The Faroese-English Phrasebook

It does exist, and it's still somewhat useful, especially for those who want something small, light and easy-going to walk around with, even if some of the 700 entries are just a touch out-of-date. Sometime in 1940, two writers had "a long-felt want" to publish this little book and since that time, there doesn't seem to be any other book of its kind like it. So without this and Forvo, we would be left on our own for quick fixes. Zijo's "700 Phrases in English-Faroese & 700 Reglur Á Føroysk-Enskum" is less than 60 pages and contains a short glossary of 'useful words' in both Faroese-English and English-Faroese, the cardinal numbers, telling the time, and about 30 pages of 'useful' phrases such as "The weather is bad," and "Have you any fountain pens?" What makes this book great for people with a working knowledge of English pronunciation is how it provides not just the translation in the often-difficult-to-figure-out-how-to-pronounce Faroese, but a simplified English phonetic translation, or how the Faroese would be written if a right and proper Englishman preceded Hammershaimb in transcribing the language. The Faroese translations into English are accompanied by a Faroese phonetical version as well. Here is an example:

What is the time    Kvairt airh klokkan    Hvat er klokkan    Vátt iðs ðe teim

Now, we read in the introduction that the r used above in Kvairt is soundless, and intended to give the vowels the correct sound. So i guess we pronounce this like air but without the r. There are other tips, and only a few, so at least we don't have to memorize a cumbersome set of rules like that in Lockwood's Modern Faroese.

Now, we all know the difficulty in this type of work and we can see the troubles that come along with learning a language in such a way. Wiki has a Faroese guide that is similar in style, a sort of how-to-pronounce the useful travel phrases, but there is little standardization, and as a result I've been forced to unlearn the pronunciations of many combinations of letters learned from sources such as this for the last year. Things get more complicated and disconcerting when listening to the different pronunciations on Forvo from Faroese speakers. Our heads are spun around when we hear Faroese speakers from different islands pronouncing something as seemingly simple as Torshavn. I'm losing the hair in the back of my head from continuous scratching. As for the loss of hair on the top of my head, that is something different altogether. So can we take anything from this book, or is it merely a curiosity in the life of an obsessed and all-too-willing and persistent Faroese language learner? The Faroese phonetic translation of English is actually instructive. Being careful with the use of Ð's and ð's (often used to pronounce our 'th' sound), I can see the pronunciation of the Faroese letters if a Faroese speaker were transcribing our language, and it's beautiful looking. Above we have Vátt, and we know how á is pronounced if two consonants follow compared to one (the so-called long and short vowels), and so on - until that little voice in my head reminds me again that it's not that simple and starts shooting off Vagar, Vík, vindur... ...and I start fading and begin wondering what I have gotten myself into. Not all V's are V's or v's v's, if that makes any sense, and so it goes with all the other letters backwards through the alphabet, and I'm sure you can see now the fact that it makes perfect sense to me just proves how lost I am in this wonderful and difficult language. But slow and steady wins the race, though I'm reminded of all the things the speedy hare was able to do while in the race and still managed a respectable second place finish.

And for those who skipped down to the end: it's a compact book, and until someone puts together an updated version of something similar, it's all we have. For now, you can rest assured knowing you won't visit Faroe without being fully capable of ordering two packs of playing cards from a store clerk.