Language Course

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ikkon
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Postby ikkon » 2006-10-23, 19:55

please please let´s continue with the course...;)
freedom comes when you learn to let go
creation comes when you learn to say no

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Mulder-21
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Postby Mulder-21 » 2007-01-30, 12:53

At long last here's the next part of the course, although it might not be as thorough as the first one.

Before I continue talking about articles, I find it just as imporant to talk about 'at vera' (to be) and begin talking about nouns.

Faroese has three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, and nouns are divided into strong and weak nouns.

We'll begin by listing some regular masculine nouns. Later we'll introduce list feminine and neuter nouns. After that we'll introduce 'to be' in both present and past tense, the only simple tenses in Faroese. After that the accusative and dative cases will be introduced. We'll do that at the same time, since the usage of cases is almost alpha and omega in Faroese, and since the accusative often has the same form as the nominative.

Masculine nouns:

Masculine nouns are usually the easiest to identify since one way is to see if the noun has the -ur ending. This isn't always the case, but this is by far the most common masculine ending.

There are two types of -ur-nouns. Those who have -ir-plural ending, and those who have -ar-plural ending.

Examples of -ir: vinur (friend), býur (city), fyrimunur (advantage), litur (colour), seyður (sheep)
Examples of -ar: úlvur (wolf), bilur (car), bátur (boat), dreymur (dream), fiskur (fish), fuglur (bird), knívur (knife), steinur (rock)

Note, that all -aður nouns also are declined as vinur.

The way to find out which noun belongs to which group is to look at the genitive singular ending. Since genitive isn't really used in spoken Faroese, the grouping will be provided for you and all dictionaries give both the G.sg ending and the N.pl ending anyway.

-ir plural have a -ar genitive, while -ar have -s genitive.

Of course, there are some words which have -s genitive but -ir plural. These include: gestur (guest), hvalur (whale), løkur (brook), seiður (coalfish), smiður (smith), svanur (swan).

Finally, we'll list some words, whose stem vowel is umlauted. In short we're talking about u-umlaut, in which a -> ø except if the following consonant is a nasal (m or n), when a -> o. However, these changes only occur in dative plural, but I'm listing these anyway.

Examples: armur (arm), skarvur (shag (bird)), hjallur (~ barn)

In my next thread we'll look at strong feminine nouns.
Gløgt er gestsins eyga. (Føroyskt orðafelli)
Wise is the stranger's eye. (Faroese saying)
L'occhio dell'ospite è acuto. (Proverbio faroico)
Hosťovo oko je múdre. (Faerské uslovie)

Fluent: Faroese, Danish, English, German
Almost fluent: Norwegian, Swedish
Basic: Slovak (studying), Spanish
Have studied: Hebrew, Russian
Interests: Ukrainian, Romanian, Italian, Albanian, Armenian, Ossetic, Hungarian, Estonian, Baltic languages

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Postby Mulder-21 » 2007-02-02, 22:46

Before lection II (or rather III), let me point out, that a guide to pronunciation of Faroese letters is both on the Wikipedia and in Faroese forum om UniLang. AFAICR, it uses a mix of comparison and IPA, but if someone wants me to do a X-SAMPA version, then please let me know, and I'll get to it.

Lection II: 'at vera' (to be)

'At vera' is probably one of the most important verbs in Faroese, and (most?/) all Indo-European languages.

The usage is as follows:

It is used in conjuction with an adjective to describe someone or something:

Eg eri føroyingur. = I am Faroese (both m and f)
ert býttur. = You are stupid (m)
Hann er fátækur. = He is poor.
Hon er sjúk. = She is sick.
Tað er langt. = It is long. (in this case, it can also be an adverb, more on that later)

However, it's usually not used in a gerundium construction:

Eg eri etandi.

This would translated word-by-word 'I am eating', however since Modern Faroese usually uses the 'gerundium' as an adjective, this sentence to most all people would mean:

I am eadible.

Declension:

Since Faroese only has two simple tenses, I'll list both right a way. The Faroese verbal system is very regular, although it has many different patterns. We'll go through the patterns later, and they are also posted on the UniLang Wiki. But here is 'at vera' declined by person and in both simple tenses:

Present:

1sg. eg eri
2sg. tú ert
3sg. hann/hon/tað er

1pl. vit eru
2pl. tit eru
3pl. teir/tær/tey eru

Past:

1sg. eg var
2sg. tú vart
3sg. hann/hon/tað var

1pl. vit vóru
2pl. tit vóru
3pl. teir/tær/tey vóru

The plural forms are always the same for all three persons.

This is all for now. More is coming later.
Gløgt er gestsins eyga. (Føroyskt orðafelli)
Wise is the stranger's eye. (Faroese saying)
L'occhio dell'ospite è acuto. (Proverbio faroico)
Hosťovo oko je múdre. (Faerské uslovie)

Fluent: Faroese, Danish, English, German
Almost fluent: Norwegian, Swedish
Basic: Slovak (studying), Spanish
Have studied: Hebrew, Russian
Interests: Ukrainian, Romanian, Italian, Albanian, Armenian, Ossetic, Hungarian, Estonian, Baltic languages

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Alcadras
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Postby Alcadras » 2007-02-02, 22:56

Wow, at last.. :lol:

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North
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Postby North » 2007-02-02, 23:08

Eg gleði meg til at hoyra nakað um fornøvn :yiihi:

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Re: Language Course

Postby abtaylr » 2008-12-22, 19:33

I recently obtained a book from either http://www.bn.com or http://www.amazon.com, can't remember which that might be helpful. It is entitled 'Webster's Faroese -- English Thesaurus Dictionary' edited by Professor Philip M. Parker, Ph.d. published by ICON Group International, ISBN: 0-497-83489-8, published in 2008.

I also bought from a bookshop in Torshavn a book entitled: 'Førosk Orðabok', 1998, published by Føroya Froðskaparfelag, ISBN: 99918-41-52-0 (i einum bindi), 99918-41-53-9 (i tveimum bindum), and 99918-41-54-7 (a teldufløgu).

[Sorry about not putting the accents in. I usually use an Icelandic keyboard and didn't want to look up the Unicode numbers for those letters -- abt).

Noreviking

Re: Language Course

Postby Noreviking » 2012-06-22, 12:31

Hello Mulder! I really like your lessons, since you explain Faroese grammar and words very well. Will you make more lessons?

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Mulder-21
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Re: Language Course

Postby Mulder-21 » 2012-06-24, 20:53

Well, it's been on my 'to-do' list for a few years... and I'd like to start with some basic morphology (like weak nouns, since these are by far the simplest). But well... I just have to sit down and actually do it... hehe... Be patient, my children! :) :P
Gløgt er gestsins eyga. (Føroyskt orðafelli)
Wise is the stranger's eye. (Faroese saying)
L'occhio dell'ospite è acuto. (Proverbio faroico)
Hosťovo oko je múdre. (Faerské uslovie)

Fluent: Faroese, Danish, English, German
Almost fluent: Norwegian, Swedish
Basic: Slovak (studying), Spanish
Have studied: Hebrew, Russian
Interests: Ukrainian, Romanian, Italian, Albanian, Armenian, Ossetic, Hungarian, Estonian, Baltic languages

mickmq
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Re: Language Course

Postby mickmq » 2015-08-17, 15:04

It seems that this has "run its course" which is a pity as I am just starting to learn Faroese. There is a lot out there to keep me busy for a while but thanks for this contribution.


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