‪@historywithhilbert‬

[@eliasthefrogman]

it makes me so happy to see people taking an interest in my native language! I barely see anything about faroese on social media so it was a very pleasant surprise to have this show up on my recomended :)

[@Frag_Limit]

I will learn Faroese one day.

[@vd1qd]

i hope you do!

[@kirstenmuller4536]

How great for Hilbert to get this sort of opportunity! This is great!

[@historywithhilbert]

Agreed! Very thankful to the Polyglot Conference for inviting me once again!

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Native Faroese here, giving notes as I watch. :) Well, "Sauðabréfit" is called "Seyðabrævið" in Faroese. Blaðak is not seen today but the shortened form blak is used. Lámur also means "left-handed person". Þorn has never been used in modern Faroese. Case order in Faroese is strictly NADG (the existence of G in modern Faroese is debatable but I'll leave it for now). Your table says NAGD but the singular paradigm in 18:06 is NADG. Gen.pl. of barn is barna, not *børna. The explanation of ö vs. ø is not quite right. (Standardised) Old Norse had three letters worth pointing out: ø, ǿ (or œ), and ǫ. These develop differently in Faroese and Icelandic: ǿ in Icelandic merges with æ, while ø and ǫ merge but are written as ö. In Faroese, these three merge with each other (ǫ becomes o before nasal consonants however) and originally they were written differently, so /ø/ from ø and ǿ were written as ø (FO døma vs ON dǿma and IS dæma), while /ø/ from ǫ was written as ö (FO sögu vs. ON sǫgu and IS sögu) but we haven't made this distinction since around WWII, so now all are written as ø (døma, søgu). Faroese didn't replace Danish as language of instruction in 1937, it was merely granted equal status, so teachers could choose which one they wanted to use. Regarding the media: Faroese media has always only used Faroese, Faroese radio was established in 1957, and 1984 was when we finally got a Faroese television station. A lot of things broadcast on said station is however in unsubtitled Danish or has Danish subtitles. Gøtudanskt is Danish pronounced literally with (mostly) Faroese pronunciation rules. A Faroese speaking proper Danish is more difficult to differentiate from a native Dane (unless you know which exact things to look out for). I don't think the dialects of Suðuroy have been more influenced by Danish in any way. They are certainly distinct but that could just as well be attributed to natural evolution. All in all, very interesting presentation, Hilbert. Thank you.

[@magnusauslandstoresletten3786]

Native western Norwegian here! “Hvussu Eitúr Tú” is “Kva Heitter Du” in western norwegian dialect I`m obsessed with The Faroe Islands by the way!

[@chieftain2515]

Símun: “nei Nei NEI NEI!!!! ALTSO HVAT FANON MEINAR TÚ?!? MEINAR TÚ AT JEG ERI SUPERMAN OG BATMAN ALT Í EINUM PERSONI??! for HELVITI OG HJÁLPARIN HJÁ MÆR PÆTUR TAÐ EINASTA HAN GERÐ ER AT HANN SEINKSR PROSESSINA!!!”

[@iidrbubbles]

Native Faroese here too. Im quite shocked I actually didnt know most of this trivia. That is quite interesting. Gott kvøld! :)

[@EivindurToftegaard]

@@magnusauslandstoresletten3786 If we translate it word by word, it would say "korso/korleis heiter du". :) Altso brukar vi "korleis" istaden fyre "kva" der. :) "Hvordan heter du?" - viss man skulle umsetja til bokmål. :P

[@annakhjelm146]

@@magnusauslandstoresletten3786 On suđuroy we say hvat eitur tú ? instead of hvussu

[@robertofranciscomonsalvesp8080]

Thanks to bumblebees we have this great summary about the Faroese language. Appreciated!

[@historywithhilbert]

Thank you Roberto!

[@EivindurToftegaard]

Unfortunatly, wasps have also started to do their thing here. >.

[@paultijink9966]

Very interesting! Talking about cases, in the Elfdalian language in Sweden, there still are case endings!

[@joan98610]

Currently learning Faroese! This was so cool

[@historywithhilbert]

It's a great language! How are you learning it?

[@inconspicuousiceberg9363]

Eg eri glaður fyri at tygum læra mál mítt. I am glad that you are learning my language. Eg undrist um hvussu langt áleiðis tygum eru komin. I wonder how far along you have come.

[@joan98610]

@@historywithhilbert i just found a textbook online, and there's also a free language course. I'm also reading some books for kids and learning vocab on memrise. For me it's a difficult language so my process is slow

[@joan98610]

@@inconspicuousiceberg9363 hey! Eg kan ikki duga føroyskum tað er ringt! men eg lesi barnbøkur ella skrivi á míni skriviblokki

[@inconspicuousiceberg9363]

@@joan98610 Eg dugi ikki at tosa føroyskt. I am unable to speak Faroese. Halt áfram at læra føroyskt bæði málsliga og skrivliga við góðum treysti. Keep on learning both spoken and written Faroese with vigour.

[@thogameskanaal]

Keep on going places, my dude!

[@Janmakarta]

I've learned some Danish and was fascinated by these insights into Faroese - so well researched and presented, I enjoyed every minute. Thank you so much, Hilbert, this was really excellent! 👏👏👏

[@historywithhilbert]

Thank you very much Janet I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed the video! I should add as a fun aside that the Danish word for bumblebee is 'humlebi' which I always find to be incredibly cute!

[@EivindurToftegaard]

Eastern icelantic and northern danish dialects, actually kept the "original" hv-pronounciation. Also, while a valid example, "hvussu" is mostly pronounced more like "gusseh", the 'hv' in that particlar word, is almost never heard in day-to-day speech.

[@SionTJobbins]

Thanks for this - much needed and very intersting. So much respect for the Faroese for fighting for their language. 'cam' is also modern Welsh for crooked too. Irish 'Lamh' is cognate to Welsh 'llaw' (hand) and 'Tarbh' to Welsh 'tarw' (bull). In terms of language accent and intonation, this could be a similar situation to what happened to Dutch as it became Afrikaans - white Dutch children were brought up by indentured Coloured/San/Black/Malay women who had to learn Dutch and so simplified the language. There's a reason we say 'mother tongue'. The role of the mother, or women was instrumental in passing on the language.

[@historywithhilbert]

Very interesting indeed! I've seen this used as an explanation for some interesting 'Celtic' features in Old English if there were Brythonic-speaking nursing maids raising Anglo-Saxon children - would be interesting if the same could be said for the situation on the Faroe Islands.

[@EivindurToftegaard]

Also, another very common word to hear, from the occupation, is "yes/yiss". We don't write it, but you will hear it fairly commonly.

[@R3troguy]

I love this! Hilbert really did my language justice, though I've personally never heard the word tineyggjari before. Everyone I've spoken to always uses the word tannáringur 🤔 Fun fact about Gøtudanskt: if I recall correctly, the term and usage of Gøtudanskt came from this one teacher in Gøta who spoke Danish with an incredibly heavy accent. His name escapes me at the moment, but his way of speaking Danish amused everyone so much that it was essentially named after him, and I can imagine many of his pronunciations became standard.

[@Zeagods-CyberShadow]

Thank you for informing me more about my own language faroese

[@Alaedious]

This was very informative and interesting 👍! Thank you!

[@peter-andrepliassov4489]

At 17:20 you mention that the Norwegian word for "what" is pronounced with just a V-sound, as opposed to Faroese, but in most Norwegian dialects the same sound change happened, so in most dialects of Norwegian, the word for "what" is pronounced with a K at the beginning. For example, in my dialect we say "ka". The same also applies to words like "whale" and "whine", which became "kval" and "kvin" in most Norwegian dialects.

[@danielpeled5857]

Awesome! Most beautiful place i’ve ever visited, couldn’t help but notice that that they like country music, don’t know why it’s so popular there. i wonder if vestmanna referred to an irish origin?

[@JohnH-cp1ms]

very good talk. thanks.

[@BarbarooTheKangaroo]

Very interesting talk and also very brave attempt at Faroese pronunciation xD

[@christianstainazfischer]

Didn’t know you speak Dutch as first language! I was thinking in your other videos wow his Dutch pronunciation is really, almost scary good 😂 No wonder!

[@Jonse70]

One thing you left out, or forgot, is our names. The Danish church forced us to change our names. Today many people are changing their last names away from Danish.

[@VerbaleMondo]

So, what names are typical to the Faroe Islands?

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Well, our fixed -sen-surnames are actually a Danish law from the 1820s, so it's the Danish government. But we can probably blame ourselves for not re-faroeseising them later on.

[@fernandvos7370]

So what is the Faroese system for names? You go father-son mother-dottir? Meaning your father is/was named Bjarna?

[@oyland2954]

Not really - actually the Danish forced surnames upon us, which was a good thing in my opinion, as I see no use in the Icelandic patronyms which say absolutely nothing about at person, except the he/she is someones son or daughter. We are now adopting Faroese family names from placenames mainly, which is good. I like the fact that we have family names and now are turning them into Faroese. Two people meeting eachother in a bar in Reykjavík have no idea how closely they are related, while the same thing happening in Tórshavn, people know straight away LOL.

[@mortenwellhaven]

Thank you. That was a great job. it was really enjoyable to follow along. I am Norwegian by country and language, and Norse by culture. Maybe my view on independence might have some value. The Kingdom of Denmark has three countries: Denmark, Faroes, and Greenland. The best example I have of independence is when Denmark joined the European Union. The Faroes did not join the European Union. They turned down the treaty. Though, international defense is still managed by the Kingdom of Denmark (in consultation). Also by agreement, The handful of truly dangerous criminals are "housed" in Denmark. Some Danes say, "But we send you a support stipend every year." The Faroes respond, "Yes, you do. Thank you very much - the amount of the salaries of two good football players." Anyway, The Faroes are independent, kind, and naturally helpful. It is a place where "Dugnad" still lives - in the form of "One Word." It is a single word not understood intellectually. It is in the bones. ⛵⛵⛵

[@Hrafnhednar]

17:28 you can also say in Norwegian : Kva heitar du

[@chieftain2515]

14:44 sorry mate but i live in the Faroe Islands and the only words I understood were Lámur (which means left handed when used in a sentence) and tarvur (that one you got right)

[@ZiGGyMaidEN]

Blaðak is blak in modern Faroese (kirnumjólk), grúkur means head (usually head of a seal or gannet). There is also korki (white moss used for colouring) and other Irish words

[@maltrho]

This mentioned gaelic connection might go far deeper though. I recently stumpled upon a quite fascinating old hypothesis, that all the diphtongs (very characteristic in icelandic and faroese) reflects a celtic 'substratum" mixed into old norse, and that in fact this phenonema is equally at play also in all those places where an invading germanic spekaing population came to a country with a celtic population (france, belgium, england). Thus, the strange vowel-combinations in french, the dipthtongs in dutch and in english, would all be remnants of a celtic pronounciations, while the skandivanian languages (along maybe with some kind of german?), with their simple vowels, would be 'unmixed' germanic.

[@kristianpoulherkild3401]

Considering the high amount of diphtongs in the north germanic languages incl. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish it seems unlikely. Diphtongs are extremely common in all the north germanic languages, even if some of them are written as consonants...

[@oyland2954]

The English loanwords entered Faroe much earlier than WWII. There were British sailors coming to the Faroe Islands every year throughout the centuries, and English affected Faroese language, especially the Dialect spoken in Tórshavn, so words like "fokkaður" (f**ked), fruntur (front), fittur (fit/nice), gella (girl), boysar (boys), peia (to pay), etc. have been in Faroese for hundreds of years - Tórður Jóansson published a book about this a few years ago called "English Loanwords in Faroese." - unfurtunately it's out of print now.

[@byrgadottir5646]

Now we are 54.000 people in Faroe Islands🇫🇴

[@Black_Dawn]

When I compare Icelandic and Faroese to people, I say Icelandic is a little bit of a simplified viking language, spoken like it's too cold to say things properly (a lot of it is slurred). Faroese is what happens if an Irishman were to try to speak Icelandic without knowing their phonetics.

[@bernadetterubin4892]

The Faroe Islands are not a possesion of Denmark, they are part of Denmark and they have self-government, if they have a majority in their Løgtingið (Faroese people's parliament) then they can secede from Denmark. Their laws are not the same as in the rest of Denmark.If they want to study at university, they have to go to Denmark and the Danish language is necessary there, this is also the reason why Icelanders still learn Danish. It is important to remember how few people they are.

[@TheFrecklish]

We don’t HAVE to go to Denmark if we want to study at university, we have our own :) It just has limited options (about 15 different BA degrees), so if you want to study something else, you must go abroad - Denmark and UK being popular and easy options.

[@ZiGGyMaidEN]

Great and interesting video. Some minor errors (as pointed out in a comment below), but overall quite accurate :)

[@livingdeadgirla]

“You don’t look very Egyptian”😄

[@PerMortensen]

I can definitely confirm that variations on that comment are very common.

[@livingdeadgirla]

@@PerMortensen 2:00 No doubt 😉

[@andreasaagaard7577]

very good job and thorough research, i learned a lot from this even as a native Faroese speaker. btw i've noticed the bumblebees appearing, very strange.

[@chieftain2515]

Bróður 👊

[@Dannitor]

In regarding of the Faroe Islands translating to Föroyar oyar, there is a baseball team in the USA called The Los Angeles Angels, which translates to The The Angels Angels for Hispanic people.. Just Interesting

[@lohphat]

Also from the Southern California region, The La Brea Tar Pits, an archeological museum, can be written as “The The Tar Tar Pits” as La Brea is the Spanish for “the tar”.

[@chieftain2515]

Teenager is “Tannáringur”. you’re not wrong though, we do say teenager as well but it’s written in English

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Well, it's written tineygjari. But I don't think many people actually use that spelling.

[@chieftain2515]

@@weepingscorpion8739 that's.... incorrect

[@weepingscorpion8739]

@@chieftain2515 Just google tineygjari. You will find several hits. :)

[@westcoastrover-m6f]

at 4:07 - this isn't correct - Torshavn to Scalloway in Shetland is 234nm / 433km / 269 miles, not 750km. Shetland is the closest place to Faroe. The old Norn language of Shetland was close to Faroese, and much of the Shetland dialect words are from Norn and are common to Faroese and west Norwegian dialects.

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Shetland might be the closest inhabited area but the closest neighbour to the Faroes is the uninhabited North Rona which belongs to mainland Scotland. :)

[@mtavsen]

There is another runestone, but its hidden :O

[@Mazemaster18]

🎉🇵🇭🇫🇴

[@sz5876]

It keeps stopping

[@oyland2954]

The Faroe Islands are 320 kilometres from the British Isles, not 750 km.

[@danielordonez412]

I've been reading faroese after studying icelandic. Somehow I understand it better than icelandic. I think its the grammatical constructions. I don't find anywhere the Thorn character. Insted they use just T.

[@user-B_8]

And it's 1.367,5 km away from Denmark which I think you should have mentioned since it's actually under/a part of Denmark. 😉

[@TheOstahaps]

There were a whole lot of errors in this video, unfortunately.

[@Game_Hero]

Poor Scottish guy...

[@magnusauslandstoresletten3786]

In real Norwegian you say:”Kva heitter du?”not :”Hva heter du?🤬

[@Neophema]

It's a dialect continuum, so naturally the dialects closer to Sweden will pronounce it as "hva" and not "kva". There is also a varying degree of diphthongs. I will say aleine, bein, stein, skei, skeiv, blei, nøys, frøys, sklei, etc, but hel, heter and en. Still just as Norwegian. I'm sick of people down-talking Eastern Norwegian dialects.

[@ganjafi59]

Ka du hete

[@EivindurToftegaard]

The saddest thing about (especially) eastern norwegian dialects, is that they're being pushed away by standard bokmål. Vikamål for example is almost dead.

[@Neophema]

@@EivindurToftegaard True. :(

[@Rimrock300]

No one actually speaks Bokmål, it's just a onstructed written language. But one can find people who speak quite close to bokmål, or try to do it. As soon as one goes a few kilometers out of Oslo, like south west and south east, one clearly here the different dialects (even they can sound 'all the same at first to people from outside the region) That said, generlly dialects tend to be watered out in Norway to as time move on, with more and more bokmål words @@EivindurToftegaard