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Research projects
Children's literature
Turið Sigurðardóttir
Children’s literature has been an important part of literary teaching and research at western universities since the 1970s. Today there are both Nordic children’s literature conferences and international conferences, which bring together researchers from across the globe. The University of the Faroe Islands has offered elective courses in children’s literature focusing on specific periods in Faroese children’s literary history or on specific publications and authors.
Lexicography
A review of the Faroese dictionary (monolingual dictionary), which was published in 1998, has been underway at the Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature for some time now. This means correcting errors and adding new words. The task is almost complete and the dictionary will initially be published online and subsequently reprinted.
Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen about reediting the Faroese dictionary.
Language acquisition in Faroese children
Interest in first-language acquisition has soared in recent years, particularly since researchers have been able to demonstrate a link between language development, e.g. vocabulary and comprehension, and children’s ability to read later on.
One of the components of this project is the development of a Faroese version of the CDI parent-completed forms (MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories). These forms will make it possible to carry out a structured analysis, based on solid empirical evidence, of how Faroese children develop language. CDI is used in over 60 countries. This study will therefore also facilitate comparisons between language development in Faroese children and children in other countries.
Linguistics textbook
The Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature has used a Norwegian introduction to linguistics for many years. This book provides an overview of the basic terminology needed by students on the BA degree programme. It addresses different topics, particularly communication and linguistic structure.
Eivind Weyhe lecturer at the Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature produced material many years ago, which has been in use at the Faculty. His texts are on morphology, language change and radicals. Together with material byZakarisi S. Hansen MA., Jógvani í Lon Jacobsen Ph.D.,Kristin Magnussen MA. and Hjalmar P. Petersen Ph.D. the texts have now been compiled in a manuscript. The idea is to publish the compilation as book in a few years, after testing it as teaching material at the Faculty and, as of Jan/Feb 2012 also at the School of Education.
“Honestly, who cares? A sociolinguistic study of attitude and use of loan words and new coinages in Faroese”.
K8: Variations in multilingualism in the Faroe Islands
(Varianz in der Mehrsprachigkeit auf den Färöern) Carried out at the University of Hamburg 2005-2011.
Hjalmar P. Petersen worked as a research assistant and was in charge of the corpus, data, data collection, building the database and managing student assistants. The database has been completed and contains spoken language data from three generations (young, middle-aged, older) from different dialect areas of the Faroes.
History of Faroese Literature
Malan Marnersdóttir and Turið Sigurðardóttir, who are literary scholars at the Faculty of Faroese Language and Literature, lead and execute this project. Other members of the Faculty, as well as external researchers, also participate in the project and write about specific chosen topics. Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, who is a philologist at the Faculty, has, for example, written about the scholarly and enlightenment culture of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The objective is to produce a research-based history of Faroese literature, which affords a global overview of artistic and historical literary development.
Project information.
FOL Faroese Online - Bjargni
Faroese Online (FOL) er ein verkætlan, sum snýr seg um at gera undirvísingartilfar í føroyskum til útlendingar. Talan er um skeið, sum er atgongt á netinum. Skipanin byggir beinleiðis á skipanina Icelandic Online (IOL), sum er eitt opið, ókeypis málskeið í íslendskum á netinum í 6 pørtum. Skeiðið er ment av málvísindafólki á Háskóla Íslands, so góðskan er í lagi á hesum rúgvismikla tilfarinum, sum tey lata okkum fáa til grundarlag undir okkara skeiði. Partarnir 1-5 vóru gjørdir til byrjanarundirvísing á universitetsstigi, men hevur roynst væl hjá fólki við øðrum fortreytum eisini. Nýggjasti parturin, “partur null”, eitur so Bjargir. Hesin parturin er gjørdur til nýtilflutt fólk, sum einki íslendskt duga frammanundan. Partarnir 1-5 vórðu lagdir á netið í 2004-2013. Parturin Bjargir, ið nú verður týddur og lagaður til føroyskt, kom á netið í 2010. Arbeitt verður í løtuni við at laga skipanina til hendan partin, so eisini ber til at brúka smartfon og teldil.
Arbeiðið at laga íslendsku skipanina Icelandic Online til føroysk viðurskifti byrjaði so smátt á heysti 2014. Avgjørt var at byrja við partinum fyri byrjarar, sum á íslendskum kallastBjargir. Hetta skeiðið er serliga ment til tilflytarar, sum búgva og arbeiða í Íslandi/Føroyum. Tí er tað, ið verður lært, orð og orðingar úr gerandisdegnum, sum nýtilflutt kunnu væntast at hava brúk fyri. Tilfarið er býtt sundur í seks kapitlar við á leið 260 venjingum.
Venjingarnar vóru umsettar til føroyskt á vári 2015 og byrjað var upp á arbeiðið við ljóð- og myndaupptøkum í juli 2015. Eftir ætlan er hesin parturin, Bjargni, liðugur í 2017, og vónandi fer tá at bera til at halda fram við pørtunum eitt til fimm.
Faroese Online er ein samstarvsverkætlan millum Fróðskaparsetur Føroya og Háskúla Íslands. Verkætlanin hevur fingið stuðul til fundarvirksemi frá Nordplus Vaksin.
Verkætlanarleiðari í Føroyum er Hjalmar P. Petersen,dr.phil. og lektari á Føroyamálsdeildini. Hini í leiðslubólkinum eru: Malan Marnersdóttir, professari og dekanur á Setrinum, John Mikkelsen, forritari og BA í føroyskum, Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir professari, Kolbrún Friðriksdóttir, adjunktur, Patrick Thomas og Úlfar Bragason professari við Háskóla Íslands og Helga Hilmisdóttir lektari á universitetinum í Helsingfors.
Faroese street names
-Ph.D. thesis: Kristin M. Magnussen
How do Faroese street names compare to other Faroese place names? Why are places named, and how do they get precisely the names that they have? The project aims to answer these and other questions by using the corpus of street names resulting from the efforts of Faroese local authorities to define separate addresses for each household since 2002. The new street names in large and small municipalities are compared to street names in the two largest cities, Tórshavn and Klaksvík, as well as to the pre-existing unofficial street names in the villages. Based on surveys and interviews, the thesis describes the reasoning and assessments behind the choice of specific street names that condition user acceptance of these new names.
Home does not exist - K. O. Viderø’s travel writings
Ph.D. dissertation: Bergur D. Hansen
Started August 1, 2011
Finished April 25, 2015
The researcher will attempt to classify and analyse K.O. Viderø’s travel writings based on the literary tradition in which European travel literature is rooted.
This includes discussing and establishing their genre. The question of genre is, however, not just one of classification, but rather of the importance of genre for our views on literature and the I/narrator in literature.
Símun av Skarði's complete works
One area of research is the work of Símun av Skarði (1870-1942), director of the Faroese Folk High School. His songs and hymns, originals and translations, have been national treasures ever since they were published and have been accessible in song and hymnbooks. His writings, or parts of them, were, however, never published. Turið Sigurðardóttir began compiling Símun av Skarði’s poetry, prose and translations. Registers drawn up by Jóhannes av Skarði (1911-1999) and interviews with him were of great help in this work and happily the first volume was published before Jóhannes passed away.
Between 1998 and 2004 the compilation was published in 7 volumes – a book a year - by publishing house Fannir:
Volume 1: Poetry
Volumes 2 and 3: Articles, sermons, homages and reviews
Volume 4: Stories and folktales
Volume 5: Translations of the Icelandic sagas
Volume 6: One original and one translated play
Volume 7: Translated contemporary novel
A supplement to the seven volumes is also in the pipeline. It will constitute an overview and its contents will include: texts undiscovered when the volume in which they should have been included was printed; overviews of where the individual texts were previously printed and where they are located in the compilation; comments, explanations and discussions of individual texts; an index of literature about Símun av Skarði.