| Fårömål | |
|---|---|
| Fårö Gutnish | |
| Native to | Sweden |
| Region | Fårö |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
swe-far | |
| Glottolog | faro1245 |
Fårömål (Fårö Gutnish) is the dialect ofGutnish spoken on theBaltic island ofFårö north ofGotland. The name "Fårö" (inGutnish,Fåre) is derived from the wordsö, meaning island, and probablyfar-, which is a word stem associated with travel, as in the Swedish verbfara (to travel). The name Fårö probably means 'the island you have to travel to' or 'the traveler's island'. Mainland Swedes might misinterpret the name Fårö to be derived fromfår, theStandard Swedish word for 'sheep', due to the many sheep on the island. That word is absent from Modern Gutnish, which uses the wordlamm (which in Swedish means 'lamb') instead.[1] Gotlanders describe Fårömål as sounding "coarse" and as characterized by "mumbling".[2]
Fårömål is the most archaic dialect of Gutnish in terms ofmorphology andphonetics. The dialect is closest toOld Gutnish and has retained, for example, the a-ending of the infinitive. There are also verb endings that no longer exist in the dialect of the main island (Storlandsmål) as in Swedish and Danish (e. g.: ja kimbur, däu kumbort, han kumbur). And while the unstressed endings are often dropped in the Main Island dialect, the Fårö Gutnish has preserved them (e. g.Han skudd' gleid' (gläid') ti Fol u kaup' skog on the main island →Han skudde gläida till Fola u kaupa skog in Farømål).[3]
In Fårömålet there are sentence constructions, where Swedish or Danish would normally insert adet (e.g.da bleir an mild vintor instead ofdå blirdet en mild vinter in Swedish order bliverdet en mild vinter in Danish).[4] The dialect also shares similarities with Danish (e.g.inte rätt/rett stor instead ofinte särskilt stor).[5] At the same time itsintonation is a little closer to Swedish.[6]
| Fårö Gutnish | Mainland Gutnish | Swedish | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bondi | Bonde | Bonde | Bonde | Farmer |
| Fastlande[a] | Gåttland orGutland | Gotland | Gotland | Gotland |
| Svensk Fastlande | Fastlande | Sverige | Sverige | Sweden |
| Hertingg | Hertingg | Hertig | Hertug | Duke |
| åvla | åvle | odla | avle | (to) farm |