Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1977, Side 47

Hví hevur nekarin fepur?
55
Poul Nolsoe 1912 — we understand that the substitution of the suffix
-ari for -er is the first step in the process of integration. Later lenes plo-
sives have been exchanges for fortes; Da. neger — Far. negari, later nekari.
Other loanwords that are transformed in accordance with Far. are. e g.
fepur, fipur, putur, sleta, keta, kápil, tok; Da. feber, fiber, pud(d)er, slæde,
kæde, kabel, tog (fever, fiber, powder, sleigh, chain, cable, train).
Some words exchange the plosive but keep foreign stress (on the
penultimate): sjokuláta, marmuláta, remouláta; Da. chokolade, marmelade,
remoulade. Other words with this stress always keep the Da. spelling of
the plosive, e. g. garderoba (cloakroom), fasada, blokkada, komedia. Spell-
ing sometimes varies considerably. Thus sjokuláta is also written sjokoláta,
chokolada and sukurláta. Some words keep the Da. spelling throughout,
e. g. radar, grad, soda. In some loanwords the plosives are written as
fortes in Dictionarium Færoense by Svabo (1746—1824), whereas modern
Far. has adopted the Da. spelling, e. g. prædika (preach), Svabo preatika;
edikur (vinegar), Svabo Etikur. There is no difference of pronunciation in
Far. between words spelt with fortes plosives and those with lenes.
The latter part of the article deals with the substitution of the suffix
-er in Da. loanwords. Several old suffixes have merged in Da. -er\ Lat.
-er, svarabhakti vowel before r, and Lat. -arius. The corresponding suf-
fixes in Far. are -er, -ar, -ur and -ari. Most Da. loanwords exchange the
suffix -er for -ur or -ari, and the interest is focused on words with these
suffixes.
The derivational suffix -ari has a high frequency in modern Far. and
is especially productive in forming nomina agentis. To keypa (buy) is
formed keypari, to velja (elect) veljari etc. Many nom. ag. denote pro-
fession, e. g. bakari (baker), múrari (mason), prentari (printer). Some
words which are originally nom. ag., have no corresponding verbs in Far.,
e. g. snikkari (joiner), skómakari (shoemaker), skraddari (tailor). With
such words as models the Da. ending -er in names of professions is regu-
larly transformed to -ari in Far. loanwords, e. g. apotekari (pharmacist),
elektrikari (electrician), Da. apoteker, elektriker. The next step is that the
ending -er in all Da. words denoting persons be rendered with -ari in Far.
For Da. politiker (politician), fanatiker (fanatic), svensker (Swede),
gangster, neger we get Far. politikari, fanatikari, svenskari, gangstari,
nekari.
Also the suffix -or in Da. is sometimes transformed to -ari in loanwords
denoting persons; thus Far. doktari, rektari, professari for Da. doklor,
rektor, professor.
The suffix -ari is not used exclusively for denoting human beings. Other
concrete words may also end in -ari, e. g. flúgvari (airplane) and trolari
(trawler), which are nomina agentis, and, without corresponding verbs,
pílari and kjallari (cellar).