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Hjalmar P. Petersen
Dr.phil., Professor. Linguistics, Faroese
Faculty of Language and Literature
Telephone +298 292541
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  • About
  • Teaching
  • Research
  • Publications
  • CV
  • Other activities
Teaching

  • Basic course: Faroese Phonetics and morphology.

  • MA/BA courses: Historical Linguistics; language contact and bilingualism; modern Faroese

  • Extern ph.d.-supervison. Sissal M. Rasmussen.  Language Acquisition by Faroese Children.

  • Extern ph.d.-supervision: Miro Metsämuuronen, M.A. (University of Helsinki). Project: The sound system of Old Faroese in the light of Danish, English and Celtic language contact evidence. 

  • MA supervision. Asta Wolles. When and how well do Faroese Children know Danish?

  • MA vegleiðing. Olga H.Helmsdal. English in Faroese among young speakers

Research interests

Phonology, morphology, syntax, language contact, language variation and change; langauage changes in the history of Faroese.

Latest publications

  • 2018: “The Development of non-paradigmatic linking elements in Faroese and the decline of the genitive case”.Hjalmar P. Petersen & Renata Szcsepaniak.  Í T. Ackermann, H. J. Simon & Ch. Zimmer (ritstj.) Germanic Genitives, bls. 115-145. John Benjamins Publishing Company: Amsterdam /Philadelphia

  • 2018: "The possible Common Origin of the Phrasal Clitic sa and the Forms of the Personal Pronoun hansara ‘his’, hennara ‘her’, okkara ‘our’ tykkara ‘your’ in Faroese". Í M. Marnersdóttir, Ey. Andreasen, S. A. Dahl, T. K. Jakobsen og E. Isholm (ritstj.) Ballads. New Approaches/Kvæði: Nýggj sjónarmið, bls. 357-372. Fróðskapur: Tórshavn.                 

  • 2018: "Styrkjandi forliðir sum grót-, hunda- og steyr- í grótføroyskur, hundasjúkur og steyrblindur". Fróðskaparrit 64: 21-34. 

  • 2017: "The have/be alternation in contemporary Faroese". Caroline Heycock & Hjalmar P. Petersen. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 2017: 1-16.

  • 2017: Variation in Dative in Faroese. In H. Thráinsson, C. Heycock, H. P. Petersen & Z.S. Hansen (eds.) Syntactic Variation in Insular Scandinavian, p. 114-140. John Benjamins Publishing Company: Amsterdam/Philadelphia

  • 2016: "The Spread of the Phrasal Clinic sa in Faroese". Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 131:105-128.

  • 2015. "Faroese" In P. O. Müller et al. (eds.) Word Formation. An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe, p. 2487-2505.  de Gruyter: Boston.

  • 2015: Føroysk mállæra I. Kyn, orðmyndan og bending [Faroese Grammar I. Gender, wordformation and inflection]. Málseta: Sandavágur.

  • 2014. A Language Course for Beginners (2. edition). J. Adams & H. P. Petersen. Stiðin: Tórshavn.

Description of research

Language variation and language change; modern Faroese. Historical Linguistics

Present projects

  • Færøyske dialektendringsprosesser. (E. Bugge, H. Sandøy, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, Hjalmar P. Petersen.

  • Faroese Online 1 (saman við B. Arnbjørnsd. Háskóli Íslands, J. Mikkelsen (Føroyar) o.o.

  • Leinki: setur.fo/gransking/gransking-asetrinum/foeroyamalsdeildin/granskingarverkaetlanir/

Personal data

Hjalmar Páll Petersen; born in 1962

Education

  • 2008: Dr. phil. from the University of Hamburg with the thesis "Gender Assignment in Modern Faroese" (published: Verlag dr. Kovac: Hamburg, 2009). It is shown in the dissertation that gender is rule based in Faroese, where semantic rules take precedence over morphological rule, which in turn take precedence over phonological rules. 

  • 2000: MA in linguistics. Yale University

  • 1993: Cand. phil. in Nordic Philology. University of Copenhagen

  • 1991: BA in linguistics. University of Iceland

  • 1983: Exam. art. in Faroese and Nordic, University of the Faroe Islands

Positions

  • 2019. Professor in linguistics. Department of Language and Literature. University of the Faroe Islands

  • 2012. Associate Professor in linguistics. Department of Language and Literature. University of the Faroe Islands

  • 2005-2011. Research Associate. SFB Mehrsprachigkeit. University of Hamburg

  • 2004-2005. Temporary teaching. Miðvágur-Sandavágur School 

  • 2004-2005. Temporary teaching in Language History (basic course). Department of Language and Literature. University of the Faroe Islands

  • 2004 (some months). Research Assistant. Department of Language and Literature. University of the Faroe Islands 

  • 2003-2004. Bókadeild Føroya Lærarafelags, translating the trilogy His Dark Materials by P. Pullman. This was a temporary work position some months.

  • 2002-2003. The Faroese Business College in in Kambsdalur. Taught Faroese

  • 2002-2003. Temporary teacher in Language History (basic course) og Historical Linguistics (advanced). Department of Language and Literature. University of the Faroe Islands  

  • 2001-2002. Temporary teacher in Faroese and Latin at Føroya Studentaskúla og HF-Skeiði í Hoydølum (upper secondary education). Temporary teacher at the Department of Language and Literature University of the Faroese Islands (basic course). 

  • 2000-2001. The Faroese Business College in Kambsdalur. Taught Faroese and Danish

  • 1993-1995. Chief Editor at Donsk-føroysk Orðabók. Føroya: Fróðskaparfelag: Tórshavn 1995

Talks

  • 2018: 24-26 mai: “Old, New and Non-Canonical Imperatives in Faroese”. Caroline Heycock & Hjalmar P. Petersen. Non Canonical Imperatives 24-26 mai 2018, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

  • 2018: 08-08. feb. "Features of Faro-Danish". Grammatik i fokus 32. Universitetið í Lund. Iben Nyholm Debess, Hjalmar P. Petersen og Sandra Saxov Lamhauge

  • 2016: 09. Jun. "The HAVE/BE alternation in contemporary Faroese". Talk together with Caroline Heycock on Symposium on perfect auxiliaries in the languages of Europe. University of Copenhagen, 9.-10. June.

  • 2015: 20. Aug. "Dative objects in Faroese. Variation and Change". 26th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics (SCL26). Aalborg, 19.-22. August.

  • 2015: 21. Jul. "The phrasal clitic -sa in the satirical ballad Jákupsa skegg and elsewhere". Ballad Conference. Tórshavn.

  • 2014: 21. Oct. "Sprogstruktur eller netværk som forklaringsfaktorer. Societal Conditions for Language Change". (Exploratory Workshop). Schaefergården. Copenhagen. 

  • 2014: 22. May. "The decline of the synthetic genitive and the grammaticalization of prepositional phrases as possessive constructions in Faroese". Hjalmar P. Petersen & Renate Szczepaniak. Germanic Genetives 22-24. May 2014, Freie Universität Berlin

  • 2014: 06.-07. Feb. "Dativ i færøsk". Grammatik i fokus. Lund

  • 2013: 28. Oct. Integrationsbetænkningen, tosproglighed og undervisning for udlændinge. Alfa-Conference. Tórshavn

  • 2013: October. Talk for doctoral students. Instutitionen för nordiska språk. Uppsala. Sweden. 

  • 2013: 26.-28. Jun. "The Transmission Process and Results in the Faroese - Danish Language Contact Situation". ICLaVE. Trondheim. Norway

  • 2013: 17. May. "Málamót: Margfeldni, athall, divergensur og skizoglossia". Setursdagur. Tórshavn.

  • 2013: 14-16 Mar. "Bilingualism connected to close related languages". Rom for språk. Universitetas Bergensis/University of Bergen. Plenary talk

  • 2012: "At granska í føroyskum". Vísindavøka 2012 

  • 2012: 08-09 Oct. "Færøsk-dansk tosproglighed. Processer og resultater". Lingua Nordica – Lingua Franca. Háskóli Íslands. Reykjavík

  • 2011: "Tvímæli: prosessir og úrslit í føroyskum og føroyskum-donskum". Annual Meeting in Fróðskaparfelagið 

  • 2010: 06-08 Oct. 2010. "Faroese-Danish Language Contact". International Conference "MIMS 2010: Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies" (Hamburg)

  • 2010: 22 Aug. "Móttøku- og keldumálsvirkni". Frændafundur. Reykjavík