Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
Johan Hendrik Poulsen UDC 323.15(491.2):80 
Academia Faeroensis 
Paroe Islands 
Norway 
ON THE FAROESE LANGUAGE* 
Faroese is the vernacular of a tiny nation counting only about 
45,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, situated between the 
Faroe Islands and Scotlands. For our livelihood we rely 
exclusively on fisheries. Our language is descended from the Old 
Norse language of the Viking Age settlers who came to the islands 
in the ninth century, and is therefore closely related to 
Icelandic, the orthography of which was the model for the 
creation of our etymologically based written form of 1846. 
There is evidence that in the Middle Ages Old Faroese was the 
written language of the Islanders, but by the introduction of the 
Lutheran Reformation in the middle of the 16th century Danish was 
introduced as the language of the Church, Court and culture as a 
whole. As a dependency of Norway the Faroe Islands had in 1380 
come under Danish rule together with Norway. But Faroese was not 
abolished as the spoken everyday language of the people, as well 
as the bearer of a rich tradition of Medieval ballads and tales. 
So in due time, when the people in the nineteenth century woke up 
to national self-knowledge, the language, though roughly treated 
by Danish influence, nevertheless was still so sound in its core 
that it was possible to embark upon the ambitious task of 
restoring it and developing it to become a language fit to meet 
the demands of modern times. This has been a long and difficult 
process, which is still going on. It often met resistance both 
from conservative Faroese, who had got used to the position of 
Danish as the "high language," and from Danish officials who in 
the progress of the Faroese language saw a threat to the old 
ruling position of Danish. But after a long and laborious 
struggle, eventually by the Home Rule Act of 1948 Faroese was 
recognised as the main language of the Islands. 
According to that Faroese is now the official language in all 
fields administered by the Faroese Home Rule authorities. The 
last century has seen an ever increasing publishing activity in 
the Faroese language, now about 100 book titles a year. Faroese 
is the language of instruction in all schools, of the Church, the 
newspapers, and radio and television, But the smallness of the 
population is of course an obstacle toa fast development in this 
area, so still it is necessary to lean to another language, in 
our case for historical reasons, Danish, which is now taught from 
the third year of school as the first foreign language. But the 
compact presence of a foreign language is in many respects a 
severe threat to the integrity of the Faroese language and 
therefore demands both vigilance and an active language planning. 
Much has been achieved, but there is no reason to give up in our 
  
* Original: English 
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Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
time of increasing influence from the “international culture" and 
its main language, English. The most recent step taken to 
strengthen the position of Faroese is the establishing of an 
official language committee, of which I have the honour of being 
elected the first Chairman. 
We who are concerned with the welfare of our language take a 
vivid interest in all that is done to strengthen and cultivate 
the languages and cultures of all small nationalities - and are 
proud and glad to note that some have already seen an example in 
our struggle to preserve and develop our language. 
The topic of your seminar is in our eyes an important one. We 
wish that your seminar will be a success, and look forward to 
reading the proceedings in order to get inspiration from them in 
our continued efforts. 
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