Faeroese (language): Difference between revisions

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+#REDIRECT [[Faroese]]
-'''Faeroese''' is a [[North Germanic language]] spoken on the [[Faroe Islands]].
-Until the [[15th Century]], Faeroese had a similar orthography to [[Icelandic]] and [[West Norwegian]], but after the [[Reformation]], the ruling [[Danes]] outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents,  i.e the main places where written languages survive in an essentially illiterate society.  The Islanders continued using the language in [[ballads]], [[folklore|folktales]], and everyday life.  This maintained a rich spoken tradition, but for 300 years, there were no texts.
-As a written language, Modern Faeroese has only existed since [[1854]], when [[V.U. Hammershaimb]] published his grammar. Although this would have been a great opportunity to create a perfect written language, free from silent letters and inconsistencies, he produced an [[orthography]] consistent with having a continuous written tradition.  The letters [[ð]] and [[g]], for example, have no [[phonemes]] attached to them.  In intervocalic positions, they could be said to have sound, but in truth, the sound is a glide between the two [[vowels]] which would exist with or without the  ð or g.  Also, although the letter '[[m]]' corresponds to the [[bilabial]] [[Nasal consonant|nasal]] as it does in [[English]], in the [[Dative]] ending -inum, it corresponds to the [[alveolar]] [[Nasal consonant|nasal]] '[[n]]' due to [[phonological assimilation]].