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Hjalmar P. Peterson and Jonathan Adams. Faroese: A Language Course for Beginners. Tórshavn: Stiöin, 2009. Textbook pp. 400 + cd-rom, Grammar pp. 303.
Until the publication of this two-volume introduction to Farnese language, anyone wanting to study Faroese had to choose between WB. Lockwood's Introduction to Modern Faroese (1955, third printing 1977) and Jeffrei Henriksen's Kursus i F&mk (originally published 1971, most recendy in 1983). Both of these books are top-notch, but Lockwood's is long out of print, and Henriksen's is available only in Danish- and Faroese-language editions. Hjalmar P Peterson and Jonathan Adams have built on the solid foundation laid by their predecessors and produced an up-to-date textbook and accompanying reference grammar that are well suited to both group instruction and self-study.
The textbook volume is structured like P.J.T. Glendening's familiar Teach Tourself Icelandic with each chapter divided into dialogues (samwòa), reading texts (lesistykki), exercises (venjing), vocabulary (oröalysingar), "language points" (málhra), "pronunciation of one or more letters," proverbs (orðat0k), and "historical, geographical, and cultural facts." The dialogues, which present a continuing narrative, give an accurate picture of Faroese language and society at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In Lockwood's introductory dialogue, the Faroese host tells the English visitor that although there now are buses and even some taxis in the Faroes, it is usually more convenient to travel by boat. Times have changed, and in the present book Claire, a visitor from Scotiand, spends her stay driving around town with her new friend Jógvan, whom she meets on the bus from the airport, and zipping through the tunnels from island to island visiting her Faroese relatives. The dialogues center around Claire's adventures with Jógvan and her family during a summer visit to Tórshavn until the final chapter fast-forwards to a surprise postscript: Reader, she married him. We learn that after a long and happy life together in the Faroes, they retired to sunny Spain- always returning in the summer to enjoy the light nights of the north.
This is an engaging and delightful book: it makes one want to go to the Faroes and speak Faroese. The dialogues are good representations of everyday speech, and the short readings introduce the student to more formal language as well as to a variety of registers...