Language Research

Updated (February 2002)

FAROESE

The Faroese language is not a minority language. The constitution of the autonomous Faroe Islands of 1948 gives Faroese the status of being the main language, while Danish was to be learned thoroughly and could also be used as an official language. Today Faroese is the only language of the islands, while Danish has the position of first foreign language.

Petur Petersen, Permanent Secretary at the Faroese Ministry of Education, tells the story of how the Faroese Islands with a population of about 46,000 people have managed to preserve and develop their language.

"If you go fifty years back, the relation between Danes and Faroese people was not that good, but today there are no problems. There are some Danes living on the islands and they learn to speak Faroese. The Danes had a big influence before, but not today. We have developed our own culture. However, many of us have studied in Denmark, so we know the Danish language, but if you want to talk about a language influence on the Faroe language, it is English, just like for many other languages."

Around 2,000 Faroese students go abroad every year, but according to Petersen, most of them come back. "A typical Faroese knows a lot about his island and also knows about the national circumstances in Denmark. An islander is also normally very tolerant, very religious, and close to his family," he explains.

"The Faroese language has its roots in the Old Norse language from the Viking Age. The Vikings who mainly came from Norway sailed westwards to find new land. Faroese thus belongs to the so called West-Nordish language group to which also Icelandic, West Norwegian belong. In the northern parts of the Shetland Islands there has also existed a language belonging to this group of languages. Considering the grammar, Faroese is closest to Icelandic, while the pronunciation and sounds have similarities with certain west Norwegian dialects. During the Middle Ages Faroese was an independent language with clear distinctions from the neighboring languages Icelandic and Norwegian, according to old documents." This information was part of Petersen's presentation at the recent Partnership for Diversity Forum that was held in Palma de Mallorca. Petersen also got there the chance to compare the Faroese situation to other islanders' situation. Another island with many parallels to the Faroese Islands, is Greenland.

Greenland has the same conditions and links to Denmark as the Faroe Islands, but the Faroe Islands got their self-government in 1948, and Greenland in 1979.

"I visited Greenland in 1998. Their central administration had about 450 employees, and half of them were Danes. They asked me how many Danes we have in our central administration - we had none. They could not understand this. The Greenlandic laws are written in both Greenlandic and Danish, while since 1994, the Faroese laws are entirely in Faroese," explains Petersen.

"The language of the official administration and the parliament is Faroese. We are monolingual - we only speak one language. In 80 years, the Danish language has been exterminated in favor of Faroese," says Petersen. However, according to Petur Petersen the Faroese situation cannot be entirely compared to the situation of the monolingual Swedish-speaking Aring;land Islands, which are part of the Republic of Finland.

"Well, for instance it is easier for them to get books from Sweden, whereas it is entirely up to us to develop ourselves. We have our own school publishing house which guarantee that we have books in Faroese. Our language is our culture, whereas the Åland Islands are part of a language area where the Swedish language is spoken," compares Petersen.

However, Petur Petersen says that it is still very inspiring to meet other islanders, and that they can learn from each other. For the Faroe Islands, the next big step is a step towards independence. "Everybody on the Faroe Islands wants bigger independence. The only thing they cannot agree on is how fast this process should take - some want it to happen really quickly, others want to take it slower."

"The previous Danish Government was negative as far as Faroese independence was concerned. But Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who represents the newly elected Danish Government, visited the Faroe Islands in Mid-January. He gave clear signals that if the Faroe Islands want independence, Denmark will not stand in the way. So now we will have to see what happens," concludes Petersen.

Top of page