Alle Nordomleden zijn uitgenodigd voor een lezing betreffende “Waves Across the Atlantic: Reevaluating the Genetic Position of Faroese”.
Wanneer: Vrijdag 6 Juni 2025, van 16:00 – 17:00
Waar: Lipsius Cleveringaplaats 1 2311 BD Leiden Room 0.03
Wie: Simon den Hertog
Wat: Faroese, spoken by approximately 70,000 people in the Faroe Islands, Denmark and beyond, is traditionally classified as a West Nordic language alongside Icelandic and (West) Norwegian. Within this subgroup, it is often paired with Icelandic under the “Insular Nordic” subclade—in opposition to the “Continental Nordic” languages, i.e., Danish, Swedish, and (certain varieties of) Norwegian—or left unclassified. However, recent scholarship tentatively suggests closer ties between Faroese and Southwest Norwegian, making the classification of Faroese a contentious yet underexplored issue.
This presentation reexamines the genetic position of Faroese through existing evidence and newly identified linguistic innovations, revealing a complex network of isoglosses between the Nordic-speaking islands and Mainland Scandinavia. Further enriched by historical records and novel genomic data, the findings suggest that the Faroese people maintained robust social ties with Southwestern Norwegians, evidenced by a sizable set of shared innovations. Contact with Icelanders seems to have been far more slight, and is supported by only a handful of innovations. While the presence of shared Faroese-Icelandic innovations prevents Faroese from being unilaterally classified as “Norwegian-Faroese” or “Continental Nordic”, the overwhelming number of Faroese-Norwegian isoglosses invites the reexamination of the “Insular Nordic” label, which does not adequately capture the position of Faroese.