been
partly
alleviated by the linguistic suggestions of Jakob Jakobsen, who argued
that
Hammershaimb's unphonetic orthography would be a stumbling block to
learners of
the language. The system Hammershaimb actually came up with may well
represent
the Faroese of some centuries ago, which, had it been written down,
would have
more closely resembled its Old Norse ancestor, rather than being the
bearer of
various dipthongised long and short vowels, lost medial ð
and g and other
phenomena.
A
prerequistite for the growth of Faroese language
usage was Hammershaimb’s written standard. It proved a pliant tool for
the
young Faroese poets and a worthy form for their patriotic songs. Most
prominent
among the Faroese students resident in
In
the 1930s the Føroya málfelag
(“Faroese language
society”) was active in publishing wordlists under the leadership of
Christian
Matras. In 1952 the Fróðskaparfelag Føroya
(“Faroese Society for
Higher Learning”) was founded, and it has since then published an
annual
journal (Fróðskaparrit)
including articles on such diverse subjects as
philology, geology, folklore and medicine. The Málstovnur Føroya Fróðskaparfelags
(“Language Secretariat to the Faroese Society for Higher Learning”) was
established in 1959 as its linguistic division, with the role of
providing
linguistic advice and producing dictionaries, among others the
acclaimed Føroysk-donsk orðabók
by M.A. Jacobsen and Christian Matras (1961) and the Donsk-føroysk orðabók
by Jóhannes av Skarði (1967). The Secretariat has assumed the
management of the
Faroese language cultivation programme.
With
the development of a Faroese literature and
the growing use of written Faroese in private life, it gradually became
accepted in public life as well. However, not until the Home Rule Act
of 1948
did Faroese achieve legal recognition as the primary language of the
islands.
Bilinguialism in the Faroes is now enshrined in the Education Act.
A
complete, official Faroese Bible appeared in
1961. Another landmark on the way to linguistic independence.
Today,
the lower grades are fairly well supplied
with books in Faroese, but secondary education fares less well, which
may
affect the quality of the teaching provided. Foreign languages in
general need
to be studied with the aid of Danish dictionaries, although this
situation is
gradually improving.
The
Faroese language movement has always had two
primary aims: 1) combat Danish domination, 2) make Faroese the language
of the
schools, church and central administration (the two overlap to a large
degree).
In an ideal world the Faroese would like to dispense with Danish
altogether.
But this would necessitate the switching to another (major) language of
culture, which considering their political and economic situation would
have to
be English. Danish continues to play a crucial role in Faroese society
as an
essential connection to the outside world. 40,000 speakers is too small
a
linguistic community to provide the social and economic diversification
to
allow at least some speakers to remain monoglots. Another factor is the
Faroe
Isles’ total financial dependence on
Most
Faroe Islanders seem to agree that one should
avoid using superfluous
international
words or Danicisms. In general, most seem to look positively on Faroese
language planning and cultivation. The main issues to be dealt with in
the
modern language planning are how to resist Danish influence (especially
in the
spoken language) and how best to develop a lexicon to cover the needs
of modern
international culture.
In
summary, it can be said that the policy of
purism has not met with the same success as in
In
the Faroe Islanders’ struggle for cultural
independence, the Faroese language was seen as the key symbol which
unified all
Faroese people, representing their distinct nationhood, and linguistic
patriotism was combined in this struggle with political claims for
self-rule.
[
Top ]
Loanwords
and insular Norse lexical differences
Having briefly surveyed the history and background of puristic trends
in
Icelandic and Faroese it is time to examine what foreign loanwords both
languages aimed to replace and the sources from which these loans came.
Firstly,
to put the uptake of loanwords into a
linguistic context, some remarks about the relation of Icelandic to Old
Norse
are appropriate. Much about Modern Icelandic is the same as in Old
Norse times.
The basis of Modern Icelandic is still very much rooted in Old Norse
and the
formal grammatical system has changed little since the time of the
sagas. There
are nevertheless quite a few loanwords, but those from elder times are
now
fully naturalised. The majority of these earlier loanwords are common
to all
the Nordic languages. The great majority of the Old Norse wordstock is
alive in
modern Icelandic. Guðrún Kvaran puts it succinctly when she asserts: “Ef dregið er saman það sem fram hefur komið
er kjarni orðaforðans í dag hinn norræni stofn sem landnámsmenn fluttu
með sér
til landsins.” (p. 46).
Baldur Jónsson (1983)
comments further on this theme and refers to a word frequency study
conducted
some years ago:
“Omkring
1940 utfördes en
frekvensundersökning av olika moderna texter på ca. 100 000 löpande
ord. Knappt
1000 av de mest frekventa ordformerna (drygt 75 procent av hela
korpusen)
tillhör 520 olika ord. Därav finns 500 belagda i fornisländska källor
och
endast hälften av återstoden, dvs. 10 ord, kan beläggas först efter
Pétersson
(p.141) also remarks
on the conservative nature of the Icelandic basic wordstock: “Von insgesamt 2201 bekannten
indogermanischen Wurzeln hat das Isländische 1264 bewahrt.” He
notes that ¾ of an Icelandic text consists of the most common words
(and
therefore native), the great majority of which stem from the
Indo-European Ursprache or more
especially, Germanic
roots. Many of these common words have remained unchanged since the
oldest
extant Icelandic texts.
Also
commenting on this theme,
Elias Wessén, on page 40 of De Nordiska
Språken says: “Bättre än i de andra
nordiska språken ha de ursprungliga ordbildningssuffixen förblivit
levende och
produktiva. Det är därför lättare att skapa nya ord av inhemsk virke.”
Wessén
is correct in this, but when he argues that the main reason for
Icelandic
lexical purism is the difficulty of assimilating loans into the native
inflectional system, the evidence of several centuries of borrowing
does this
not fully support this statement. The purism is rather a conscious
policy which
has only existed for a few centuries. It may be that the complex
Icelandic
inflectional system both of the past and the present acted as a filter
and
allowed only a small number of loans into the language (Halldórsson,
1971,
p.215 writes: “Það er alkunn staðreynd,
að tökuorð eiga ekki eins greiðan aðgang í mál, sem hafa flókið
beyginga- og
orðmyndunarkerfi...”), while Ottósson is of the view that the
route from
donor language to full integration in the Icelandic language system is
longer
and more complex than in other Western European languages (sometimes
requiring,
among other things, a change in main stress), but I think this is only
part of
the answer. I would argue that the relatively small impact made by
Danish and
Norwegian has more to do with i) the natural independent spirit of the
Icelanders (the original settlers were after all pioneers); ii)
geographical
distance and most importantly; iii) a unbroken literary tradition in
the native
language (remember that the scalds had early on established a tradition
of
forming new words through heiti
and kenningar)
- a fact that does not apply to Faroese of course
(Jakob Benediktsson argues the case for Icelandic though when he
asserts: “...er hægt að fullyrða að
þjóðsögurnar
staðfesta það sem hefur varðveitzt ótrúlega lítið blandaður erlendum
áhrifum
fram á 19. öld.” (p.107)). Nevertheless the comments made
above about
continuing proximity to Old Norse and conservative inflexional system
apply to
a large measure to Faroese. Most proposed loans do not readily fit into
the
grammatical and phonetical system of either language. We may summarise
a few of
the main similarities both share with Old Norse:
*3
genders, 4 cases and multiple declensions for
each gender
*concord is required between nouns, articles and adjectival endings
*strong and weak verbs are distinguished, with 3 persons each in the
singular
and the plural
*extensive use of the subjunctive
*no indefinite article
For
Icelanders grammatical (and lexical)
conservatism is a source of pride and has been consistently raised as a
symbol
of national resistance to Danish supremacy. The inflectional nature of
Icelandic is one reason why the creation of new words – derivatives and
compounds – is fairly easy (compared to, say, the Mainland Scandinavian
languages). Halldórsson (1979) takes this view a step further and
claims that
in general inflectional languages are more suited to the formation of
new words
than non-inflectional ones.
We
can in summary state that the causes behind
insular Norse lexical purism are several and although important, the
affinity
of both to the grammatical complexities of Old Norse is only one. After
all,
Danish, Swedish and Norwegian once had formal grammar as complex of
that of
Icelandic and proved themselves nonetheless able to important many
words
through their contact with Middle Low German, language contact which
had the
effect of simplifying their grammatical systems at the same time as
their
vocabulary was significantly enriched. The interest in Iceland for using native terms
has more to do
with politics and culture than the grammatical complexities of the
language. Such
factors as geographical situation, natural cultural conservatism of the
people
(a key factor), slow industrial and social development, and, in the
case of
Icelandic, an unbroken literary tradition may have as much
responsibility for
it. Indeed, I believe the last of these is the most significant, and
can
explain why Faroese allowed, and still allows, more loanwords.
Conscious
policies of lexical purism are a relatively recent phenomenon and do
not
explain the earlier conservatism. However they are now far more
effective than
the more natural circumstances which kept loans to a minimum in the
past. The
aim now is not to restrict loanwords so much but rather to purge them
from the
language and replace them.
Despite
the numerous examples of loanwords given in
this article and discussion of Danish domination for centuries of the
island's
trade and cultural life,
Now
a brief survey of the major periods for loans
in Icelandic and Faroese will be presented, along with their major
contributors.
Loanwords
in Icelandic
The
earliest periods of Icelandic language history
(i.e. the landnámsöld
from c. 870-930, the so-called “Saga Age” c.
930-1030 and down until early medieval times c. 1100) do not concern us
much
here. However, we can mention the dozen or so early loans into
Icelandic from
Gaelic, probably a result of the Irish slaves brought in numbers to
Iceland. Of
these, Guðrún Kvaran mentions a few (p. 36):
“Af
tökuorðum úr keltnesku má nefna orðin bagall,
brekán,
kross,
slafak,
sem haft er um grænt slý á tjörnum og í mýrum, arfa og æta þörunga,
hugsanlega papi,
sem haft var um írskan munk, og fuglsheitið jaðrakan
(Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, 1989).”
The
Celtic loans quoted mean “crozier”, “blanket,
quilt”, “cross”, “pond algae”, “Irish munk” and “black-tailed godwit”
respectively. Baldur Jónsson in his article Isländska
språket (see the booklist) lists a couple more: bjannak
“blessing” and tarfur
“bull”. (p.165) Icelandic shows a clearly stronger
influence from Celtic than does sister language Norwegian, but the
overall
influence is still very small. There are also a handful of
Celtic-derived
personal names such as Njáll
and Kjartan.
The
early Icelandic church was established by
Germans and Englishmen and heralded the first major borrowing period in
Icelandic. Old English and Old Saxon had some native derived input, but
this
was small and most loans were Germanic renderings of Latin or Greek
ecclesiastical words. A list of some of these words is given by Guðrún
Kvaran
(p. 40):
“Talsvert er
um tökuorð frá þessum tíma sem löguð hafa verið að hljóð- og
beygingarkerfi
málsins. Sum þeirra má rekja til grísku, önnur til látinu, en flest
hafa þau
komist inn í íslensku um önnur germönsk mál. Dæmi um orð af þessi tagi
eru
stöðuheitin biskup,
djákni,
klerkur,
munkur,
prestur
úr fornensku, og páfi
úr fornsaxnesku. Tökuorð úr fornensku eru ennig talin orðin engill,
guðspjall,
kirkja,
klaustur,
þolinmóður
og þolinmæði
og lýsingarorðið kristinn,
úr fornsaxnesku altari,
djöfull,
offur,
offra,
páskar,
pína
og synd...”.
Respectively,
these loanwords denote “bishop”,
“deacon”, “clergyman” (or “scholar”), “monk”, “priest”, “pope”,
“angel”,
“gospell”, “church”, “cloister”, “patient”, “patience”, “christian”,
“altar”,
“devil”, “offering”, “(to) sacrifice”, “Easter”, “torment” and “sin”. A
few
more are supplied by Baldur Jónsson in his article (p.165-6): abbadís
“abbess”, ábóti
“abbot”, messa
“mass” and nunna
“nun”. Samviska
“conscience” was loan-translated from Latin conscientia.
Native Anglo-Saxon and not from the classical languages are the calques
bókstafur
“letter, character” (OE bôcstæf), hátíð
“festival” (OE hêahtîd) and guðspjall
“gospel” (OE godspell).
In agreement with my definition of “neologism” given below, we can
mention
terms from pagan culture which took on new Christian meanings
(“loanshifts”): freista
“tempt” and noun derivative freistni
“temptation” came to stand in relation to sin, sæll
“happy, fortunate” came to mean “blessed”, fjandi
“enemy” (cf. OE fêond) became
“(the) Devil”, jól
“Yule” (a heathen midwinter feast) became
“Christmas”, guð
“heathen
deity” became “God”, while dygð
“manly
deed” (cf. OE duguð “strength,
power;
host, army”) shifted to a Christian meaning of “virtue, good quality,
faithfulness”. In hvítaváðir
“(white)
baptismal dress” and lagasöngr
(part of
the Catholic mass) we have couple of early ecclesiastical neologisms.
Not so
immediately Christian but nonetheless connected to the culture of
learning
fostered by the church and the new religion were the words lesa
and skrifa,
whose former meanings were “gather, pick” and “paint” but now came to
mean
“read” and “write” respectively (Jónsson,
1983, p.116). The names for the days of the week that recalled the
former
veneration of heathen gods also came to be changed through the
influence of the
church at the beginning of the 1100s. Thus týsdagr
(“Týr’s day”, cf. Tuesday, German Dienstag)
became þriðjudagr
(lit.
“the third day”), óðinsdagr
(“Òðinn’s day”, cf. Wednesday, Mainland
Scandinavian onsdag)
became miðvikudagr
(lit.
“mid-week day”, cf. German Mittwoch), þórsdagr
(“Þór’s day”, cf. Thursday, German Donnerstag)
became fimmtudagr
(lit.
“the fifth day”) and friádagr
(“Freyja’s day”, cf. Friday, German Freitag)
became föstudagur
(lit. “day of
fasting”)
(Jónsson,
1983, p.116). Note that Faroese, however, did not change its days of
the week in
this way: mánadagur,
týsdagur,
ónsdagur,
hósdagur
(< ON Þórsdagr),
fríggjadagur (< ON Frjádagr).
Christian
terms were early coined or calqued within
the written language and helped established a tradition of native
word-formation
in Icelandic that was maintained in later secular writings and
translations.
Icelanders travelled all over Europe for study, pilgrimmage or
commerce, and
this is reflected in many of the loans brought back during the late
medieval
period, such as silki
“silk”, pell
“pelt, hide”, buklari
“shield” and panzari
“armour”.
Old
Icelandic and Old Norwegian differed but little
until about 1200, when changes such as Norwegian ð
to t or d
became the norm, while appreciable
discrepancies in the vocabularies do not begin to appear until the
1300s. The
Mainland Scandinavian languages felt much more strongly the influence
of the
Middle Low German loanwords that now began to arrive in numbers. Middle
Low
German not only altered both everyday and specialised vocabulary in the
Mainland languages greatly, but also helped cause the inflexional
levelling
that so distinguishes insular Nordic from its continental relatives.
Guðrún
Kvaran notes the modest but nevertheless
significant number of loans during the late Middle Ages into Icelandic
from Old
French and Old/Middle High German. At this time Icelanders were
translating and
becoming acquainted with the chivalric literature so popular in
southern
Europe, which was brought to Iceland by Norwegians and Danes. Later the
Nordic
nations composed their own examples of this genre, and the Icelanders
loaned
words which expressed the rather foreign sounding courtly life of the
European
nobility:
“En
Íslendingar kynntust ennig snemma riddarabókmenntum sem Norðmenn fóru
að þýða á
öndverðri 13. öld...Þannig komust inn í málið ýmis orð, sem enn eru
notuð,
flest úr fornháþýsku eða fornfrönsku en sum ennig úr fornensku. Sem
dæmi mætti
nefna: barón,
riddari,
knapi,
lávarður,
júngfrú,
herra
og frú,
en ennig burtreið,
fantur,
ribbaldi
og púta
í merkingunni “gleðikona”.
Til þessara bókmennta er ennig að rekja orðin kurteisi,
sem talið er tökuorð úr fornfrönsku “cortois”,
og hæverska
úr miðlágþýsku hövesch
(Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon, 1989).”
(p. 39)
The
loans mentioned above mean “baron”, “knight”
(cf. Low German Ridder, German Ritter), “varlet”, “lord” (cf. Old
English hlâford), “lady” or
“princess”, “lord”, “lady”, “tilt-riding”, “footman”, “savage”,
“harlot”,
“courtesy” and “courtesy”. To these we could add skvíari
“squire”, stívarðr
“steward”, burtstöng
“tilting lance” and hæverskr
“courteous”. Most of these courtly words were
merely fashionable (and then in clearly defined circles) and quickly
fell out
of use when the social fashions changed.
The
source of the last mentioned loan leads us
nicely on to the next major borrowing period. Icelandic during the late
medieval and early modern period was subjected to the huge economic,
political
and cultural influence of the Hanseatic League. Owing to its remoteness
and
trade monopolies forced on it by Norway and later Denmark, Iceland
escaped most
of the loanwords that found their way into the Mainland Nordic
languages but it
too adopted some of the Low German items that were current at the time.
Icelanders were reading Middle Low German books before the Reformation
in the
late 1400s and the Hanseatic commercial power was first making its
presence
felt in Iceland around this time. Examples of MLG loans, most of which
are
still viable today, are: greifi
“earl”, hertogi
“duke”, jungherra
“master, nobleman”, jungfrú
“lady”, fursti
“prince”, riddari
“knight”, lén
“fife”, kurteis
“courtesy”, handla
“act;
trade”, smakka
“taste”,
sykur
“sugar”, kokkur
“cook”, kokka
“cook,
boil”, diktur
“poem”, forma
“form”, klókur
“clever, cunning” and mekt
“might”.
The adoption of Christianity rather earlier also ushered in many loans
(and not
merely in religious contexts) or else demanded that native words
undergo a
change in meaning.
Most
loans during this period came in from Danish,
either directly or as a loaning agent, owing to Danish domination of
Icelandic
trade and life. Of the loans that came in during this period, however,
it is
sometimes hard to determine whether the source was MLG coloured Danish
or MLG
itself, which was still an influential source for loans. (Of the
examples of
MLG loans below, most are from Christian Westergaard-Nielsen, who
provides many
examples). Some examples of earlier Danish loans are: ske
“happen” (late 1300s, MLG schên; this loan in particular has been
the subject of much vitriol from Icelandic language purists),
ráðhús
“town hall” (cf. Low German Raadhuus,
German Rathaus),
blífa
“become”, brúka
“(to) use”, brúk
“use”, þenkja
“think”, makt
“might”
(competed with native máttur),
selskapur
“society, party, association”, skikka
“send” (1494, MLG schicken),
slekt
“kin,
lineage” (1499, MLG slechte),
undirvísa
“educate” (1480, MLG underwîsen)
pakki
“pack,
packet”, þéna
(“serve”
- MLG thênen).
Of
these, only þenkja
and pakki
survive, while þéna
now has another meaning. During the mid-1500s,
around the time of the Reformation, many ecclesiastical works were
translated
from Danish and German and with these came many loanwords. Nouns such as böðull “hangman”,
doktor,
hýena,
jómfrú
“virgin” and mínúta
appear around this time.
Loans
from MLG – either directly or, most commonly,
via Danish or Norwegian – represent the largest foreign element in the
modern
Icelandic vocabulary (although it is clear they existed in greater
numbers than
they do today). To anyone familiar with Nordic language history, the
influence
exerted by MLG comes as no surprise. These words entered the language
over a
long period and belong in the main to the everyday vocabulary. They are
conspicuous and an everyday conversation will probably not progress too
long
without one or more of these words being used.
Several
alien prefixes were introduced from Danish
and Middle Low German first appearing in the late 1300s and compounded
partly
with native words and partly with loaned elements. The prefix MLG be-
is a lexical item which can be seen as typical of
the language of the Hansa (which appears as bí-
as a rule in Icelandic). The oldest example is of
bífala “to command” (MLG bevalen) from 1370 and bíhalda “keep, retain” from 1389 (MLG beholden). Bíhaga “please” appears first in 1434. Only twenty or so words appear of
this type in the 1400s, including those just given above. Among these
can be
mentioned bídrifa “commit, do” (MLG bedrîven), bífalning “order, command” (MLG bevalinge), bífela “command” (MLG bevelen), bíhjálpligur “helpful” (MLG behelpelik), bíkenna “confess” (MLG bekennen), bískatta “tax” (MLG beschatten), bítala “to pay”
(MLG betalen), bítaling “payment” (MLG betalinge), bívara “preserve” (MLG bevaren), bívísa “to prove” (MLG bewîsen), bívísing “proof, evidence” (MLG bewîsinge). Such words become more common in
the 1500s. Worthy of mention are: bífalningsmaður “commander”, bígáfa “endue” (MLG begâven), bígera “desire, covet” (MLG begeren), bíginna “begin, start” (MLG beginnen), bígrípa “comprehend” (MLG begrîpen), bíhrópa “appeal to, plead” (MLG berôpen), bíkvæmiligur “comfortable” (MLG beqûemelik), bíretta “refer, report” (MLG berichten), bískermelsi “protection” (MLG beskermelse), bísluta “decide” (MLG beslûten), bívísan “evidence, proof”, bívísligur “provable”. The number of such
words grew in the coming centuries, but they never put down roots in
Icelandic
and bí- never (as it did in the Mainland languages)
became a
productive word-forming element based on native resources. The latter
is a very
important point. Among other words to be still found in the dictionary
are bestikk “cutlery”, bígerð, bílífi, bílæti “picture; ticket”and bínafn “nickname”.
Of
the words from this period in for-
(MLG vor-)
could be mentioned forblífa
“remain”, fordæma
“condemn”, formega
“be
able”, forþéna
“deserve”, ofurgefa
“leave”,
forhindra
“forestall, prevent”, forlengja
“demand, require”, formeta
“evaluate”, fornema
“feel, perceive”“, forbetra
“improve”, forgleyma
“forget” and forkasta
“reject, decline”. Only a small amount of these
words and those in bí-
have
been used in spoken language and many were gradually made obsolete. The
same
applies to the verbal loans in -era
derived ultimately from Latin, e.g. emendera,
fundera,
konfirmera
and nótera that were especially common in the
Icelandic literature of the 1500s.
Although some such words
survive, most still feel foreign to Icelandic speakers and many have
never been
more words in the dictionary. Danish and German influence during this
time also
affected Icelandic at the levels of syntax and morphology, which
suggests just
how powerful their effects were. All of the above words have current
forms in
Modern Danish, but many were purged from Icelandic by the hreintungustefna.
Middle Low German words mediated through Danish are also in great
evidence in
learned written documents from the Icelandic renaissance and later
Reformation
period. Many Icelandic translations from the Reformation period were
poorly
done, slavishly imitated German and Danish models and merely disguised
foreign
loans in Icelandic garb. A great number of the loans taken in by the
Icelandic
scholars of the Reformation never progressed further than the
ecclesiastical
register, including most of the verbs formed in their hundreds with
various
affixes and suffixes (see above), agent nouns formed with -arí
(e.g. kettarí
“heresy”, snikkarí
“joiner”), -erí
(e.g. hórerí
“prostitution”) and the abstract noun suffix from
MLG -sel
(e.g. bískermelsi
“protection”; cf.
the many nouns in the mainland languages with the
ending -else). The vocabulary of the
everyday people remained much the same as centuries before and a
medieval and
rural mode of life was still the reality for most Icelanders at the
dawn of the
early modern period.
Among
later loans from MLG could be mentioned: barti
“sideburns” (1800s, MLG bart),
bómull
“cotton”
(1656, MLG bômwulle;
neologism baðmull
has not
caught on as a native replacement), flinkur
“deft, adept” (1833, MLG flink),
gikt
“gout” (1800s, MLG gicht),
gikkur
“fool”
(1584, MLG geck),
innvortis
“inwardly” (1600s, MLG inwordes),
keðja
“chain”
(1584, MLG kede),
lukt
“light” (1500s, MLG lüchte),
munstur
“pattern, model” (1584, MLG munster),
nettur
“nice, fine” (c.1700, MLG nett
(from French)), plás
“place” (1594, MLG plas
(from Latin)).
Of
the following, all are still current in Danish,
although Icelandic has since purged almost all of them - some survive
though,
e.g. fordæma
“condemn”, glas
“glass”,
spegill
“mirror”, slæmur
“bad, poor”, spaug
“joke, jest” and orsök
“cause” (Modern Danish forms are given in
brackets): ráðhús
(rådhus)
“town hall”, blífa
(blive)
“become”, brúka
(bruge)
“to use”, þenkja
(tænke)
“think”, makt
(magt)
“power”, selskapur
(selskab)
“party,
society”, pakki
(pakke)
“pack, packet”, þéna
(tjene)
“serve”, forblífa
(forblive)
“remain”, fordæma
(fordømme),
bígríba
(begribe)
“comprehend”, bífala
(befale)
“to command”, bítala
(betale)
“to
pay”, slæmur
(slem),
spaug
(spøg),
brennivín
“spirit”
(brændevin),
sápa
“soap” (sæbe),
glas
(glas),
spegill
(spejl),
orsök
(årsag)
and forkasta
(forkaste)
“to reject”. Kartöflur
“potato” appears to have come in a little later
either directly from High German or via Danish. Words which are still
current
in Icelandic and were probably loaned from Early Modern Dutch are rúff
“cabin” and dekk
“deck” (of a ship).
Danish
continued to contribute numerous loans to
Icelandic until well into the last century. Some of these are actually
Danish
in origin (or else had been well naturalised): akkúrat
“just, exactly”, altso
“thus”, billegur
“cheap”, deprimeður
“dejected, downcast”, falskur
“wrong,
false”, fantastískur
“fantastic”, fúnkera
“function” - these forms are now obsolete in written Icelandic but some
lexical
items of clear Danish origin are still used in Icelandic speech.
However, in
many cases Danish provided a medium through which words of
international usage
could find their way into Icelandic - just as it had earlier provided a
medium
for Low German loans. Examples are: bíll
“car”, bensín
“petroleum”, bíó
“cinema”,
appelsína
“orange” (Dan. appelsin;
competes with native glóaldinglóaldin
(lit.
“glowing-fruit”)),
doktor,
pólítík,
tékki
“cheque”, kaffi,
alkóhol,
mínúta,
nóta,
stúdent,
prent,
prófessor,
hótel,
púður
“powder”, mótor,
vírus,
nælon
“nylon”, punta
“point”, súkkulaði
“chocolate”, banki.
Further
examples of international loans which have come in via Danish during
the
present and last centuries are: albúm,
dívan,
klósett
“toilet”, banani “banana”
(competes with native bjúgaldin (lit. “bowed-fruit”) which is almost
never
used), krem
“cream”, melóna,
nikótin,
númer
“number”, ópera,
píanó
and vítamín
(but native fjörefni
is
dominant). The use of jú
in
certain constructions as an affirmative adverb may well be down to
Danish
influence and mirrors to some extent the use of jo
for this purpose in Danish itself. Many words
mediated via Danish still exist in everyday Icelandic speech and
especially
slang but are unacceptable in written composition.
The
influence of English upon Icelandic, although
still relatively small, has been a growing factor since World War Two
which
involved English-speaking occupation of the island and the subsequent
Cold War,
which involved US military bases stationed on Iceland. Add these
factors to
growing economic, political and cultural influence on Iceland from
English-speaking nations (especially the US) and there is potential for
an
increasing pressure from English on the Icelandic language in the
future.
English has thus far mainly affected Icelandic at the level of lexis -
especially in slang and jargon - but it has also exerted a mild
pressure on
Icelandic syntax. English loanwords are quite common in the spoken language, but strongly prohibited
in writing. Some examples of English loans which are reasonably certain
(i.e.
very unlikely to be from Danish) are: absúrd,
beibí
“baby”, bissness,
bjúti
“beauty”, boddí,
bömmer
“bummer”
(i.e. a depression), fiftí-fiftí,
fixa,
flippa,
gæi
“guy”, geim
“game”, gír
“gear”, hippi,
kikk,
kjút
“cute”, næs
“nice”, meika
“make”, pönkari
“punk”, séns
“sense”, sjoppa
“shop”, skáti
“scout”, smart
and vá
“vow”.
To these we could add some Amercianisms popular in young people’s
speech: prítti,
reddy,
smókur
and monningur “money”
(whose formal native equivalents would be falleg,
tilbúin,
reykur
and peningar).
It
is also interesting to note as an aside a few
English words and forms in “Western Icelandic” (i.e. the form of the
language
still spoken by emmigrants to North America): beisment,
tóstari
“toaster”, dröggbúð
“chemist” (=
The
import of a relatively small number of
international words has meant that native synonyms are often forced
into
competition with them. This is also the case with Faroese - but on a
larger
scale in that language (see the notes and lists below). Some well-known
examples of this phenomenon are (it is important to bear in mind in
most cases
the native words are preferred, and are the only option in some cases
in
writing): baktería
- gerill;
spítali
- sjúkrahús
(hospital); apótek
- lyfjabúð
(chemist); bíll
- bifreið
(car); bakarí
- brauðgerð
(bakery); sígaretta
- vindlingur;
kíkir
- sjónauki
(binoculars) and passi
- vegabréf
(passport); ímeil
– tölvapóstur
(e-mail,
lit. “computer post”).
Icelandic
has shown to some extent an ability to
adapt international words into the Icelandic sound and inflectional
system.
Veturliði Óskarsson makes the point that there are more loans and
international
words in Icelandic than is commonly believed, e.g. te,
kaffi,
kakó,
diskur
“plate”,
kornflex,
beikon,
gafall
“fork”, bíll
“car”, mótorhjól
“motorbike”, sjoppa
“to
shop”, pakki,
sígarettur,
súkkalaði
“chocolate”, pólitík
(successfully competes with neologism stjórnmál),
rokkmúsík,
kassetta,
sinfónía,
stimpla
“to
stamp”, penni
“pen”, firma,
arkitekt,
klósett
“toilet” (cf. German Klo). Efforts
have been made to replace some of the above words,
especially the more recent arrivals. But this has not always met with
success
and proposed replacements bifreið,
kornflögur,
söluturn,
vélhjól
and vindlingur
for car, cornflakes,
kiosk, motorbike
and cigarette respectively are
mainly confined to writing or formal
occasions. To the above could be added gír
“gear”, skáti
“scout”, ál
“aluminium”, banki,
tékki
“cheque”, hotel,
jógúrt,
alkóhól,
vítamín.
Some
years ago the íslensk málnefnd
accepted
skvass
as an acceptable form of international squash.
Taking
Óskarsson’s point into account, it is
nevertheless true to say that the upshot of the hreintungustefna is
that the vast majority of
the obvious loans have been cleansed from Icelandic - at least from the
written
language, and as a rule, only terms of international currency are
loaned and
then only under the conditions stated below.
[
Top ]
Loanwords
in Faroese
As
in the case of Iceland, some of the original
settlers of the Faroes would have included speakers of Gaelic languages
or
persons who had lived in those Norse colonies where these languages
were
spoken. Ties with Ireland and Gaelic Scotland were no doubt maintained
and this
may have also facilitated the small but not insignificant number of
early
Celtic loanwords in Faroese. Some examples are given by Jóhan Hendrik
W.
Poulsen (1983, p.132): blak
“buttermilk”, lámur
“paw,
large hand; left hand”, slavak
“green
algae” (cf. Icelandic slafak
from the
same Gaelic word).
Among
the earliest loans are those which entered
the language with the introduction of Christianity into Scandinavia
(Iceland
became officially
Middle
Low German and Danish-mediated MLG had a
similar influence on the Faroese lexicon as they had on the Icelandic.
From
Middle Low German we can assign handil
“trade; shop”, bakari
“baker”,
blíva
“become”, mekt
“power”, trakt
“funnel“ and arbeiði
“work”
(only bakari
is still
in Icelandic), as well as many others which have been loaned in via
Danish. In
this latter category we can place betala
“pay” (from betale;
obsolete in Icelandic), toy
“cloth”
(Danish tøj)
and vitskapur
“science” (Danish videnskab),
as well as begynna
“begin” (begynde),
bevara
“preserve” (bevare),
forderva
“spoil,
corrupt” (fordærve),
forráða
“betray” (forråde)
and gemeinur
“public, common” (gemen
is now
not especially favoured in Danish). Danish is also the source of some
Faroese abstract
nouns terminating in -heit
and -ilsi
(the Danish endings are themselves derived from
Middle Low German) e.g. in words like sannheit
“truth” (sandhed)
and følilsi
“feeling, sensation” (følelse).
Some older loans that appear to be purely Danish
are forelska “fall in love with” (forelske),
melda “report” (melde),
treffa “meet” (træffe),
vælsigna “bless” (velsigne),
bedrøviligur “sad, miserable” (bedrøvelig),
herligur “splendid” (herlig),
ringur “poor, inferior” (ringe).
A
calque derived from a (more recent) purely native Danish construction
is orðaskifti
“debate” (ordskifte),
while Hagström mentions the fairly recent
calques skaðastova
“emergency room” (skadestue)
and vøggustova
“daycare” (vuggstue),
claiming that a Faroese speaker seeing/hearing
them for the first time would likely immediately understand them.
During
the Reformation and in the post-Reformation
period Danish religious language became so much the norm (e.g. helligond
“Holy Ghost”, herligheit
“glory, splendour”, kerligheit
“love”, trefoldigheit
“trinity”, fortapilsi
“damnation “), that the Faroese Pater Noster had to be retranslated at
the
close of the 1800s because it had fallen from folk-memory. Many loans
from this
period were High German words mediated via Danish which was now the
language of
the church.
However,
in more recent times Faroese has developed
its own alternatives to the words listed above, either from its own
resources
or in imitation of Icelandic or Old Norse (or occassionally Norwegian).
So begynna
“begin” became byrja,
betala
“pay”
became gjalda,
bevara
“preserve” became varðveita,
forderva
“spoil”
became spilla,
forráða
“betray” became svíkja,
gemeinur
“common,
public” became vanligur,
sannheit
“truth” became sannleiki,
følilsi
“feeling” became kensla,
fortapilsi
“damnation” became glatan,
herligheit
“glory,
splendour” became dýrd,
helligond
became heilagur andi,
kerligheit
became kærleiki
and trefoldigheit
became tríeind (Poulsen, 1983, p.133).
Concerning international words that have been replaced by native terms
we could
mention debattur
> orðaskifti
“debate” (modeled on Danish ordskifte),
demonstration
> kravgonga
“demonstration” (modeled on Ice. kröfuganga),
and musikkur
> tónleikur
“music”.
Diskil
“diskette” is a Faroese neologism, as is ljómfløga
“(music) CD” (lit. “sound-disk”; CD-ROM is teldufløga (lit. “data/computer-disk”)).
As
can be seen from the examples just given,
compound nouns ending in -heit
and -ilsi
were perceived as being foreign (from MLG via
Danish) and native alternatives were sought either by replacing foreign
elements with native ones (sannheit
to sannleiki,
kerligheit
to kærleiki)
or where that was not feasible, replacement by a
completely different word (gemeinur
to vanligur,
følilsi
to kensla).
The revival of a dead word is less commonly seen,
but begynna
> byrja
above is an example of this (cf. Nynorsk børje,
Swedish börja).
Some
loans, usual in writing, have been taken
directly from Danish and are native to that language (i.e. non-
international
terms), e.g. stavilsi “syllable”
(stavelse),
skapilsi “creation” (skabelse),
fortelja
“tell,
narrate” (fortælle),
lóg “law” (lov),
and fairly recent loans møblar “furniture”,
súltutoy “jam”,
innviklaður “intricate”.
This occurs especially when there is no traditional native synonym. But
native
synonyms are preferred to foreign-derived ones, so broyta
“(to) change” is used in preference to competing
loanword forandra.
Among
older loans from Danish we could mention bangheit “fear” (banghed),
góðheit “goodness” (godhed),
bangilsi “anxiety”,
stivilsi “starch” (stivelse),
rimpilsi “nymphomania” (?),
ørilsi “dizziness” (?),
stóragtigur “haughty” (storagtig).
Among
other more recent words for which Danish has obviously provided the
inspiration
we could mention pósthús
(posthus)
“post office”, fortov
(fortov)
“pavement”, sparikassi
(sparekasse)
“savings bank”, polistur
(politi,
politimand)
“policeman” and frisødáma
(frisørinde)
“(female) hairdresser”. It has been proposed that drukkin,
fullur
replace
Danish-derived berúsaður “drunk, intoxicated” (beruset),
tosa
(a regionalism meaning “buzz, hum”) replaces
Danish-derived snakka,
and í stundini,
alt í einum replace
Danish-derived eygablikkliga “at once, immediately”
(øjeblikkelig).
Danish
has also contributed many words which are
used more or less internationally: moturur (as well as the Scandinavian bilur from bil),
doktari,
lektari
“lecturer”, persónur,
atom,
plast
“plastic” (plast),
politistoð
“police station”, turistur,
pensjón,
rekord,
konservatisma,
literaturur,
kulturur,
opera, kursur “cursor” (competes with native gangvirði)
and journalistur.
Faroese tends to be more tolerant of these. In
Icelandic native words or loan-translations are almost always used in
preference: bíll (actually a Danish loan),
læknir,
fyrirlesari,
maður,
frumeind,
plast
(from Danish plast),
lögreglustöð,
ferðamaður,
eftirlaun,
hljómplata,
íhald,
bókmenntir,
menning,
söngleikur, bendill
and blaðamaður.
Danicisms
are often used as synonyms for common
Faroese words in everyday speech. Many of these in fact never appear in
print.
Almost any Danish word may be used and pronunced as Faroese, according
to
Hagström. So instead of syrgin,
óneyðugur,
øki,
vanliga
one may hear bedrøvaður,
yfirflødigur,
umráði
and í almindeligheit
(< bedrøvet,
overflødig,
område, i almindelighed
– these are all common Danish words/expressions).
Some
of the loans in the field of the sciences also
illustrate greater tolerance on the part of Faroese in accepting words
current
on the international scene. Compare for example vitamin,
proton,
atom,
neutron,
elektron
and moturur
with their direct Icelandic equivalents fjörefni
(life-stuff), róteind,
frumeind
(elementary particle), nifteind,
rafeind
(amber-particle) and hreyfill
(something which turns).
On the whole it can be said that Faroese is more willing to accept
international terms than Icelandic, and many such words are found,
especially
in the spoken/everyday language, e.g. telefon,
politi,
atom,
tomat,
system,
postur,
banki,
professari,
elekrisitet, veirur “wire”
and musikkur.
(An Icelandic contact, however, informs me that tómatur
is now generally used in Icelandic).
Faroese
has also been more affected by English than
Icelandic. This is to be expected since the policy of purism in Faroese
is less
developed, the Faroes are a smaller linguistic community, and finally,
their
closer proximity to the UK has to be a factor. Early loans from English
are húkur
and pokari.
British seamen are thought to be the donor of the Faroese loan smílur
(smell). Occupation by English troops during the
Second World War introduced some English words into Faroese such as fittur
“nice” (fit) and fokkaður
“knackered” (fucked) but most of these were only
fashionable for a short period of time. Other older loans are beli,
stumbla
and trupul.
Notable words in Faroese which have come in from
English are filmur,
smart
and hobby.
In agreement with Icelandic, Faroese has probably loaned ruff
and dekk
from Early Modern Dutch. (An Icelandic friend, however, tells me that filmur,
smart
and hobby
are found in Icelandic slang, but only filmur
is acceptable in writing). Harðdiskur/harðdiskur
“hard
disk” has been a successful international loan in both languages
(English harddisk perhaps mediated
via Danish harddisk).
English has also contributed such modern loans
as rufla,
svinga,
keis,
fjús,
kjokkfullur.
More
recent loans include bulldosari,
sprinkla,
skjansur,
klips,
babysittari,
bodybuildari,
image,
ketsjupp,
outsidari,
tape
and weekendur.
Finally,
Icelandic itself has been a major contributor
to the Faroese word-stock, either with direct loans, or otherwise
providing the
necessary lexical and semantic inspiration. This is not simply because
of the
close geographical proximity of the two island nations nor owing to
their
historical ties. Neither does Faroese borrow simply because Icelandic
is the
nearest related language (although this is part of the answer) - after
all
English does not borrow from the historically close West Frisian.
Iceland has
managed a successful policy of lexical purism for over a century and
formed
numerous new coinages from the native word-stock. As such Icelandic
provides
the ideal source for tried and tested words formed from roots which are
historically West Scandinavian in derivation. Icelandic, as a closely
related
language in structure and lexis, has taken much of the effort away from
Faroese
linguists and academic bodies requiring the formation of abstract and
technical
words from native word elements.
Efforts
have been made in written Faroese to follow
the Icelansdic language example and eschew all Danish loanwords, e.g. mynd
instead of bílæti
(Ice. mynd),
siglingarfrøði
instead of navigation
(Ice. siglingafræði),
halastjørna
instead of komet
(Ice. halastjarna).
Most of what works in Icelandic also works in Faroese – and there are
many new
words in Faroese based on Icelandic models – but such efforts are not
always
successful. A parallel might be drawn in some of the American words
which sound
strange in British English. Sometimes Faroese prefers to alter the
loaned
elements to more idiomatically or semantically Faroese elements.
Faroese might
use a Danish loan synomymously or instead, or as in the scientific
examples
above, it might accept international terms. For example, the Icelandic heimspeki
“philosophy” (lit. world-wisdom) has been borrowed
directly, but -speki,
which is used both as a stand-alone word and as a
productive element elsewhere in Icelandic, does not exist in Faroese.
So some
Faroe Islanders might not understand the meaning of heimspeki
although they will doubtless recognise it as an
Icelandicism. Similarly fólkaræði
is a
loan-translation of lýðræði
“democracy”, because the element lýð
“people, nation” (cf. Low German Lüd,
German Leute, Old English lêod) is not much used in Faroese. As
mentioned above, Faroese sometimes provides alternative words, one from
Icelandic or native stock and the other a Danish or international loan.
So we
find verkamaður
“labourer” (Ice. verkamaður)
competing with arbeiðari
(Dan. arbejder),
løgregla
“police”
(Ice. lögregla)
competes with politi
(Dan. politi),
landafrøði
“geography” (Ice. landafræði)
competes with geografi
(Dan. geografi),
stjørnufrøði
“astronomy” (Ice. stjörnufræði)
competes with astronomi
(Dan. astronomi),
skaldsøga
“novel”
(Ice. skáldsaga)
competes
with roman
(Dan. roman)
and ravmagn
“electricity” (Ice. rafmagn)
competes with el(ektrisitet)
(Dan. elektricitet).
There are many other examples of this duality, some of which will be
detailed
in the wordlists that follow.
Despite
some competing lexical items, Icelandic has
still been the source for many new and accepted words into Faroese,
although
not everyone is happy about it. Indeed some purists have encouraged a
backlash
against the perceived “Icelandicisms” just as many earlier did against
the then
offensive “Danicisms”. A fascinating example of the kind of
difficulties faced
when loan-translating Icelandic words (and creating neologisms) is
reported in
p.206 of Haugen, Scandinavian
Language
Structures. Describing Ella Clausén's
investigations into spoken and
written Faroese vocabulary (see booklist), he remarks:
“Of the 580
“new” words she selected from Fa newspapers 1974-75, 55 proved to be
wholly
Faroese, 330 were loanwords or loan-translations of Danish terms, 17
were of
international origin, and 178 were calqued on Icelandic. The most
controversial
of these were the Icelandic words, which to Faroese purists represented
the
best model, while others resented the fact they were novel and almost
as
foreign as the Danish”.
Haugen
goes on to mention that lýðveldi,
a calque from Icelandic (discussed above), when
broadcast on Faroese radio, was only known to 18 out of 70 randomly
questioned
Faroese speakers.
From
the many examples of Icelandic to Faroese
loans that could be cited I will confine myself to the following
(Danish words
in brackets): frummaður
“primitive man” (urmenneske),
frumrit
“original text” (urtekst),
mentan
“education” (Ice. menntun)
(uddanelse),
sjónvarp
“television” (although this still competes with fjernsyn
from Danish fjernsyn),
útvarp
“radio”
(radio),
kervi
“system”
(system),
meginreglu
“principle, maxim” (grundsætning),
krabbamein
“cancer” (lit. crab-tumour) (kræft),
vistfrøði
“ecology” (økologi),
løgfrøði
“law” (lov),
framleiða
“produce, manufacture” (frembringe),
framleiðsla
“production, manufacturing” (produktion,
frembringelse),
skjalasavn
“archive” (arkiv),
bókasafn
“library” (bibliotek),
bókavørður
“librarian” (book-ward) (bibliotekar),
fjølmiðil
“mass-medium” (medie),
tøkni
“technology” (Ice. tækni)
(teknologi),
trygging
“insurance” (forsikring),
sáttmáli
“contract” (kontrakt, aftale),
umhvørvi
“environment” (omgivelser, miljø),
tyrla
“helicopter” (Ice. þyrla)
(helikopter),
verkfrøði
“engineering” (Ice. verkfræði)
(ingeniørvidenskab),
verkfrøðingur
“engineer” (ingeniør),
bókmentir
“literature” (literatur),
einahandil
“monopoly” (monopol),
ravmagn
“electricity” (Ice. rafmagn)
(elektricitet),
skrá
“programme” (køreplan),
telda
“computer” (Ice. tölva
has no doubt been influential) (datamaskine),
-virki
“factory” (-fabrik),
-savn
“archive, collection” (-samling),
-stova
“office” (-kontor),
-frøði
“-ology, -science” (-videnskab,
-ologi).
More
examples can be found in the word-lists below.
Words
of Danish origin are used more liberally in
writing than in Icelandic. This is even more the case in speech, in
which
Danish forms are also more acceptable than in Icelandic. Even so, most
Danicisms have been eradicated from the formal written language. A good
deal
depends upon the nature of the speech made or the article written -
formal
prose and speeches usually require a native vocabulary and idiom which
closely
resembles the Icelandic. Written Faroese tends to either be associated
with
traditional culture or high culture. Neologisms, loan-translations and
“neo-archaisms” are often used for more literary and higher registers.
As in
the case of Icelandic, the main driving principle of the lexically
puristic
policy pursued has been to eradicate obvious Danicisms. It does not
help that
the most popular and widespread reading matter – such as weekly
magazines and
illustrated papers – is nearly all in Danish. The printed word remains
a very
important contact interface Danish > Faroese. Similarly, films
are usually
shown with Danish subtitles. Despite some concerns that television
would harm
traditional Faroese culture, TV programmes are transmitted in the
Faroes and
most, as we would expect, are imported from
In
other words, “popular culture” has not been
conquered by Faroese. Faroese scholar Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen notes
that he is
so accustomed to Danish that, when writing Faroese texts outside the
scope of
everyday life, Danish often first springs to his mind. On the plus
side,
compared to population size, book production is now abundant in Faroese
and
covers all literary genres and many branches of science and knowledge.
Perhaps
one day popular culture will be become a Faroese domain, too.
As
indicated by the discussion above, Faroese
adults are bilingual, with their reading competency in Danish often
being
rather better than their spoken skills. Indeed, not a few people have a
wider
reading vocabulary in Danish than in Faroese in some areas! A constant
case of
language interference is the fact that a Faroeman has the entire Danish
lexicon
at his disposal. Being bilingual, the speaker can fill in the gaps from
his
knowledge of Danish if no suitable Faroese terms exist. Danish is also
used
when Faroese speakers wish to communicate with Norwegians and Swedes.
Danes can
expect to be addressed in Danish, so placing the full burden of
bilingualism on
the shoulders of the Faroese.
In
general it can be said that Faroese embraces a
greater number of loans than Icelandic, and many are an accepted part
of the
language. It is fruitless to try to replace them.
The
task of developing a language to meet the needs
of modern life is not a simple one; Faroese has a rich vocabulary in
the fields
of nature, daily life and traditional work, but is less sufficient in
abstract,
philosophical and modern technical terms. It is the role of the
national
language council to come up with such terms.
[
Top ]
The following table shows some loan-translations into Faroese from
Icelandic
and any Danish or internationally derived lexical alternatives in
Faroese that
compete with them:
<div
align="center">
Faroese |
Icelandic
model |
Danish-derived
rival |
International
rival |
Meaning |
afturhald |
afturhald |
|
konservatisma |
conservatism |
ágóði |
ágóði |
|
profittur |
profit |
alisfrøði |
eðlisfræði |
|
fysikk |
physics |
atgongumerki |
aðgöngumiði |
|
bilett |
ticket |
bilstjóri |
bílstjóri |
|
sjaufførur |
chauffeur |
bókmentir |
bókmenntir |
|
literaturur |
literature |
eftirløn |
eftirlaun |
|
pensjón |
pension |
einaræði |
einræði |
|
diktatur |
dictator |
einkasøla |
einkasala |
|
monopol |
monopoly |
ferðamaður |
ferðamaður |
|
turistur |
tourist |
fjølritari |
ljósritunarvél (older fjölritari) |
|
duplikator |
photocopier |
forngripagoymsla |
forngripasafn |
|
museum |
museum |
forseti |
forseti |
|
presidentur |
president |
frásøgn |
frásögn |
|
reportasja |
report |
gangvirði |
bendill
|
kursur |
cursor |
cursor |
hitamátari |
hitamælir |
|
termometur |
thermometer |
íbúð |
íbúð |
leyligheit |
|
apartment |
íhald |
íhald |
|
konservatisma |
conservatism |
innflutningur |
innflutningur |
|
importur |
import |
kervi |
kerfi |
|
system |
system |
krabbamein |
krabbamein |
kreft |
|
cancer |
kykmynd |
kvikmynd |
|
filmur |
film |
landalæra |
landafræði |
|
geografi |
geography |
løgregla |
lögregla |
politi |
|
police |
meginregla |
meginregla |
|
principp |
principle,
maxim |
met |
met |
|
rekord |
record |
myndatól |
myndavél |
|
fotografiapparat |
camera
|
próvdómari |
prófdómari |
|
sensor |
external
marker |
ravmagn |
rafmagn |
|
elektricitet |
electricity |
serfrøðingur |
sérfræðingur |
|
ekspertur |
expert |
siðmenning |
siðmenning |
|
kulturur |
culture |
sjúklingavognur |
sjúkrabíll, sjúkrabifreið |
|
ambulsansi |
ambulance |
skaldsøga |
skáldsaga |
|
roman |
novel |
skjalasavn |
skjalasafn |
|
arkiv |
archive |
skrivstova |
skrifstofa |
|
kantór |
office |
skurðlækni |
skurðlæknir |
|
kirurgur |
surgeon |
songleikur |
söngleikur |
|
opera |
opera |
sorgarleikur |
sorgarleikur |
|
tragedia |
tragedy |
súrevni |
súrefni |
|
oxygenium |
oxygen |
talva |
tafla |
|
tabell |
table |
tónlist |
tónlist |
|
musikkur |
music |
uppalingarfrøði |
uppeldisfræði |
|
pedagogikkur |
pedagogy |
urtagarðsmaður |
garðyrkjumaður |
|
gartnari |
gardener |
útflutningur |
útflutningur |
|
eksportur |
export |
vatnsevni |
vetni |
|
hydrogenium |
hydrogen |
verkamaður |
verkamaður |
arbeiðari |
|
labourer,
workman |
verkfall |
verkfall |
|
streika |
strike |
vísindi |
vísindi |
vitskapur |
|
science |
</div>
It
is not easy to determine in some cases whether the
international terms have been loaned via Danish or have come in
directly. In
the case where the two insular languages and Danish concord on the form
of a
word - either fully or in part - Danish has usually been the donor
language.
The
following list of examples shows either some
Icelandic or Faroese words (or occassionally both) obviously derived
from or
influenced by Danish:
<div
align="center">
Faroese |
Danish
model |
Icelandic
rival |
International
rival |
Meaning |
arbeiðari |
arbejder |
verkamaður |
|
labourer |
ástarlyrikk |
kærlighedslyrik |
ástarljóð |
|
love
poem |
atomkraft |
atomkraft |
frumafl |
|
atomic
power |
blaðmaður |
bladmand |
blaðamaður |
journalistur |
journalist |
blóðflutningur |
blodoverføring |
blóðfærsla |
|
blood
transfusion |
blóðroynd |
blodprøve |
blóðrannsókn |
|
blood
test |
bókaforlag |
bogforlag |
bókaútgafa, forlag |
|
publisher |
brennievni |
brændstof |
brenni |
|
fuel |
dataviðgerð |
databehandling |
gagnavinnsla |
|
data
processing |
dráttarlisti |
tegnekunst |
teikning |
|
draftsmanship |
fakmaður |
fagmand |
sérfræðingur |
|
expert,
specialist |
ferðsludráp |
færdselsdrab |
umferðarslys |
|
fatal
traffic accident |
fótgangari |
fodgænger |
fótgangandi |
|
pedestrian |
framsýningarhøli |
udstillingshal |
sýningarhöll |
|
exhibition
hall |
gjaldevni |
betalingsmiddel |
gjaldmiðill |
|
means
of payment |
gróðurhús |
væksthus |
gróðurhús |
|
greenhouse |
heimsbardagi |
verdenskrig |
heimsstyröld |
|
world
war |
ísbrótari |
isbryder |
ísbrjótur |
|
ice-breaker |
keypiorka |
købekraft |
kaupmáttur |
|
purchasing
power |
koyrikort |
kørekort |
ökuskírteini |
|
driving
license |
krígsbrotverk |
krigsforbrydelse |
stríðsglæpur |
|
war
crime |
krossorð |
krydsord |
krossgáta |
|
crossword |
málverji |
målmand |
markvörður |
|
goalkeeper |
mannarættindi |
menneskerettigheder |
mannréttindi |
|
human
rights |
orðaskifti |
ordskifte |
umræða |
debattur |
debate |
orðførari |
ordfører |
formælandi |
|
spokesman |
politistøð |
politistation |
lögreglustöð |
|
police
station |
ráevni |
råstof |
hráefni |
|
raw
material |
rúmdarfar |
rumfarer |
geimfar |
|
spacecraft |
sjálvtøka |
selvbetjening |
sjálfsafgreiðsla |
|
self-service |
sólarskipan |
solsystem |
sólkerfi |
|
solar
system |
spreingievni |
sprængstof |
sprengiefni |
|
explosive |
stórveldi |
stormagt |
stórveldi |
|
empire |
summarfrítíð |
sommerferie |
sumarfrí |
|
summer
holiday |
talsmaður |
talsmand |
frummælandi |
|
spokesman |
tannbust |
tandbørste |
tannbursti |
|
tooth
brush |
tíðarrit |
tidsskrift |
tímarit |
|
periodical |
trygdarráð |
sikkerhedsråd |
öryggisráð |
|
security
council |
tvørmál |
tværmål |
þvermál |
diametur |
diameter |
útbúgving |
uddannelse |
menntun |
|
education |
vektlyftari |
vægtløfter |
lyftingarmaður |
|
weight
lifter |
vitskapur |
videnskab |
vísindi |
|
science |
</div>
[
Top ]
Word-formation
and Neologisms in Insular West Norse
Having
surveyed the various sources for loans in
the two languages, the advent of movements to purge them and why these
policies
might have arisen, it is time to examine what methods Icelandic and
Faroese use
to replace these ejected words.
Firstly,
a quick explanation of what neologisms
are. By neologism we simply mean:
a)
all new words formed from stems or base words
which are already, or have been, present in the lexicon. Such therefore
includes derivatives, compounds of all types as well as the root form
itself
when b) applies. An example of modern derivative is the verb toga
“trawl, fish the sea bed” (glossed by Halldórsson
as “fiska með botnvörpu”), which
was
formed from the agent noun togari
“trawler”.
b)
obsolete, archaic, dialectal or extinct words
which have been revived, acquired a change of meaning in their revival,
or else
simply current words which have acquired a change of meaning (those of
the last
type which occur in order to signify the meaning of a word from an
exterior
foreign source are called “loanshifts”). The first of these therefore
applies
to Modern Icelandic mengi,
which
has been revived from ON mengi
with the
same meaning of “crowd, multitude”, while ON sími
“thread” has been revived as “telephone” into
Modern Icelandic and ON þulr
“sage”
has become Modern Icelandic þulur
“announcer”. A contemporary word which has undergone a change of
meaning is,
for example, vél
“motor,
engine” (older meaning “trick, deception”) - more examples of this
semantic
change are given below. Some writers have preferred to call this
category of
neologisms “neo-archaisms” since they are not in the truest sense pure
neologisms.
c)
words created by specialists or professionals
within their respective fields and which function as technical terms or
jargon.
Some of these are clearly based on foreign forms (although of course
they are
not loan-translations) e.g. bíll
“car”
(cf. Scandinavian bil),
gír
“gear”
and jeppi
“jeep,
offroad vehicle”. The medical neologism berklar
has as its inspiration the international medical
term tubercolosis.
The
policy in both languages, but especially in
Icelandic, to purge the vocabulary as far as possible of foreign
(usually
Danish) matter has required the formation of new replacement words
formed from
native elements. Various methods of neologism creation have been
current in
Icelandic for over a century now but in Faroese the tradition is weaker
and
more recent. However in Faroese too progress in this direction has been
made,
especially recently. As mentioned above, an Icelandic dictionary from
the last
century, Nýdönsk orðabók með íslenskum þýðingum
(1896) provided many neologisms, among them sími
and smásjá,
the first of these later combining with other productive elements to
make new
compounds such as símstöð
“telephone exchange”, símtæki
“telephone apparatus”, bréfsími
“fax-machine”, símsvari
“telephone answering machine”, símamaður
“telephonist” and many others, and the latter creating by analogy ratsjá
“radar” and fisksjá
(echo location device for fishing). Uncountable
numbers of new Icelandic words have been coined with this method of
simple
combination of meaningful productive elements. Despite the general
acceptance
of the puristic policy in Iceland, not all are happy about what they
argue is
uneccessary extremism, and writers such as Kristján Albertsson have
complained
that the newly coined native words are clumsy, opaque and just as
objectionable
as the unwanted foreign loans.
The
systematic and organised collection of
neologisms in Icelandic can be said to really begin with the formation
of Orðanefndar Verkfræðingafélags Íslands
(“Lexical Advisory Council for the Icelandic Society of Engineers”) in
1919. It
worked with great industry in the years 1919-27 and coined words in
various
areas such as ship-building, engineering, commerce and electrics and
had a
significant on Icelandic lexical development.
In
Iceland, and now to a lesser extent in the
Faroes, when new words are required - especially for science,
technology or
media - they are created by experts who work within the field in which
the word
is needed. So physicists may create new native terms for physics which
are
lacking in the vocabulary, doctors will create new terms in medicine,
lawyers in
law, printers in print technology, editors in journalese and so on. In
Iceland
the major sciences and other professional bodies have a dedicated panel
of
expert consultants who work within the field and coin new words as and
when
these are required, which are then published as wordlists. About 45
committees
are registered with the Íslensk málstöð
which have the role of creating and managing new
terminology within their specialist or professional occupations. The
aim is to
find a native alternative for an international or English term before
it can
take root in the language as permanent loanword. For example Nýyrði I
(1953)
suggested offical Icelandic terms for quite a few international
scientific
words such as for fjörefni
for
“vitamin”, róteind
for
“proton”, frumeind
for
“atom”, nifteind
for
“neutron” and rafeind
for
“electron”, among others. Native terms given in this way are meant for
official
and permanent use, as far as possible replacing international words. It
has to
be said though that the lists of words published by these bodies carry
no force
of law and are meant to be proposals. Nevertheless, the activity of
these
engineers and techologists has been crucial. Many of their coinages
have become
part of the vocabulary; for example, almost every word in use
concerning
electricity is native in origin.
Guðmundur
Björnsson
- doctor
- created gerill
“germ”, iðjuhöldur
“industrialist”, orkuver
“power plant”, met
“record, measurement”, lífrænn
“organic”, verb toga
“trawl” from noun togari
“trawler” influenced by trollari
or botnvörpungur
(earlier terms for “trawler”), smitta
(now smita)
“infect” and smitt
(now smit)
“infection” (cf. Danish smitte,
English
smite, smitten).
Arnljótur
Ólafsson
- pastor
- made vindill
“cigar”,
kennd
“sentiment” and hugtak
“concept”.
Guðmundur
Kamban
- author
- made hljómleikar
“concert” and tjáning
“expression” and both have spawned numerous derivatives or compounds.
Hallbjörn
Halldórsson
-
printer - made stæði
“standard class ticket”, vígorð
“slogan”
(to replace slagorð
from
Danish slagord)
and þjóðnýting
“nationalisation”.
Helgi
Hjörvar
- author
- made sjónvarp
“television” which has given rise to many derivatives and gave the old
word þulur
“announcer” a new meaning (in Old Norse mythology it
meant “sage, wise man, one who tells”).
Jón
Ólafsson
- editor
- made málgagn
“organ,
journal” and skilgreina
“define”.
Sigurður
L. Jónasson
-
secretary in Danish Foreign Office - devised landhelgi
“territorial waters, fishing limits” which has
also resulted in several compounds and served as a model for the
neologism lofthelgi
“(national) airspace”.
Guðmundur
Magnússon
first
used the word berklar
“tubercolosis” in an article of 1895 and it has since formed several
compounds.
Bjarni
Sæmundsson
created svif
for “plankton” and smásjá
for “microscope”.
Björn
Bjarnason frá Viðfirði
devised tækni
“technology” and using the Old Norse úð
“sense, attitude” samúð
“sympathy, compassion” (which provided the model
for antonym andúð
“antipathy”).
Guðmundur
Finnbogason
-
professor - coined the verb sefja
“hypnotise” and noun derivative sefjan
(now sefjun)
“hypnotism, suggestion”, bannhelgi
for
“taboo” and tíðni
“frequency”.
Sigurður
Guðmundsson
-
teacher - has formed a small number of words which are still current,
e.g. háttvís
“tactful, discreet”, háttvísi
“tact, discretion”, róttækur
“radical” and andúð
“antipathy”.
Sigurður
Nordal
-
professor - has shown himself to have good taste and a high level of
productivity concerning the formation of new Icelandic words. Some of
his
creations are einbeiting
“concentration”, dróttkvæði
“court
poetry” (an ON poetic metre), snyrting
“bathroom, toilet” (has formed several compounds), tölva
“computer” and útvarp
“radio”.
Nobel
Prize winning author Halldór Kiljan
Laxness has also had his influence in this area. We can
mention drengjukollur
“bobbed hair”, samyrkjubú
“collective farm” and stéttvís
“class-conscious”.
Vilmundur
Jónsson
- former
doctor - formed among other terms sýni
“specimen”, fúkalyf
“antibiotic”, hvotsótt
“Bornholm
disease” and visna
“atrophy”.
Alexander
Jóhannesson
created
the verb hanna
“design”
and noun derivative hönn
“design”.
Jónas
Hallgrímsson
– poet -
coined, among other words, aðdráttarafl
“(gravitational) pull” (to-drawing-force), hitabelti
“tropics” (heat-belt), ljósvaki
“ether” and sporbaugur
“(orbital) ellipse”. These are still used in daily
speech. He is also credited with having radically changed the dominant
poetic
style in Icelandic to one closer to the medieval literature.
Konráð
Gíslason
–
professor of Nordic Philiology at the
Regarding Faroese, these men have
made some notable contributions:
Christian
Matras
(1900-1988) - linguist, author - one of the most important innovators
and
inventors in the Faroese language. His numerous neologisms are now an
accepted
part of the Faroese lexicon and feel as if they always have been.
Jóannes
Patursson
(1866-1946) - farmer, politician and a journalist for the Føringatíðindi
newspaper, the first paper
in Faroese (published 1890-1906). Patursson was a keen creator of new
words.
Rasmus
Rasmussen
(1871-1962) - teacher, botanist - created a complete Faroese
terminology for
botany and contributed to the development of academic Faroese.
Rasmus
Effersøe
(1857-1916) - agricultural consultant, author and poet - a fine stylist
in
Faroese. Uttered the now famous words that he could not have a thought
that he
could not fully express in Faroese.
Jákup
Dahl
(1878-1944) - priest and linguist - wrote Føroysk Mállæra
(Faroese Grammar) in 1907 and created a Faroese grammatical
terminology. He is
the father of the Faroese liturgical language, and in the 20s and 30s
he
translated most of the holy scriptures, and also the order of service
and
general prayer-book. Dahl translated the Nýggja testamenti
(1937) into Faroese. He also composed and translated many hymns.
Hans
Debes Joensen
(1913-95) - physicist and anatomist - wrote the greatest single
contribution to
Faroese neologisms to date in the form of Alisfrøði
(1969), a 640-page textbook of physics. He created new words and
expanded the
meanings of existing ones. Joensen also contributed new words for
anatomy and
contributed to the development of academic Faroese.
Jakob
Jakobsen
(1864-1918) - linguist - founded the Faroese academic language
(together with
Poul Nolsøe) with the publication in 1907 of his Diplomatarium
Færoense.
Jakobsen (and Nolsøe) developed many new Faroese words for concepts
which were
previously lacking in Faroese, e.g. kollvelting
“revolution” – a purely native neologism and now a well-established
word.
Further now well-established words created by Jakobsen are einahandil
“monopoly”, mentir
“culture” and skjalasavn
“archive”. Christian Matras later continued the
work of Jakobsen and Nolsøe.
Mikkjal
Dánjalsson á Ryggi
(1879-1956) - scientist - made important contributions in the fields of
zoology
and geography, and contributed to the development of academic Faroese.
Jóannes
Rasmussen
(1912-1992) - geologist - devised terms within geology - an essential
branch of
studies in the Faroe Isles.
Bjarni
Niclasen
(1918-80) - chemist - developed the terminology of chemistry during
this century
and contributed to the development of academic Faroese.
It
is sometimes the case that a new concept or
object will be represented by more than one word before one lexical
form
becomes the accepted norm and this can often be an interesting
situation. The
current word for “telephone” sími
was not
the first word to denote this new technology and neither did it gain
universal
acceptance. The first word to denote “telephone” alone (and not cover
“telegraph” as well) was hljómþráður
(“sound-thread”) coined in 1877, followed by the competing terms hljóðberi
(“sound-bearer”) in 1878, hljóðþráður
(“sound-thread”) in 1889 and talþráður
(“speech-thread”) that same year. Sími
was taken from Old Norse at the end of the 1800s
by college teacher Pálmi Pálsson and over the following 10-15 years, sími
gradually edged out its competition and become the
standard accepted term, forming numerous compound derivatives. The
current word
for radio útvarp
(“out-caster”) is another case in point. Coined by Sigurður Nordal, útvarp
ousted early competator víðboð
(“wide-message”) and the later more potent
competition from víðvarp
(“wide-casting”, which corresponds perfectly with English
“broadcasting”).
Finally, there is for example þota
“jet
plane”, which was coined in 1956 by journalist Högni Torfason and
completely
ousted the previous inelegant compound term þrýstiloftsflugvél
(“compressed air flight-machine”). Torfason
derived his noun from the verb þjóta
“dart,
rush” and many words have since been formed from this stem, e.g. þotaflugmaður
“jet pilot” (which
replaced the earlier cumbersome þrýstiloftsflugvélarmaður).
As can be seen from the last
example the users of the language typically favour simple, transparent
solutions.
Often
several alternatives are devised for a foreign word. One usually
becomes
dominant while the others disappear. For example, AIDS has been called aðnæmi,
alnæmi,
eisuveki,
eyðni,
eyðsli,
fjölnæmi,
ínæming,
næma,
næming,
ónæmistæring,
ónæmivisna,
ótsýki,
ótveiki,
óvar,
varnarkröm.
A study in 1987
showed that almost 60% of respondents used eyðni,
35% alnæmi
and 1% ónæmistæring.
The word eyðni
has become
dominant.
An
interesting case is afforded by the neologism
created by Dr. Björn Bjarnason in 1912, tækni,
which denotes “technology” (in general). This new
word partially draws on Modern Icelandic tæki
“tool, implement, device” and partially on Danish
(and ultimately international) teknik.
Bjarnason's word can therefore be seen as a kind of agglutinating
compromise
which merges the form and meaning of native and foreign (using native
suffix -ni).
It
must be borne in mind that neologisms are unlike
most linguistic phenomena in that they generally have their origins in
the written language, especially
that of the
learned or literary variety. As neologisms are mainly coined by
authors,
scholars, scientists or journalists, many of the older terms will live
on in
the mouths of the everyday people, even if the new words often - but
not always
- eventually become the norm for society as a whole. Since many who are
faced
with the need to create a new word for a new concept usually prefer to
coin a
term rather than borrow one, this serves to increase the time it takes
for a
newly constructed word to become dominant. The examples given above and
elsewhere in this article show that it may take some time for native
neologisms
to become accepted and even then a foreign loan may still exist in the
colloquial language. A good example of this is hreyfill
which competes with non-native mótor
in several different contexts. Hreyfill
has now the more widespread general usage, but
seamen still use mótor
(or
indeed vél)
when
referring to boats - e.g. as in mótorbátur
“motor boat”. Furthermore, hreyfill
is never
used in reference to car engines, where vél
is the preferred term (although mótor
is also used). Similarly, it is worth noting that
despite ratsjá
having
been coined just after the last World War (modelled on smásjá),
the international term radar
is still used in Icelandic (especially speech) and
has not been defeated by the neologism. Vindlingur
“cigarette” is sometimes found in print but not at
all in the less formal, spoken language. Many farmers report that they
prefer
the loan traktor
in
speech to the coined dráttarvél
(“pulling-machine”) or even the neater post-war neologism dragi
(“something that draws, pulls”). However in print,
dráttarvél
is the prestige term. The neologisms glóaldin
“orange” and bjúgaldin
“banana” were ridiculed by some when they first
appeared in the 1920s. They have failed to oust borrowed appelsína and banani, although they sometimes appear
in print.
As so many times before, we see here a clear
disparity between the uptake and acceptance of neologisms in spoken and
written
Icelandic. It has in some cases not proven possible to replace commonly
used
words with neologisms and in other cases, e.g. in the international
world of
ideas, abstract words have often fared well against their proposed
native
replacements: pólitík,
kommúnismi,
symfónia,
barokk.
In
other cases, however, the neologism has
succeeded in driving the Danish-derived or international term from the
common
language. Ottósson notes that in the early decades of last century the
words kókkhús “kitchen”
and fortó “pavement” (cf. Danish fortov) were
used
in speech, but one now no longer hears them – they have been entirely
displaced
by native eldhús
and gangstétt.
Similarly, kompás
was in general use as late as the 1960s, but those born after 1950
almost only
use neologism áttaviti.
In textbooks in schools children now learn the Icelandic new words for
things
for which their parents or grandparents may have used old loanwords.
Sometimes
it happens that no immediate native
equivalent can be created to cover a foreign word. So, for example,
Birgitta
Lindgren notes that no fewer than 5 Icelandic words have been proposed
to cover
the meaning of the (admittedly complex) English word project.
Icelandic has a more or less fixed policy on the
issue of neologisms:
i)
Create new words or revive/adapt old ones (“neo-archaisms”) as soon as
new
concepts come into the language before foreign words can take root
ii) If no native words can be made
or adapted, loan-translate the word preferably from Danish or less
ideally from
an international source or reproduce its literal meaning
iii) As a last resort loan the word
more or less directly from Danish, or from elsewhere, but adapt its
form to the
Icelandic sound and inflexional system.
Concerning
i)
examples are given below in the section on word-forming. The creation
of
entirely new words from indigenous resources is often the most
interesting
aspect of the Icelandic puristic policy. The ideal is to find a
self-explanatory term for the object or concept being denoted, e.g. the
neologism gervihnöttur
“satellite” (lit. artificial heavenly body).
With
regard to iii)
we could give the examples of berkill,
kofti
and bíll
(from German Tuberkel, English helicopter and Danish (automo)-bil)
Many,
many words have coming into being via route ii) above and this can be seen in the
examples given throughout this article. It has often been necessary to
loan-translate the elements of an international term or else reproduce
its
literal meaning if no other expedient word can be created through
compounding,
derivation or revival, e.g. hitaeining
“calorie” (heat-unit), bætiefni
“vitamin” (extra-substance), dulspeki
“mysticism, occultism” (secret-wisdom), hljóðvarp
“umlaut” (sound-cast), hljóðfall
“accent” (sound-fall), háskóli
“university, college” (cf. German Hochschule),
stýrikerfi
“operating system” (steering-system), lesminni
“ROM” (a calque on read-(only)-memory; Faroese
also has lesiminni probably in imitation of the Icelandic). It is also a much quicker
and easier method
than i) and for this reason is a better safeguard
against the
ever-increasing stream of international technological terms and
concepts that
demand Icelandic words. However, as words such as tolvä,
sími,
þota,
sjónvarp,
rafmagn,
bréfsími
“fax”, geisladiskur
“CD” and many others show, Icelandic is quite
capable of going its own way and forming words that differ entirely
both in
construction and concept from their international equivalents.
Allowing
for such differences as Latin and Middle
Low German being in earlier periods the main influences rather than
Danish and
international words mediated from English, it can be safely said that
the three
principles just stated have always formed the unconscious policy of the
Icelandic language towards the expansion of the vocabulary and the
admission of
loanwords. As
Wessén puts it (p.49) “Den
gamla ordbildningen är i den nutida isländskan levande och produktiv på
ett
helt annat sätt än i de andra nordiska språken.” The
great Danish linguist
Rasmus Rask thought that Icelandic had in place a better linguistic
environment
for the creation of new words than any other modern language. This was
especially due to the systematic vowel changes and the many suffixes
available
to users.
Faroese
has much
the same policy albeit more relaxed and less efficient. Faroese is more
willing
to accept international loans than Icelandic, as we have already seen.
It also
is more tolerant of Danish loans. However to the above three points we
could
amend ii) to read thus for Faroese:
ii)
If no native words can be made or adapted, loan directly or
loan-translate a
word from Icelandic. In default of this, loan-translate the word
preferably
from Danish and less ideally from an international source or reproduce
its
literal meaning
Faroese
has loaned directly or else loan-translated
many such words for abstract or scientific concepts from Icelandic.
This makes
the burden on the official bodies lighter and means that neologism
activity is
not as well developed or urgent in the Faroes - they can in many cases
simply
borrow or adapt an Icelandic creation which has already proven its
worth.
Faroese neologisms, just like loan-translations from Icelandic, will
have to
compete with already established terms from other sources. Good
examples of
Faroese neologisms which have failed to oust international rivals are fjarrøðil
“telephone” and ravmagn
“electricity”, competing against international telefon
and elektrisitet,
both borrowed from Danish (computari
has
yielded to telda
though). The
ever-present and growing
external pressure of the foreign media has proved a problem, as has
devising a
Faroese alternative before a foreign word can establish itself. Poulsen
(1983,
p.133-4) mentions a few more independent Faroese neologisms: hentleiki
“convenience”, kollvelting
“revolution”, snyril “spiral”, mýl
“molecule”, fjarrit
“telegram”, almannamál
“social matters”, almannastova
“social services”, búskapur
“economy”, flogbóltur
“volleyball” and the suffix -virki
to form compounds meaning “-factory”.
Points
ii)
and iii) will be illustrated in
more
detail by the comparative wordlists that follow, but we ought now to
examine i)
to see how Icelandic and Faroese construct their new words (literal
translations to show constructional idiom are given in parentheses).
We
should note at this point that Faroese is more
liberal in its use of (originally) foreign affixes than is Icelandic.
Faroese
has adapted the following for its own uses, be-,
for-,
as
well as the suffixes -arí
and -ilsi
which it shares with Icelandic. For example, forferdiligur,
bakarí,
bangilsi.
Of
these words, only bakarí
is
permissible in Icelandic.
In
general, though, the Faroese case system is
resistant to Danish influence, and foreign suffixes are as a rule
transformed or
substituted if they fail to fit into the language structure. Thus
Danish -er
appears as -er,
-ar,
-
Methods of native new word-formation
in Faroese and Icelandic
1) Old words are revived and renewed:
Icelandic:
sími
“telephone” (Old Norse “thread”); þulur
“announcer” (ON “sage”); skrá
“catalogue, register” (ON “parchment skin”); vél
“motor” (used to mean “trick”); gögn
“data” (used to mean “tools”); skjár
“TV/computer screen” (archaic word once meaning
“window-frame”); háseti
“sailor”
(ON “oarsman“); lyf
“medicament, drug” (meant “potent substance” (poison or medicine) in
ON); list
“art” (meant “art, craft”); mótald
“modem” (mót-
meant “against”).
Faroese:
byrja
“begin”.
2)
Current
words acquire more or new meanings or form new derivatives:
Icelandic:
kerfi
“system” (previous meaning “sheaf”); tölva
“computer” (from tala
“number” and völva
“prophetess” (the earliest computers were held to
have magical powers)); hjól
“bicycle” (previously only meant “wheel“); flokkur
“political party” (previously only meant “group”);
bylting
“revolution” (previously meant “overturning“); sjóður
“cash; fund” (previously meant “treasure“); erindreki
“agent” (previously meaning “envoy“); deild
“faculty” (from deild
“division”); vetni
“hydrogen” (from vatn
“water”); gjörvi
“processor/CPU” (from gera
“do”).
Faroese:
telda
“computer” (from derived from tal
“number”); góðska
“quality”; ítriv
“hobby”; básur
“showcase”; horn
“telephone receiver”.
3) Compound existing lexical elements:
a)
Noun + Noun
Icelandic:
flugvél
“plane” (fly-machine); ritvél
“typewriter” (write-machine); dráttarvél
“tractor” (pulling-machine); sjónvarp
“television” (vision-caster); myndvarpi
“overhead projector” (image-caster); ferðamaður
“tourist” (journey-man); krabbamein
“cancer” (crab-tumour); myndvél
“camera” (image-machine); skurðlæknir
“surgeon” (incision-doctor); bílstjóri
“driver, chauffeur” (car-steerer); skáldsaga
“novel” (poet-story); verkfall
“strike” (work-drop); tónlist
“music” (tone-craft); fjörefni
“vitamin” (life-stuff); eimreið
“locomotive” (steam-ride); hárskeri
“hairdresser, barber” (hair-cutter, cf. klæðskeri
“tailor”); hitageymir
“thermos” (heat-storer); hitamælir
“thermometer” (heat-measurer); efnishyggja
“materialism” (material-thinking); efnafræði
“chemistry” (substance-science); hugbúnaður
“software” (thought-equipment); símaskrá
“telephone directory”; gagnvinnsla
“data processing”; stýrikerfi
“operating system”; vegabréf
“passport”; leikhús
“theatre”, jarðfræði
“geology” (cf. German Erdkunde); fjárfesting
“investment”; myndband
“video”.
Faroese: fótbóltur
“soccer”
(foot-ball); landavegur
“highway”
(national-road); fuglasongur
“birdsong” (bird-song); skriviborð
“desk”
(writing-table); berghol
“tunnel”
(rock-hole); ritmynd
“diagram” (written-image); orðaskifti
“discussion; debate” (word-exchange); flogfar
“aeroplane” (flight-craft); flogberi
“aircraft-carrier” (flight(-craft)-bearer); almannastova
“social services” (public-office); eyðkvæmi
“AIDS”.
b)
Adjective
+ Noun
Icelandic:
rafmagn
“electricity” (amber-power (Greek elektron
means amber)); smásjá
“microscope” (small-sight); hráefni
“raw material” (raw-stuff); svartþröstur
“blackbird” (swarthy-thrush); smásaga
“novella, short-story” (small-story); fornsaga
“antiquity” (ancient-history); margföldun
“multiplication” (many-increase); fjölmiðill
“media” (many-medium); bjartsyni
“optimism” (bright-view).
Faroese: hálvleikur
“half-time” (half-play); frummaður
“primitive man” (elemental-man); fjarrit
“telegram” (far-writing); stuttsøga
“novella, short-story” (short-story); meginregla
“maxim” (main-rule); fjølritari
“photocopier” (multi-writer); súrevni
“oxygen”
(sour-stuff); stórveldi
“empire”
(great-power).
c)
Adjective
+ Adjective
Icelandic:
gildvaxinn
“stout, robust” (thick-grown); sjálfmenntaður
“self-taught” (self-instructed).
Faroese: bikasvartur
“pitch
darkness” (pitch-black); stjørnklárur
“radiant” (star-clear).
d)
Noun
+ Verb
Icelandic:
arfleiða
“bequeath” (inheritance-lead); skilgreina
“define” (division-discern); vélrita
“typewrite” (machine-write); dagsetja
“date” (day-set).
Faroese: hálshøgga
“behead”
(neck-hew); skráseta
“record,
register” (list-set).
e)
Adjective
+ Verb
Icelandic:
snöggsjóða
“parboil” (quick-seethe); rangfæra
“distort, pervert” (wrong-lead).
Faroese: hámeta
“value,
esteem” (high-measure); stórgráta
“weep,
lament” (great-cry).
f)
Adverb/Preposition
+ Noun
Icelandic:
útvarp
“radio” (out-caster); eftirlaun
“pension” (after-payment); framleiðsla
“manufacturing” (forward-leading); íhald
“conservatism” (on-holding); frásögn
“report, account” (about-tale); útflutningur
“export” (out-transport); íbúi
“resident” (in-dweller); þvermál
“diameter” (cross-measurement); niðurstaða
“outcome, conclusion” (down-situation).
Faroese: undirskrivning
“signature” (under-writing); andstøða
“opposition” (against-standing); frásøgn
“report” (about-tale); afturhald
“conservatism” (back-holding); tvørmál
“diameter” (cross-measurement); útvarpan
“broadcasting” (out-casting); uppvørpa
“overhead projector” (up-thrower); samkoma
“conference” (together-coming).
g)
Adverb/Preposition
+ Verb
Icelandic:
aðstoða
“support” (against-back); mótmæla
“deny, refute, speak against” (against-speak); yfirvega
“consider, think on, reflect” (over-weigh); ummynda
“transform” (about-shape); endurþekkja
“recognise” (re-know).
Faroese: undirskriva
“sign”
(under-write); undirvísa
“teach”
(under-show); útleggja
“translate, explain” (lay-out); andstøða
“oppose, resist” (against-stand).
4)
Use
of Suffixes
A
Nouns
a) -un/-an
Icelandic:
skoðun
“opinion”; gölvun
“electro-plating”; endurholdgun
“reincarnation”; þornun
“dehydration”; tvímyndun
“dimorphism”; æxlun
“generation, reproduction”; tilvitnun
“quotation, citation”; ákvörðun
“decision, resolution”; herskipan
“military planning”; stjórnun
“administration, management”; þéttun
“condensation”; mengun
“pollution”.
Faroese: granskan
“research”; útvarpan
“broadcasting”; reinskan
“cleansing”; vitan
“knowledge”; dyrkan
“cultivation; worship”; skapan
“creation”; betran
“improvement”; remban
“exertion, effort”; líðan
“suffering”; kannan
“examination, inspection”.
b)
-ing/-ning
Icelandic:
tjáning
“expression”; þjóðnýting
“nationalisation”; menning
“culture”; greining
“distinction, separation”; litasamsetning
“colouring, colourisation”; kveiking
“ignition”; ísetning
“installation”; eiming
“distillation”; smurning
“lubrication”; skilning
“understanding”; aukning
“increase”; játning
“consent”; samning
“composition, written piece”.
Faroese: bygging
“building, structure”; gransking
“research”; skriving
“writing”; geisling
“radiation”; orðing
“expression, formulation”; tendring
“lighting, ignition”; lodding
“soldering”; fastsetning
“provision, stipulation”; siðing
“civilisation”; tiðarmerking
“dating”; rokning
“account; calculation”; evnasambinding
“chemical compound”.
c)
-ill/-il
(derivation morpheme)
Icelandic:
berkill
“tubercolosis”, hreyfill
“motor”; vindill
“cigar”; gerill
“bacteria”; tengill
“connection”; bendill
“cursor”; sendill
“errand
boy, messenger”; hefill
“plane”;
ristill
“colon”; þinill
“dilator”; víxill
“bill of
exchange”; þyrill
“helicopter rotor”; fetill
“strap,
baldric”; slagþrýstill
“pulse-jet”; sníkill
“bacterium, parasite”; smyrill
“lubricant”; snertill
“(electrical) contact”, biðill
“suitor”.
Faroese: geril
“bacteria”; hitil
“calorie”; snyril
“spiral”; brigdil
“variable”; teyggil
“connection”; vøðil
“muscle(?)”; diskil
“diskette”;
mýl
“molecule”; tvingsil
“compulsion, coercion”; stongsil
“bar, bolt, barrier”; kyndil
“torch”.
d)
-sla
Icelandic:
eyðsla
“consumption”; leiðsla
“guidance, leading”; uppfræðsla
“teaching, instruction”; brennsla
“incineration, combustion”; innleiðsla
“introduction”; yfirheyrsla
“interrogation”; aflfærsla
“power transmission”; sýnikennsla
“demonstration”; skírsla
“ablution”; víglsa
“consecration”; guðhræðsla
“piety”; herzla
“hardening”.
Faroese: goymsla
“keeping, care”; ferðsla
“traffic”; rørsla
“movement, current”; heimanýtsla
“domestic comsumption”; føðsla
“food,
nourishment”; kensla
“feeling, sensation; instruction”; veitsla
“gift; help; feast, good food”; nýtsla
“use, consumption, application”; greiðsla
“payment; dissemtanglement”; breiðsla
“fertilizer”.
e)
-ingur
Icelandic:
spekingur
“sage”; innflutningur
“import”; fræðingur
“scholar”; hugspekingur
“speculative philosopher”; samningur
“agreement, contract”; ágreiningur
“difference, disagreement”; snillingur
“genius,
virtuoso”; gáningur
“heed,
attention”; dulspekingur
“mystic”, disklingur
“diskette”.
Faroese: føroyingur
“Faroe
Islander”; pollendingur
“Pole”; finningur
“find, discovery”; ávinningur
“profit, gain”; degningur
“dawn, daybreak”; arvingur
“heir, inheritor”; skilningur
“understanding, comprehension”; klædningur
“suit; covering, boarding”; redningur
“rescue”.
f)
-leiki/-leikur
Icelandic:
sjúkleiki
“illness”; veruleiki
“reality”; myndugleiki
“authority”; möguleiki
“possibility”; örðugleiki
“difficulty”; eiginleiki
“quality, characteristic”; næmleiki
“sensitivity”; seljanleiki
“vendibility”; nýtileiki
“adaption”; tærleiki
“transparency”; mjúkleikur
”softness”; skjótleikur
”quickness”.
Faroese: beturleiki
“improvement”; strangleiki
“hardness, austerity”; einleiki
“unit(y)”; dugileiki
“fitness, capability”; ævinleiki
“eternity”; dapurleiki
“grief, sorrow”; skuldugleiki
“duty”; svakleiki
“insanity, madness”; samleiki
“identity”; fjarleiki
“distance”.
g)
-ari
Icelandic:
skipuleggjari
“planner”; borgari
“citizen”; nefnari
“denominator”; leikari
“actor, player”; bakari
“baker”; teljari
“numerator”; falsari
“forger, falsifier”; sjálfmiðlari
“automatic direction finder”; endurnýjari
“regenerator”; kviðdómari
“juror”; myndhöggari
“sculptor”.
Faroese: fjarritari
“telegramist”; málari
“painter”; droymari
“dreamer”; grannskoðari
“auditor”; freistari
“tempter”; vekslari
“stockbroker”; deilari
“divisor”; klagari
“prosecutor”; svikari
“fraudster, swindler”; sigrari
“conquerer, victor”; granskari
“investigator, researcher”; tónleikari
“musician”.
h)
-ni, -i (Ice.), -i
(Far.)
Icelandic:
eyðni
“AIDS”
(incorporates the phonology of the international term but is also
partly based
on a derivation from the verb eyðna
“deplete” (cf. eyðsla
“consumption”, eyðing
“destruction”, Norwegian øyde
”desolate”));
tvístirni
“binary star system”; tækni
“technology”; tíðni
“frequency”; hlýðni
“obedience”; fælni
“phobia”; einkvæni
“monogamy”; þjálni
“plasticity”; glettni
“humour”; virkni
“activity”; beiðni
“request, petition”; nýtni
“economy, thrift”; sjálfvirkni
“automation”; einbúi
“hermit”; landnemi
“colonist”; farþegi
“passenger”.
Faroese:
ráðgevi
“advisor”; geri
“generator”; málverji
“goalkeeper”; kveiki
“enzyme”; roykilsi
“incense”; landi
“compatriot”; dølski
“dullness, lethargy”; ovasti
“commander-in-chief”; snøri
“line, cord”; spurni
“question, matter, issue”; vandi
“difficulty”; eyðkenni
“characteristic; symptom”; iðri
“remorse, contrition”; treiski
“obstinacy; defiance”; vøddi
“muscle”; høvi
“opportunity”; rættvísi
“justice”; fimleiki
“gymnastics”.
i)
-skapur
Icelandic:
boðskapur
“announcement”; fláttskapur
“duplicity”; kveðskapur
“poetry”; drengskapur
“honour”; aumingjaskapur
“weakness”; dónaskapur
“lowness, rudeness,
churlishness”; afskræmiskapur
“monstrosity, hideousness”; höfðingskapur
“magnificence, generosity”; klókskapur
“wisdom”.
Faroese: vitskapur
“science”; búskapur
“husbandry; economy”; feginskapur
“pleasure, joy”; fyllskapur
“drunkeness, inebriation”; errinskapur
“conceit, self-aggrandizement”; ørskapur
“madness, insanity”; heiðinskapur
“heathendom, paganism”; bóndaskapur
“agricultural industry”; villskapur
“wildness, savagery”; søluskapur
“merchandise”; tvørskapur
“obstinacy”.
To
those noun forming elements discussed by Clausén
I would append:
j)
-naður (sometimes
shortened to -ni in Faroese)
Icelandic:
hagnaður
“profit, benefit”; þrifnaður
“cleanliness, purity”; fagnaður
“rejoicing, jubilation”; fráskilnaður
“detachment, disconnection”; fatnaður
“clothing, clothes”; iðnaður
“industry, manufacture; handicraft”; skapnaður
“creation, form”; getnaður
“conception, procreation”; vefnaður
“fabric, textile”; kostnaður
“cost, expense”; batnaður
“improvement”.
Faroese:
trivni
“vigorous development, growth; industry”; dugni
“ability, capability”; búni
“dress, attire”; lýdni
“obedience”; spurni
“question, issue, matter”; lesnaður
“reading”; trúnaður
“faith, confidence, trust”; hugnaður
“pleasure, satisfaction”; marknaður
“market”; skilnaður
“separation, divorce”; sparnaður
“economy, thrift”; javnaður
“likeness, resemblance”; søknaður
“application, petition”; hernaður
“war; anger, fury”.
k)
-domúr
Icelandic:
manndómur
“bravery”; vesaldómur
“misery; feebleness”; læknisdómur
“medicine”; biskupsdómur
“episcopate”; ekkjudómur
“widowhood”; leyndardómur
“mystery”; kennidómur
“priesthood”; helgidómur
“sanctuary, temple”.
Faroese:
loynidómur
“secret”; spádómur
“prophecy”; lærdómur
“learning, scholarship”; moydómur
“virginity, maidenhead”; hordómur
“adultery”; trældómur
“servitude, bondage”; trølldómur
“witchcraft, sorcery, magic”.
l)
-semd, -semi
(from adjectives in -samur)
Icelandic:
meinsemd
“tumour, disease”; röksemd
“logic”; framkvæmdarsemi
“enterprise”; samsemd
“sameness”; spurulsemi
“inquisitiveness”; regulsemi
“orderliness, regularity”; athugasemd
“remark,
note, annotation”; vegsemd
“honour,
glory”; einsemd
“loneliness, solitude”; nægjusemi
“contentment”; gagnsemi
“usefulness, profitibility”; friðsemd
“peacefulness”; liðsemi
“assistance, aid”; ástsemd
“affection”; hlutsemi
“meddling, interference”; íhaldssemi
“conservatism”; umhyggjusemi
“caution, care”.
Faroese:
hjálpsemi
“helpfulness”; beinasemi
“willingness, co-operativeness”; nøgdsemi
“frugality, moderation”; reinsemi
“cleanliness”; varsemi
“care, caution, alertness”; arbeiðssemi
“industry”; leiðisemi
“boredom”; starvsemi
“industry, activity”; góðsemi
“agreement, concord, harmony”; tolsemi
“toleration, patience”.
m)
-leysa (Ice.), -loysi
(Far.)
(from
adjectives in -laus, -loys)
Icelandic:
staðleysi
“absurdity”; tilfinningarleysi
“insensitivity”; aðgerðaleysi
“inactivity, idleness”; siðleysi
“immorality, barbarism”; meðvitundarleysi
“unconciousness”; kunnáttuleysi
“ignorance”; nafnleysi
“anonymity”; guðleysi
“atheism; impiety”; þróunarleysi
“stagnation, lack of progression”.
Faroese:
mótloysi
“depression”; miskunnarloysi
“ruthlessness”; mannloysi
“labour shortage”; æruloysi
“infamy”; ansaloysi
“indifference”; ráðaloysi
“perplexity; despondancy”; endaloysi
“infinity, endlessness”; ampaloysi
“freedom, liberty”; tarvloysi
“superfluosity”; friðloysi
“outlawry”.
n)
-læti (from
adjectives in -látur)
Icelandic:
hreinlæti
“cleanliness, neatness”; þakklæti
“gratitude”; meinlæti
“penance”; örlæti
“generosity, munificence”; stórlæti
“pride”; vandlæti
“zeal”; ranglæti
“injustice”.
Faroese:
eftirlæti
“compliancy, compliance”; góðlæti
“good disposition”; fagurlæti
“friendly remark, kind comment”; yvirlæti
“simulation, pretence”; lítillæti
“humility”.
o)
-lyndi (often
denotes mentality, diposition, temperament)
Icelandic:
léttlyndi
“buoyancy, lightheartedness”; umburðarlyndi
“forbearance, tolerance”; þrællyndi
“servility”; stríðlyndi
“obstinacy”; þjóðlyndi
“patriotism”; félagslyndi
“sociability”; frómlyndi
“honesty”.
Faroese:
manslyndi
“masculinity, virility”; huglyndi
“temper, disposition”; spaklyndi
“mildness, gentleness”; tunglyndi
“depression, melacholy”; trúlyndi
“faithfulness, loyalty”; bráðlyndi
“violence, vehemence”; skaplyndi
“mind, disposition, character”.
p)
-andi (often the present participle of strong verbs)
Icelandic:
eigandi
“owner” (eiga);
leikandi
“actor” (leika);
þiggjandi
“recipient” (þiggja);
áheyrandi
“listener” (heyra á);
stofnandi
“founder” (stofna);
lesandi
“reader”
(lesa).
Faroese:
lesandi “student” (lesa “read”).
q)
-ska and -mennska (from nouns in -maður
or -menni)
- both often form abstracts from adjectives or or simplex nouns
Icelandic:
dirfska
“daring, boldness, bravery” (djarfur
“brave”); fyrnska
“antiquity” (forn
“ancient”); bernska
“childhood” (barn
“child”); blaðamennska
“journalism” (blaðamaður
“journalist”); lítilmennska
“meanness” (lítillmenni
“ignoble, mean-spirited character”); sjómennska
“seamanship” (sjómaður
“sailor, seaman”).
Faroese: fámenska
“sparse
population” (fámentur “few
in number”); ilska
“anger” (illur “angry”).
r)
nouns in -i formed from adjectives
Icelandic:
ergi
“annoyance, vexation” (argur
“angry, vexed”); feiti
”fat, grease” (feitur
”fat”); fimi
”agility” (fimur
”agile,
nimble”); fræði
”knowledge,
learning” (fróður
“learned”); gremi
“anger,
vexation” (gramur
“angry,
vexed”); mildi
“mildness, gentleness” (mildur
“mild,
gentle”).
Faroese: frøði
”knowledge,
learning” (fróður
“learned”); gleði “pleasure, joy” (glaður “happy, pleased”).
s)
nouns in -ð, -d and -t
from adjectives
Icelandic:
depurð
“depression” (dapur
“depressed”); fegurð
“beauty” (fagur
“beautiful, fair”); frægð
“fame, renown” (frægur
“famous”); heild
“wholeness, unity” (heill
“whole”); spekt
“restfulness, peace” (spakur
“quiet”); stærð
“size” (stór
“large”); sæld
“bliss,
happiness” (sæll
“blessed, happy”).
Faroese:
spekt
“quietness, mildness” (spakur
“quiet”).
t)
nouns in -ingi
Icelandic:
aumingi
“wretch”; erfingi
“heir, inheritor”; fresingi
“freeman”; greifingi
“badger”; kunningi
“acquaintance”; morðingi
”murderer, assassin”; ræningi
”robber, plunderer”.
Faroese: armingi
“poor
creature”
(armur
“poor”);
letingi
“idler”
(latur
“lazy,
idle”).
B
Adjectives
a)
-legur/-ligur
Icelandic:
eðilegur
“natural”; nytsamlegur
“useful”; faglegur
“professional”; mánaðarlegur
“monthly”; kynlegur
“odd”; hugsanlegur
“conceivable”; sorglegur
“sorrowful”; ókennilegur
“unrecognisible”; fræðslulegur
“pedagogic”; draugalegur
“ghostly, ethereal”; uppbyggilegur
“edifying”; stjórnfræðilegur
“astronomical”; greinilegur
“plain,
distinct, well-conceived”; ættfræðilegur
“geneological”.
Faroese: mansligur
“masculine”; brotsligur
“criminal”; kirkjuligur
“ecclesiastical”; søguligur
“historical”; deyðsamligur
“lethargic, apathetic”; fáfeingiligur
“vain”; týðuligur
“clear, distinct; obvious”; eiriligur
“sociable, companionable”; ordiligur
“orderly, correct”; ítøkiligur
“palpable, concrete”; inniligur
“cordial, sincere, heartfelt”; evnafrøðilgur
“chemical”; eiturligur
“poisonous, venomous”; skaldsligur
“poetical”.
b)
-ugur
Icelandic:
kyndugur
“peculiar”; rykugur
“dusty”; auðugur
“rich, wealthy”; heiftugur
“violent, vehement”; skítugur
“filthy,
dirty”; voldugur
“powerful, mighty”.
Faroese: syndugur
“sinful”; liðugur
“finished, complete”; hurtugur
“lively,
animated”; óverdugur
“unworthy”; vitugur
“wise,
intelligent”; viljugur
“willing, ready”.
c)
-samur
Icelandic:
erilsamur
“troublesome”; kappsamur
“energetic”; nytsamur
“useful”; líknsamur
“merciful”; framtakssamur
“enterprising”; ráðdeildarsamur
“sagacious, provident”; eyðslusamur
“extravagant, profligate”; auðnasamur
“lucky, fortunate”; yfirgangssamur
“encroaching, usurping”; friðsamur
“peaceful”.
Faroese: hugsanarsamur
“thoughtful”; møðsamur
“tiring,
exhausting”; hevnisamur
“vindictive, vengeful”; undursamur
“wonderful, marvellous”; samvitskusamur
“conscientious”; arbeiðssamur
“industrious”; loynisamur
“mysterious”.
d)
-látur
Icelandic:
vorkunnlátur
“compassionate”; rembilátur
“arrogant, haughty”; hóflátur
“moderate”; siðlátur
“moral, well-behaved”; lítillátur
“humble”; drjúglátur
“self-important”; stýrilátur
“controllable, managable”; mjúklátur
“gentle”; hreinlátur
“pure”.
Faroese: dramblátur “arrogant”; fagurlátur
“kind,
friendly”;
lítillátur “humble”.
e)
-lyndur
(adjectival suffix derived from lyndi [see above]
Icelandic:
drenglyndur
“noble-minded”; þýðlyndur
“gentle, kind, amiable”; snögglyndur
“quick-tempered, hasty”; þverlyndur
“bloody-minded”.
Faroese:
frílyndur
“liberal, broad-minded”; góðlyndur
“good natured, well disposed”; harðlyndur
“harsh, severe disposition”; glaðlyndur
“cheerful, merry”.
f)
-lægur
Icelandic:
huglægur
“abstract”; fjarlægur
“distant”; hlutlægur
“objective”.
Faroese:
N/A
g)
-inn (common –
often has meaning “inclined, disposed”)
Icelandic:
fyndinn
“witty, funny” (finna
“find”, fundur
“discovery”)
Faroese:
N/A
h)
-rænn
Icelandic:
norræn
“Scandinavian”; suðrænn
“southern”; dulrænn
“mystical”; hugrænn
“subjective”; listrænn
“artistic”; ljóðrænn
“poetic”; táknrænn
“symbolic”; einrænn
”odd, singular”; vélrænn
“mechanical”.
Faroese:
N/A
i)
-sær
Icelandic:
gagnsær
“transparent”;
Faroese:
N/A
C Nouns from inchoative verbs
Icelandic:
sorti
“blackness” - sortna
“blacken”; rauð
“red” - roðna
“blush, redden”; rot
“putrefaction, corruption” - rotna
“decompose, putrify”; þrot
“lack,
want” - þrotna
“cease,
run short, want”; betnaður, bötnun
“improvement, change for the better” - batna
“improve, recover”; neitun
“refusal, denial; negation” - neita
“refuse, deny”.
Faroese: hvítur
“white”
- hvítna
“whiten, grow pale”; myrkur
“gloom” - myrkna
“darken”; ljósur
“light, brightness” - lýsna
“lighten”; veikur
“weakness” - vikna
“grow weak”; søtur
“sweet” - søtna
“become sweeter, sweeten”; brot
“fragment; crime” - brotna
“shatter, break asunder”.
D
Verbs in -ka and -ga (mainly from
adjectives)
Icelandic:
blóðga
“make bleed”; fjölga
“increase, propagate”; auðga
“enrich”; lifga
“revive, invigorate”; dýpka
“deepen”; ljótka
“make uglier”; greiðka
“hasten, quicken”.
Faroese: breiðka
“broaden”;
fríðka “make more
beautiful”; blóðga “make
bleed”.
E
Nouns from pure verbal stems
Icelandic:
bölv
“cursing, swearing” - bölva
“swear, curse”; gort
“boasting” - gorta “boast”;
reið
“riding” - ríða
“ride”; rek
“driftage” - reka
“drift; drive, run”.
Faroese: rák
“driftage”
– reka “drift;
drive, run”.
5)
Prefixes
Icelandic
and Faroese both make liberal use of a
number of common prefixes, as listed below:
al-
(“all, general”)
all-
(“all, general”)
and-
(“contrary, against”)
endur-
(”re-”)
fyrir-
(limited usage)
for-
(limited usage)
jafn-
(”even, equal”)
mis-
(“mis-, un-”)
ó-
(“un-“)
sam-
(“together”)
sí-
(“ever”)
úr-
(“proto-”)
There
are also a number of common intensifying prefixes,
e.g.:
Bráð-,
geipi-,
geysi-,
gjör-,
afar-.
It
is fitting to end this brief survey of Icelandic
word-formation with a mention of two noun-forming patterns that have
taken on a
particularly prominent place in the language. These are nouns in -maður
(“man, person” – therefore forming nomen
agentis) and -fræði
(from fræði
“knowledge, learning”). The latter is especially
used to form nouns corresponding to international -ology
and -graphy).
Using -maður,
there
is almost an unlimited scope for forming agent nouns, as the following
list
will show (maður
refers
to both genders – Icelandic lacks a specifically feminine suffix as
found in
German and Swedish, for example. If a specifically female agent or a
female
role is being referred to, nouns will often being suffixed with -kona
or -frú:
þvottakona
“washerwoman”; vinkona
“female friend”; greifafrú
“countess”; barónsfrú
“baroness”; lauslætiskona
“harlot”). Likewise, -fræði
has proven to be equally flexible, able to cover
almost anything ending in, or meaning, “-ology”, “-graphy”,
“-ics”,
“the science of X” or “the study of X,
X studies”.
i)
Selection
of nomen agentis formed from -maður:
kommumaður
“stranger, guest”;
tamningarmaður
“horse-breaker”
ökumaður
“driver”
göngumaður
“pedestrian”
matsmaður
“valuator”
hvatamaður
“encourager, incitor”
drykkjumaður
“drunkard”
blekkingamaður
“deceiver”
flugumsjónarmaður
“flight
operation officer”
kennimaður “cleric, priest”
There are many, many possible words in -maður.
ii)
Selection
of words for abstract scientific
disciplines and humanities formed from -fræði:
aðferðafræði
methodology
ættfræði genealogy
ættgengisfræði genetics
ásatrú Old
Norse heathen religion
atómvísindi atomic
research
bergfræði petrography
beygingarfræði morphology,
accidence
bókfræði
bibliography
bókmenntafræði
literary
studies
bragfræði
prosody,
metrics
byggingarverkfræði
civil
engineering
dýrafræði
zoology
dýrasálfræði animal
psychology
eðlisfræði physics
efnafræði
chemistry
efnaverkfræði chemical
engineering
eldfjallfræði
volcanology
erfðafræði
genetics
fagurfræði
aesthetics
fiskifræði
icthyology
flugveðurfræði
aviation
meteorology
flugvélaverkfræði
aeronautical
engineering
formfræði
morphology
fornfræði archaeology
fornleiðafræði archaeology
fornlífsfræði palaeontology
fræði learning,
science, -ology
fuglafræði ornithology
geimvísindi space
research
gerlafræði bacteriology
goðafræði
mythology
grasafræði
botany
guðfræði
theology
haffræði
oceanography
haflíffræði
marine
biology
hagfræði
economics
hagkerfi
economic
system
heilsufræði
hygiene,
sanitation
heimsfræði
cosmology
heimspeki
philosophy
hernaðarfræði military
science
hjátrú
superstition
hljóðfræði
phonetics
hljómfræði
acoustics
hornafræði
trigonometry
hugvísindi
humanities
iðnfræði
technology
jarðeðlisfræði geophysics
jarðefnafræði
mineralogy
jarðfræði
geology
jarðræktarfræði
agricultural
science
jarðvegsfræði
soil
science
jarðyrkjufræði
agrononomy
jarmyndunarfræði
geogony
jöklafræði
glaciology
kennslufræði
educational
theory
kerfisfræði
system
analysis
kerfun
systemisation
kerlingabók
superstition
kjarneðlisfræði
nuclear
physics
kjarnfræði
nuclear
physics
læknavísindi
medicine,
medical sciences
læknisfræði
medicine
lækningafræði
therapeutics
landafræði
geography
líffærafræði
anatomy
líffræði
biology
ljósfræði
optics
loftsiglingafræði
aeronautics
loftslagsfræði
climatology
lögfræði
law
lyfjafræði
pharmacology
málfræði
grammar
mállýzkafræði
dialectology
málmfræði
metallurgy
málmyndafræði
etymology
málmyndunarfræði
transformational
grammar
málvísindi
linguistics
manneldisfræði
dietetics
mannfræði
anthropology
mannkynsfræði
world
history
mannvísindi
anthropology
myntfræði
numisastics
náttúrfræði
natural
history
náttúrvísindi
natural
sciences
orðbókafræði
lexicography
orðfræði
lexicology
orðmyndunarfræði
etymology
orðsifjafræði etymology
orðskipanunarfræði
syntax
orðtækjafræði
phraseology
ónæmisfræði
immunology
rafefnafræði
electrochemistry
rafeindafræði
electronics
rafmagnsfræði electrical
science
rafmagnsverkfræði
electrical
engineering
rithandafræði
graphology
rökfræði
logic
rökþróunarfræði
dialectics
röntgenfræði
x-rayology
rúmfræði
geometry
rúnafræði
runology
sagnfræði
history
sálfræði
psychology
sálgreining
psychoanalysis
sálkönnun
psychoanalysis
samanburðarmálfræði
comparative
linguistics
samfélagsfræði
sociology
setningafræði
syntax
siðfræði
ethics
siglingafræði
navigation
sjónfræði
optics
sjukdómafræði
pathology
sjúkrafæðisfræði
dietics
skáldskaparfræði
poetics
skordýrafræði
entomology
staðfræði
topography
stærðfræði
mathematics
staffræði
orthography
steinafræði
minerology
steinatrú
stone-worship
steingervingarfræði
palaeography
stjarneðlisfræði astrophysics
stjarnvísindi
astronomy
stjórnarskrá
constitution
stjórnmál
politics
stjörnspeki
astrology
stjörnufræði
astronomy
tæknifræði
technology
tannleiknisfræði
dentistry
töfrafræði
magic,
conjuring
tölfræði
statistics
tölvafræði
computer
science
tölvunarfræði
computer
problem-solving
tónfræði
musicology
uppeldisfræði
pedagogy
vatnfræði
hydrography
vatnsaflsfræði
hydraulics
veðurfræði
meteorology
vélaverkfræði
mechanical
engineering
vélfræði
engineering,
mechanics
verkfræði
engineering
vísindi
science
vistfræði
ecology
þekkingarfræði
theory
of knowledge
þjóðfélagsfræði
sociology
þjóðfélagsvísindi
social
sciences
þjóðfræði
ethnology
þjóðhagfræði
national
economics
þjóðhagfræði
national
economy
þjóðháttafræði
folklore
studies
þjóðkynjafræði
ethnology
þjóðmenningurfræði
ethnology
þjóðréttarfræði
international
law
þjóðtrú
folk
belief; state religion
þýðingarfræði
translation
science
There
are also some words in -vísindi “science”, -trú “belief” and -speki “wisdom” in the above list.
******
A
random selection of 72 words from all the Icelandic
words given above have been taken and looked up in Svavar Sigmundsson's
(ed.) Íslensk samheitaorðabók.
This revealed the following information:
i.
Icelandic
words with formal synonyms derived from
international sources:
námsmaður
- stúdent;
kvikmyndahús
- bío
(cinema); áfengi
- alkóhol;
gistihús
- hótel
(cf. English guesthouse);
peningastofnun
- banki;
salerni
- klósett
(toilet,
WC); söngleikur
- ópera;
fjörefni
- vítamin;
ferðamaður
- túristi;
hreyfill
- mótor,
maskína;
rauðaldin
- tómatur
(rauðaldin
is a neologism fighting a losing battle against
the international word); frumeind
- atóm;
tónlist
- músík;
tækni
- tekník;
þyrla
- kopti;
bifreiði
- kar
(car); bjúgaldin
-
banani (banana); veira - vírus; dráttarvél - traktor.
ii.
Icelandic
words with formal synonyms derived from
Danish (or MLG via Danish) sources:
glóaldin - appelsína (orange; < Danish appelsin); hugsa
- þenkja
(think); ódyr,
verðlítill
- billegur (cheap);
bifreiði
- bíll
(car); skáldsaga
- róman (novel);
sérfræðingur
- fagmaður
(expert; < Danish fagmand);
súrefni
- ildi
(oxygen;
< Danish ilt);
formælandi
- talsmaður
(spokesman; < Danish talsmand);
fræðsla
- undervísun
(teaching, instruction; < Danish undervisning).
iii.
Icelandic
words with formal synonyms only of foreign
origin:
tékki
- ávísun
(cheque).
Formally
competing synonyms of foreign origin are
certainly a minor element of the Icelandic lexicon and are less
conspicuous
than in Faroese. Of the 72 words sampled for synonyms, most had
several, while
some of the words checked had many synonyms. But in the great majority
of
cases, the synonyms were native only. For example, the word ávinningur
“profit, gain” has 26 synonyms listed in the samheitaorðabók
but not one has a direct equivalent with this meaning in any European
language.
Or take the example of hræðsla
“fear,
fright, dread” which has 29 entries beside it. Of these, only one is of
foreign
origin, i.e. angist,
and
that from older Danish angest!
In the
cases where neologisms and foreign loans live side by side the choice
of word
is really a matter for the individual user and may depend on the medium
of
communication (letter, conversation etc.) and the way the user wishes
to
express himself.
While,
like Faroese, Icelandic does have lexical
items of international or Scandinavian origin and these formally
compete with
synonymous native words, they are rather fewer in number and very few
make it
into the formal written language or ritmál
of Icelanders. Such words tend to be more used in
the spoken language and so a stylistic gap may open between
native-based
neologisms in the written language and foreign loaned synonyms in the
spoken
language. However, the most fervent puristic tendencies in Icelandic
have
cooled off somewhat in recent years. Foreign words are being imported
into
Icelandic having been adapted to a greater or lesser degree. As Baldur Jónsson (1983.
p. 117) points out,
the Icelandic vocabulary still grows and is affected in the same ways
as in the
past: “När allt kommer omkring växer ordförrådet och påverkas
enligt samma
principer som det i stort sett alltid har gjort”.
In
summary of Faroese it may be said that Faroese
language cultivation is still largely a matter of whether to follow a
puristic
route and model policy on Icelandic, or to face up to the reality of
the
everyday billinguialism and freely draw on Danish sources. The actual
route
taken appears to be a middle way – readily replace Danicisms with
suitable
neologisms based on ON or Icelandic sources, but also incorporate
Danish words
into the Faroese language system as the need arises.
[
Top
]
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