Gøtudanskt

Gøtudanskt/Dano-Faroese IPA| [ˈgøːtʊdaɲ̊kst] (Faroese for "Gøta Danish" or alternatively "street Danish") is a name for the Danish language as spoken in the Faroe Islands. Its intonation and pronunciation is influenced by Faroese. It is likely that the name of the term is derived from the small village of Gøta on Eysturoy, according to Poulsen (1993), where a teacher (1850-1930) spoke Danish with a lot of Faroeisms.

The teacher spoke this kind of Danish everywhere he went, also in the capital Tórshavn, when he visited stores and offices, and it is presumably in this way the term Gøtudanskt spread to the colloquial language.

Maybe this is so, maybe not; still, it is a good story, and it might be the origin to the term "Gøtudanskt", but it is worth to note that Poulsen (1993) does not accept the term Gøtudanskt as it is understood among Faroe Islanders today,that is: Danish spoken as the written standard, but with Faroese interference, or more specific:

Definition of "Gøtudanskt"

Gøtudanskt/Dano-Faroese is highly proficient (L2) Danish spoken mainly as the written Danish standard by Faroe Islanders with Faroese interference at all level of language processing. It is characteristic for the elder generation. The younger generation has a proper Danish pronunciation.’

This is also how the term is understood by people in general, as the following quotation from the Net shows:

‘Tú hevur rætt, at enskt er gott at duga, heimsborgari, men danskt er eisini hent at duga, tá ið tú ert í Flatlondum. Tað ber eisini til at duga gøtudanskt, tí tað líkist øllum teimum norðurlendsku málunum sum danskt, norskt og svenskt. Men gott er at duga rætt danskt nú á døgum, so danir betur skilja okkum, og tað er í longndini eitt sindur vánaligt ikki at duga danskt. Gøtudanskt er líkasum ov lætt, tí tú sigur alt beint fram.’ (www.uf.fo/forum...019403).

Approximately: You, World-Citizen, is also right, that it is good to know English, but it is good for us to know Danish, when we go to Denmark. It is also possible to know Gøtudanskt, because it is so like all the other Mainland Scandinavian languages, like Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. But it is good to know right Danish now days, because that makes it easier for the Danes to understand us, and in the long run, is it a bit of a defeat not to know Danish. Gøtudanskt is almost too easy, because you talk just like it [Danish] is written.

A nice example of Gøtudanskt is the jingle children use when sledging: væk af vejen, konge skrejen‘away from the road, the king is sledging’, where skrejen comes from the Faroese verb at skreiða ‘to sledge’. Another is from Poulsen (1993): De store for flesen, de kan brække traver, where for flesen corresponds to Far. fyri flesini and traver to Faroese tráður, ‘The big ones (coalfish) outside the skerry can break fishing rods’.

Characteristic for Gøtudanskt is:

* Intra-Sentential Code-Switching and Embedded Islands.
* Inter-Sentential Code-Switching
* Convergence
* Nonce Borrowings
* Pronominal Gender in Concrete Nouns
* Congruent Lexicalization in Lexical Borrowings
* Phonological Blends

1 det var faktisk meget spændende, man får et upplivilsi (Intra-Sentential).

2 men min far, [TP hann [T' livdi [AdvP ikke så godt... (Embedded Island).

3 Vi var ude at høste, ude i marken, og så kommer der sådan noget [en flyvemaskine] , og min farmor, hun var bleven gammel, os så siger hun, ja, 'nu skal I,' du ved, ja' nú skulu tit signa tykkum, eg veit ikki hvad det kaldes på dansk, ja, nu skal de signa tykkum for jeg tror det er verdens ende, (Inter-Sentential Code-Switching).

4 denne her pige hos min bror = henda gentan hjá beigga mínum; jeg har prøvet at arbejdet indenfor... = eg havi prøvað at arbeitt innanfyri... (Convergence).

5 som modpregver evolutionsteorien (Nonce-Borrowing, Far. "mótprógvar", Dan. "modbeviser").

6 så købte vi en anden slåmaskine, og hun var meget bedre (Pronominal Gender).

7 og hun sagdede, at du "upp"lever meget...(Congruent Lexicalization in Lexical Borrowings), with Danish head - "lever".

8 englænderne, de havde børser (bøsser : byrsur) (phonological blends).

Data from: The Faroese-Danish Hamburg-Database on Bilingualism. University of Hamburg. Or The K8-Corpus, as worked up by the linguist Hjalmar P. Petersen

Týr's song Ramund Hin Unge on the album Eric the Red is sung in Gøtudanskt.

See also

* Dano-Norwegian
* Stadsfries
* Jopará
* Diglossia

ReferencesPetersen, H. P. (to appear) Væk af vejen, konge skrejen. Gøtudanskt or Dano-Faroese. RASKPoulsen, J. H. W. 1993. . Gøtudanskt. Twenty-eight papers presented to Hans Bekker-Nielsen on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, 28 April 1993. Odense: Odense University Press.