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Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb | |
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| Born | March 25, 1819[1] |
| Died | April 8, 1909(1909-04-08) (aged 90) |
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Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (Faroese pronunciation:[ˈvɛnsɛslɔusˈulrikusˈhamːəʂhaimp],Icelandic:[ˈvɛnsɛslɔisˈʏltrɪkʏsˈhamːɛrshaimp]; March 25, 1819 – April 8, 1909)[1] was a FaroeseLutheran minister who established the modernorthography ofFaroese – the language of theFaroe Islands – based on theIcelandic language, which like Faroese, derives from western dialects ofOld Norse.
Hammershaimb was born inSandavágur on the island ofVágar in theFaroe Islands. He was a Lutheranparish priest inKvívík and arural dean inNes on the Faroese island ofEysturoy before settling inDenmark in 1878. In addition to his contributions to the written standard of Faroese, he was also a knownfolklorist. During the years 1847–1848, and again in 1853, he returned to the Faroe Islands to study the dialects and to collect the native ballads and folklore, which he published in 1851–1855 under the title ofFæröiske Kvæder. In 1854, he published a grammar of Faroese.[2]
At one point, the language spoken in the Faroe Islands wasOld West Norse, whichNorwegian settlers had brought with them.[3] Between the 9th and the 15th centuries, a distinct Faroese language evolved, although it was still intelligible to speakers of Old West Norse. It would have been closely related to theNorn language ofOrkney andShetland. However, for some 300 years until the 19th century, under the dual kingdom ofDenmark–Norway,Danish was the language of religion, education, and administration in the Faroe Islands.[3]
Hammershaimb created his spelling system for Faroese in 1846.[4] It was etymological, with the vowels based on written Icelandic, rather than phonetically descriptive (as in, for example,Welsh). For instance, the lettereth (Ð ð) has nophonemes attached to it.[3] In this, Hammershaimb had accepted the advice of the Icelandic independence leaderJón Sigurðsson, who had seen the manuscript for hisBemerkninger med Hensyn til den Færøiske Udtale ("Notes with Respect to Faroese Pronunciation"); Hammershaimb considered that, despite its artificiality, this was the only approach that would overcome the problems of differing dialects in the islands.[2][5] Hammershaimb's orthography met with some opposition for its complexity. In 1889,Jakob Jakobsen proposed modifying Hammershaimb's system to bring it closer to the spoken language, but a committee charged with considering the proposal in 1895 advocated only minor revisions, and the bulk of Hammershaimb's orthography remained in force.[5] In 1886–1891, Hammershaimb published his principal work,Færøsk Anthologi; it incorporated an account of the islands and their inhabitants, a variety of prose and verse in the Faroese language, and a grammar, and – in the second volume – a lexicon by Jakobsen.
A new national written literature in Faroese became possible only after the language's orthography was normalized. Its development was promoted by nationalist agitation, which hastened the restoration of theFaroese Parliament in 1852 and the end of the Danish royal trade monopoly in 1856. During the late 19th century, modern Faroese literature began to appear and the first Faroese newspaper,Føringatíðindi, appeared in 1890.[4] Faroese literature came into its own after the turn of the 20th century. AfterWorld War II, Faroese became the official language of the Faroe Islands.[3]
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