Faroese - A Language Course for Beginners

by Jonathan Adams

Genres: Linguistics

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Apostate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to jump through many hoops over the course of six years to get my hands on this gem, but it was well worth it. Very, very few textbooks or grammars of this language exist - the other two in print in English are dry as dust, reference grammars seemingly aimed at professional linguists (& one is decades out-of-date). By contrast, this treats Faroese as a living, breathing modern language aimed at the average language learner. I find the audio disc to be particularly helpful as the spelling does not reflect the phonology very well (it wasn't designed to, really) & I highly doubt I'll ever meet a native speaker. There is a companion grammar.

[Johnathan Greyshade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this an assessable book that clearly explains its subject but it is out of print in the best possible way. It's available as a free PDF version with the audio files at various places on the web. I think it's still technically under copyright but the publishers did two printings, took their profits and let it loose. Just search for the name. The other great resource that's helping me learn Faroese is Faroese Broadcasting. A public broadcasting service that is the only locally produced television in the Faroes. They have a huge archive of old shows and live streaming of television and radio. kvf.fo

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hetta bók er mær nýt sum byrjandi í føroyskum: grunnleggjandi málfrøðilig hugtøk greidust lesaranum gjølla frá, og inniheldur hóp av gagnligum orðatilfari.

[Katrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing I must stress out is that I was not reading this book to actually really learn the language. In the beginning I was reading attentively but later on skipped many parts because I would have to study to progress. All I wanted to do was to get a feeling for the language, to understand the grammar, to learn some word-building. And in that the book has been very helpful. Also the bits about the Faroese Islands and their inhabitants were most interesting. During my studies I have seen various language learning books, in a variety of languages. I have seen really good ones and also rather dull ones. I must say that Faroese is a difficult language and the book is not trying to hide the fact. But the lessons are structured very well, there is a lot of information, reading and listening exercises, a lot of original material. It was a true delight to read through this book and now I really would love to visit the Faroese. :P