Dualis in Faroese

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North
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Dualis in Faroese

Postby North » 2006-12-21, 16:55

This is a funny thing in Faroese, that I recently discovered.
I just wonder how often this is used? I have never really thought about it, until my boyfriend introduced me to it, and he gave me this example:

"Eg búgvi í eini hús"

I would of course, because I didn't know about dualis, say:

"Eg búgvi í eitt hús"

If you say "eini hús", you talk about your house and the "Hjall" (some kind of an outhouse to store food ect.) If you say "eitt hús", you don't have a hjall (well of course you could, but then it would be somewhere in the same building as your house"

Is the use of dualis very common in Faroese?

It doesn't exist in Danish, though you could say "han splittede pilen i tvende dele" (he split the arrow in twine pieces) - but that is very archaic.

I could of course just discuss this with my friend, but I think this is worth a discussion in here too :)

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Postby Hunef » 2006-12-21, 19:17

Shouldn't it be dative, i.e., einum húsum and einum húsi, respectively?
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Postby Mulder-21 » 2006-12-22, 2:18

As I was thought, the plural is used for residential houses, while the singular is used for all other kinds of houses (úthús, høsnahús, gásarhús, hundahús, seyðahús osfr.)

Of course, many people today use the singular for residential houses, but it sounds bad in my ears.

The reason for the plural, is the fact, that a residential house consists of several rooms (which maybe were called 'hús' on its own a few centuries ago), whilst none-residential houses usually only have one room, and thus use the singular.

And yes, Hunef's right, it should be in dative, since there's no movement in the sentences:

Eg búgvi í einum húsi (sg)
Eg búgvi í einum húsum (pl)
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)

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Postby North » 2006-12-22, 6:57

Yes of course it is dative :roll:


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