Hunef wrote:They both come from Old NOrse, and when using etymological spelling and normalisation, they will look quite similar.
I knew that, Hunef, but according to the classifications Icelandic should be closer to Faroese than Jämtlandic, however, this isn't always so.
Hunef wrote:I suspect that Faroese góvu insetad of gávu (ON gáfu) may be due to the same phenomenion as in jamtlandic, i.e., analogy with the development vá- > vó- in vóru (ON váru). Here, vá/va > vó/vo is quite general in many scandinavian dialects. In Icelandic one e.g. has vor 'spring' (ON vár), vogur 'bay' (ON vág). In Jamtlandic, one often also has a dropped v as in kóð' 'resin' (ON kváðu acc.), hot 'what' (ON hvat - only Faroese and Jamtlandic have preserved -t here) etc.
Well, it may be DUE to the same Jämtlandic phenomenon, however, I doubt, that it's the same one.
You took three examples there: our, spring, and bay
They are: vár, vár and vágur in Faroese. So here vá- never became vo/vó- in Faroese.
You're also right about 'what', but as many grammar books'll tell you, the softer version of a hard consonant (by soft, I here mean pronuncing [d] instead of [t] and [g] instead of [k] (this is called unvoicing, right?)), so [kvEat] might be more likely to being pronunced [kvEad].
Returning to the verbal declensions (In English, nouns are conjugated, verbs declined and adjectives inflected, right?):
at skaka has become weak in Faroese, so it's of no use here:
at skaka [Ead sgEaga] - skakar [sgEagar] - skakaði [sgEagaji] (or maybe rather [a_j]?) - skakaðu [sgEagavo] - hevur skakað [he:vUr sgEaga]
Note: I write [g] here, since it's the simplest way to put it. However, since they could be [k_0] or maybe even something à la [g_h_k] (this exists, right?) one of these can be/is more correct. I need to take lessons in phonetics.
A word, which is close enough, or whose pattern at least is similar, is the verb 'at ala', which means to 'breed'.
at ala [Eala] - elur [e:lUr] - ól [Oul]/[Eul]/[9ul] - ólu [Oulo]/[Eulo]/[9ulo] - alið [Eali]
However, this verb can also be declined without sound change (weakly):
at ala [Eala] - alir [EalIr] - aldi [aldi] - aldu [aldo] - hevur alt [he:vUr al_h:t] (alt could very well also be [aJ_0t]. L is really weird in Faroese)
JP
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
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