Jákup Jakobsen

Jakob Jakobsen on a 1980 Postverk Føroya stamp .

Jákup Jakobsen , actually Jakob Jakobsen (born February 22, 1864 in Tórshavn , Faroe Islands , † August 15, 1918 ) was a Faroese linguist . He is considered one of the most important fathers of the modern Faroese language , the first editor of the Faroese fairy tales and at the same time the savior of the last remnants of the Norn .

Life

Jákup was the son of the bookseller Hans Nicolai Jacobsen ( HN Jacobsens Bókahandil ) and Johanne Hansdatter. At the age of 13 he was sent to Denmark to do the Herlufsholms Skole , which he graduated from in 1883. He completed his teaching degree in Scandinavian Studies with Danish as a major in 1891.

Jakobsen and the Faroese

Jakobsen made a name for himself in the Faroese newspaper Dimmalætting in 1889 as a critic of VU Hammershaimb's orthography , which he found too etymologizing . He called for a return to the near-sound writings of Jens Christian Svabo , Johan Henrik Schrøter and others. Apparently he represented the views of the British phonetician Henry Sweet (1845–1912). Jakobsen's best argument was that you couldn't raise every native speaker to be a linguist until he learned Hammershaimb's spelling.

A lively debate ensued, which was carried out in a controversy that was unusual for Faroese standards. This happened in the magazine of the Føringafelag (Färingergesellschaft) Føringatíðini , where a "commission of 7" ( sjeymannanevndin ) was set up, to which both Hammershaimb and Jakobsen belonged.

The “Broyting” (change) came about as a compromise, but apart from a few minor details it could not prevail against Hammershaimb's orthography. However, Jakobsen stuck to this spelling in his subsequent works.

Nonetheless, Jakobsen helped make Hammershaimb's Færøsk Anthologi (1891) the standard work of its time by providing phonetic examples of the dialects, but above all a glossary of 10,000 Faroese-Danish keywords, which was the first small dictionary of the New Faroese written language depicted.

The Greifswald professor Christer Lindqvist describes Jakobsen's perhaps most important achievement in 2003 as follows:

“Jakobsen was the first to use Faroese as a scientific language and, especially as the creator of neologisms, left a lasting mark on his mother tongue. Until then, the new written language was mainly used for everyday texts and poetry. With Jakobsen's Broyting texts, NM Petersen's idea that written Faroese should be restricted to linguistic monuments is finally abandoned. [...] Jakobsen adds a modern vocabulary to the etymologizing orthography. "

One consequence of this is the Faroese language policy based on the Icelandic model.

Jakobsen became immortal for his people in another area as well: The publication of Faroese folk tales and folk tales ( Færøske folkesagn og æventyr , 1898–1901). They are still published as textbook editions.

Jakobsen and the Norn

In addition to his services to Faroese, Jakob Jakobsen was also of great importance for another Old-West Norse language, namely the extinct Shetland language Norn . In the 16th century, most Shetlanders still spoke Norn, as they called it, but it was superseded by Lower Scottish in the centuries that followed .

When this language became extinct at the end of the 19th century, thanks to Jakob Jakobsen's work on the Nordic place names there ( Shetlandsøernes stednavne , 1901) and an etymological dictionary ( Etymologisk Ordbog over det norrøne sprog på Shetland , 1908–1912 ), saved from complete oblivion. He traveled all over the Shetland Islands, visited many residents, found the language in simple words, incomprehensible sequences of words and rhymes, but rarely in longer sentences. However, he managed to find over 10,000 words.

Works

• 1891 - Færøsk anthologi (together with VU Hammershaimb ). Copenhagen, 1891. - 2 volumes (3rd edition Tórshavn, 1991)
• 1892 - Poul Nolsø : et Livs- and Tidsbillede fra Færøerne ved Slutningen af ​​det 18. and Begyndelsen af ​​det 19. Aarhundrede - 87 p. (Biography of Nólsoyar Páll)
• 1897 - Det norrøne sprog på Shetland - 193 pp.
• 1898–1901 - Færøske folkesagn og æventyr - 648 pp. (4th edition 1975)
  • Färösägner efter Jakob Jakobsen's "Færøske folkesagn og æventyr" i översättning av Birgitta Hylin. Stockholm, 1999 (in Swedish)
  • 4 ævintýr: úr Sagnum og ævintýrum (Ed. Lydia Didriksen; drawings: Hanni Bjartalíð). Føroya skúlabókagrunnur, Tórshavn 2003. - 75 p. (4 Faroese fairy tales as a textbook)
• 1901 - Shetlandsøernes stednavne - 205 p.
  • The place-names of Shetland (2nd edition - The Orcadian, Kirkwall 1993. - xxviii, 273 pp.)
• 1902–1903 - Austfirðinga sœgur 264 p. (In Icelandic)
• 1904 - Færøsk sagnhistorie: med en indledende oversigt over øernes almindelige historie og literature - 81 p. ('Faroese saga history with an introductory overview of Faroese literature and history ')
• 1907 - Diplomatarium Færoense: føroyskt fodnbrævasavn: við søguligum rannsóknum (reprinted 1985)
• 1908–1912 - Etymologisk Ordbog over det norrøne sprog på Shetland (3 volumes)
  • An etymological dictionary of the Norn language in Shetland (2nd edition - Shetland Folk Society, Lerwick 1985. - 2 volumes)
• 1912 - Poul Nolsöe: livssöga og Irkingar - 340 p. (Extended biography of Nólsoyar Páls)

items

• 1957 - Greinir og ritgerðir - 255 p. (Articles and essays edited by Christian Matras ) - here u. a .:
  • 1889 - "Nogle ord om færøsk, samt et forslag til en ny færøsk retskrivning". In: Dimmalætting , Tórshavn, nos. 20–25
  • 1890 - "Det færøske Retskrivningsspørgsmål". In: Dimalætting , Tórshavn, No. 12-14
  • 1904 - "Dansur og Kvøðing" (" Faroese chain dance and Faroese ballads ")

In German

• 2006 - The legend of Beinta and Peder Arrheboe (Sagnet om Beinta og Peder Arrheboe). In: Verena Stössinger, Anna Katharina Dömling (eds.): "I know about islands ..." Stories from the Faroe Islands. Unionsverlag, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-293-00366-4 .

literature

• Roy Grønneberg: Jakobsen and Shetland . Shetland Publishing, Lerwick 1981, 96 pp.
• Marianna Debes Dahl: Endurskin av Jákupi doktara: frá brøvum, hann skrivaði til síni 1875-1918 . Fannir, Tórshavn 2002, 245 p. (Biography based on Jacobsen's letters)
• Christer Lindqvist : Language ideological influences on Faroese orthography (research) . In: North-Western European Language Evolution (NOWELE) , Odense, 43, 2003, pp. 77-144
• Höskuldur Thráinsson, Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, Zakaris Svabo Hansen: Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar . Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, Tórshavn 2004, ISBN 99918-41-85-7 (501 pages)
• Kr. Kaalund: Jakobsen, Jakob . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 8 : Holst – Juul . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1894, p. 383-384 (Danish, runeberg.org ). (Entry about Jakobsen during his lifetime. Other biographical articles in the same work are from himself, for example the one about VU Hammershaimb)

Web links

• Hammershaimb and Jakobsen. Faroestamps.fo