Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2008, Page 113

LÁNISTICIN OC DANSKTIFØROYSKUM
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■ tað varein nýggjan
motor, sum bátinum
tørvaði
■ tað er ein nýggjan
motor, sum bátinum
tørvar
■ tað er ein nýggjur
motorur, sum bátinum
tørvar
■ tað varein nýggjur
motorur, sum bátinum
tørvaði
Figure 5. Cleft sentences in Faroese. Speakers prefer tað var ein nýggjan motor, sum bátinum tørvaði 'it-
nom. was-3.p.sg. a new engine-acc.-sg„ that boat-the.dat.-sg. needed. Next is tað er ein nýggjan motor,
sum bátinum tørvar 'it is-3.p.sg.pres. a new engine-acc.sg. that boat-the-dat.sg- needs. The nominative
clefts are not ungrammatical, but acc. is preferred. The nominative sentences are tað er ein nýggjur mo-
torur, sum bátinum tørvar 'it-nom. is-3.p.sg. a new engine-nom.sg., that boat-the-dat. needs and tað var
ein nýggjur motorur, sum bátinum tørvaði 'it-nom. was-3.p.sg. a new engine-nom.sg. that boat-the-
dat. needed-past.
like-l.p.sg. milk-the-acc.' instead of mcer
dámar mjólkina 'me-dat.-sg. like-3-p.sg. milk-
the-acc' 'I like the milk’. These changes show
that place is becoming more and more im-
portant in Faroese. The subject must be in
the nominative and the word or words typi-
cally found in the object position now must
be in the accusative so that the nominative
ein nýggjur motorur changes to the accusa-
tive ein nýggjan motor, hence the change in
the clef sentences.
Faroese behaves like Mainland Scandi-
navian (and English) in benefactive con-
structions as seen in (14). Flere, the object,
Fríðu, benefits from the action, again allow-
ing for the behavior of Faroese and Danish to
be viewed as the result of language contact.
(14a) Eg bakaði Fríðu eina køku. (Far.)
l-nom. baked-pp. Fridu-dat. a cake-acc.
‘I baked Fríðu a cake.'
(14b) Jeg bagede Frida en kage. (Dan.)
l-nom. baked Frida-obl. a cake-obl.
'I baked Frida a cake.’
(14c) *Eg bakaði Fríðu kóku. (Icl.)
l-nom. baked-pp. Frida-dat. a cake-acc.
'I baked Friða a cake.’
In Faroese, the indefinite pronoun ein 'a’ de-
veloped from the numeral ein 'one' as in so
many other languages - see for example