Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen

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When the Faroese speak of a "telda" these days, they often think that it stands for Tel e Dat a. Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen derived it from the Nordic word tal for "number". Today nobody in the Faroe Islands speaks of a komputari , as these devices were called earlier.
In the early 1980s, the Faroe Islands got their first helicopter of their own. At first it was called helikoptari , but around 1985 Poulsen made a “tyrla” out of it and derived it from the word for whisk. This neologism was also able to completely displace the foreign-language synonym.

Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen (born June 20, 1934 in Sumba , Faroe Islands ) is a Faroese linguist . In addition to the first native dictionary Føroysk orðabók , the Faroese language owes him a number of neologisms that are considered exemplary of the Faroese language policy , of which he is the undisputed mentor.

Life

Jóhan Hendrik is the son of Niels Winther Poulsen (1902–1990) from Skopun and Kristianna, née Mikkelsen (1904–1985) from Tvøroyri . His father was a teacher in Sumba until he got a job in his hometown of Skopun on Sandoy in 1940.

Jóhan Hendrik went to school in Skopun until he went to Tórshavn in 1948 to do his Abitur at the Hoydalar grammar school in 1952. He then studied Latin and English at the learned college in Copenhagen, but then switched to Scandinavian studies . From 1960 to 1962 he studied in Reykjavík . In 1966 he completed his master's degree in Copenhagen. He then worked there for a year on a dictionary for Old Norse . In 1967 and 1968 he was a lecturer in Old Norse and the modern Scandinavian languages ​​in Illinois .

In 1968 he came to the University of the Faroe Islands (Faculty of Faroese Philology Føroyamálsdeildin ) on a fee basis . In 1972 he became head of the department with the title Lektor . On December 7, 1986, Prime Minister Atli P. Dam appointed him Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of the Faroe Islands (focus on Faroese). This made him the second Faroese professor after Christian Matras . He retired on September 1, 1997.

plant

While still a student, he helped Christian Matras with the publication of the Føroysk-donsk orðabók (Faroese-Danish dictionary), which was published as the second edition in 1961 and is still authoritative today. In 1968 he was entrusted by the University of the Faroe Islands with the publication of a supplement to this dictionary, which was published in 1974.

As he looked through the large collection of words in the Faroese Faculty, he noticed the myriad questions that arose about these words regarding their meaning, usage, pronunciation, distribution, etc. Poulsen's ambition was to answer these questions, and he knew from studying in Iceland that the radio was used there to reach native speakers who could say something about it. The Útvarp Føroya brought the first program Orðabókin ("the dictionary") on October 23, 1969 , which from then on was broadcast every 14 days in winter. The 198th broadcast came on April 26, 1993 and was the last. Most of the responses to these programs went into the work on the great Føroysk orðabók , which appeared in 1998.

It is the first native language dictionary for the Faroese and has 65,000 headwords. For Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen it was the culmination of his work. In 2007 it was completely put on the Internet.

Offices

Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen was a member of the council of Føroya Fróðskaparfelag , the Faroese Academy of Sciences , from 1977 to 1992 . He was co-editor of the Academy's books 23rd to 39th. From 1987 to 1990 he was a member of the university directorate.

The Faroese language also owes him many neologisms (new word creations) in the context of the Faroese language policy , of which he is considered to be the head. From its inception on September 24, 1985 until October 1, 1997, Poulsen was Chairman of the Faroese Language Council. In this capacity he wrote all editions of the Orðafar series , which constantly provided information on cases of doubt about the Faroese language and is now available on the Internet.

When the Faroese People's Church published the second edition of the hymn book in 1990, Poulsen was one of those responsible.

In 1992 the state government of the Faroe Islands set up a committee on the question of Faroese personal names. Poulsen was one of the members. He was also a member of the Tórshavn Commune Committee on urban street names.

At the University of Education in the Faroe Islands, he sat on the council that wrote the examination questions for Faroese. He was also one of the examiners there.

Poulsen was chairman of Orðabókagrunnur , a public fund that takes care of the publication of all Faroese dictionaries. As a representative of the Faroe Islands, he sat in the Nordic Language Secretariat of the Nordic Council and in NORNA , the Nordic committee for name research . For the project of the European language atlas Atlas Linguarum Europæ he was the representative of Faroese.

In 1991 Poulsen was honored with the Faroe Islands Literature Prize for non-fiction.

Neologisms

The work Mál í mæti from 2004 lists a selection of 500 neologisms that go back to Jóhan Hendrik Winther Poulsen. Examples of his most popular word creations are:

  • telda - computer (from tal "number")
  • tyrla - helicopter (from tyril "Quirl")
  • fløga - CD (originally "thick slice of cold cuts")
  • flogbóltur - volleyball (lit. "flying ball")
Wiktionary: fløga  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: telda  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: tyrla  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Publications and essays

(Selection)

  • 1966 - Færøsk personnavneskik i fortid and nutid. Personnavneskikken i Sandoy syssel (Master's thesis on the tradition of Faroese personal names with an emphasis on Sandoy)
  • 1969 - Føroysk lýsingarorð, sum enda við -aligur . In: Fróðskaparrit . Volume 17, pp. 100–104 (On Faroese adjectives that end in -aligur .)
  • 1974 - Føroysk donsk orðabók. Færøsk-dansk ordbog Eykabind. Supplement binding . Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag (supplement to the Faroese-Danish dictionary by Mads Andreas Jacobsen and Christian Matras from 1961)
  • 1981 - The Faroese Language Situation . In: Einar Haugen, JC McClure, D. Thomsen (Eds.): Minority Languages ​​Today . Pp. 144-51. Edinburgh University Press
  • 1981 - Nogle ord om lovgivning and færøsk sprog . In: Språk i Norden 1981 . ("A few words about the legislation and the Faroese language")
  • 1985 - Orðagerð á heimligum støði . In: Språk i Norden 1985 . Pp. 46–56 ("Word creations on home soil")
  • 1985 - Fólkanøvn í Føroyum . In: Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica . Volume 3, pp. 59–71 (" Personal names in the Faroe Islands ")
  • 1985 - Nøkur teldorð (10 pp. "Some computer terms ")
  • 1986 - Færøiske sprogspørgsmål . In: Språk i Norden 1986. pp. 60–64 (“Faroese Language Issues ”)
  • 1989 - Engelsk påvirkning på færøsk . In: Språk i Norden 1989 . ("English influence on the Faroese")
  • 1994 - Sandoyarmál - leysligar hugleiðingar . In: Fróðskaparrit . Volume 42, pp. 117-123
  • 1995 - Høgætt og lágætt . In: Málting . Volume 15, pp. 2-5
  • 1995 - Vargur and revur í Føroyum . In: Svenska landsmål och svensk folkliv . Pp. 265-269
  • 1996 - Fløga - lítil orðsøga . In: Málting . Volume 17, pp. 20-24
  • 1996 - Personnavne i færøsk skønlitteratur . In: Språk i Norden 1996
  • 1997 - Det færøske sprog . In: Allan Karker, Birgitta Lindgrend, Ståle Lølnd (eds.): Nordens språk . Pp. 177-192. Oslo: Nordisk språksekretariat - Novus forlag
  • 1997 - Det færøske sprogs situation . In: Bengt Sigurd (ed.): De nordiske språkenes framtid . Pp. 90-102. Oslo: Cappelen
  • 1997 - Flogbóltur . In: Marianne Blomqvist (Ed.): Ord och några visor tillägnade Kurt Zilliacus July 21, 1997. Pp. 226-229. Helsinki
  • 1997 - Føroyskar máliskur . In: Magnús Snædal and Turið Sigurðardóttir (eds.): Frændafundur 2 . Pp. 98-101. Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag
  • 1998 - Føroysk orðabók . Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag (Faroese-Faroese dictionary, since 2007 also online: http://www.obg.fo/fob/fob.php )
  • 2000 - Føroyskt fyri íslendskum árini . In: Magnús Snædal and Turið Sigurðardóttir (eds.): Frændafundur 3 . Pp. 131-137. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan
  • 2002 - Oljuorð (word list about oil production, on the Internet http://www.fmn.fo/listar/oljuord/olju.htm )
  • 2003 - Orðamaðurin Christian Matras . In: Christian Matras - aldarminning . Pp. 73-81. Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag
  • 2004 - beginning only Johansen et al. (Ed.): Mál í mæti: greinasavn eftir Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen útgivið í sambandi við sjeyti ára føðingardag hansara June 20, 2004 Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, ISBN 99918-41-84-9 (collection of articles)

Secondary literature

  • 2004 - Beginnings Johansen and Hans Joensen: Formæli . In: Mál í mæti: greinasavn eftir Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen útgivið í sambandi við sjeyti ára føðingardag hansara June 20, 2004 Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag ISBN 99918-41-84-9 (foreword to the celebratory publication on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the birth of . Poulsen, pp. 9–11, May 6, 2004)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of July 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ List of literature in: Höskuldur Þráinsson et al .: Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, 2004
  3. ↑ List of literature in: Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen et al .: Føroysk orðabók . Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, 1998
personal data
SURNAME Poulsen, Jóhan Hendrik Winther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Faroese linguist
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Sumba , Faroe Islands