Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb
Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb ( known as VU Hammershaimb or Venzel Hammershaimb ) ( born March 25, 1819 in Sandavágur, Faroe Islands, † April 8, 1909 in Copenhagen ) was a pastor and Faroese philologist and known as the founder of modern Faroese written language.
Life
Hammershaimb family goes back to Georg Smendein in 1642 by the German Emperor Ferdinand III. will be levied as of Hammersheimb in the Bohemian nobility. His son Wenceslaus Franciscus de Hammershaimb was sold in 1674 to a Protestant from Silesia and settled in Denmark.
On March 25, 1819 as the son of the lawyer Jørgen Frantz Hammershaimb ( since 1806 in the Faroe Islands ), born and ARMGARD Marie Egholm in Gaarden riser (á Steig in Sandavágur ) born on the Faroese island Vágar was Venzel in October 1831 to train to Copenhagen sent, where he, after wintering in Norway, arrived in February 1832. From 1839, he attended the University of Copenhagen. Although his family was of German descent and paternal Danish since the third generation, felt VU Hammershaimb as Faroese and thus obliged the Faroese language ( his mother tongue ).
After he was briefly in the Faroe Islands to visit in 1841, he returned in 1847 returned as a trained theologian for a year and continued to sift Faroese language certificates and to deal with the various dialects of his native language, which was then handed down only in spoken form. In 1853 he undertook further research on the spot and lived from 1855 as pastor on Streymoy. His New Year's Eve sermon on December 31, 1855 in Kvívík went down in the annals, as he read from the Gospel in his native language, which seemed unthinkable at the time. It took until 1939 to finally see the Faroese Danish as a church language replaced (see Faroese language conflict ).
In this year he married Christiane Gad, the daughter of the provost Pram Gad. In 1862 he became pastor at Eysturoy and 1867 finally provost of the Faroe Islands. In 1866 he was elected to the Løgting, where he worked for three parliamentary terms as a politician. In 1878 he moved back to Denmark on the island of Zealand. In 1897 he went with his wife to Copenhagen ( Ryesgade 110), where he died on 8 April 1909.
At its life is striking that there are many parallels to the eminent Danish theologian, philologist, poet and politician NFS Grundtvig is. And in fact: They knew each other not only they were good friends and were in constant correspondence. Of special importance was his friendship with Svend Grundtvig, the son of N. F. S., who wrote a three-volume Lexicon Færoense et al.
Linguistic work
1846 Hammershaimb wrote down his Faroese orthography, which is valid with minor changes until today ( first appeared in 1891 in book form ). His orthography is based - like the Brothers Grimm - according to etymological principles and is very similar to the Old Norse language of origin. Hammersaimb himself called etymologisierende normal spelling. He managed as a compromise that is acceptable on the one hand for the speakers of all existing Faroese dialects, and on the other hand, the speakers of the other Scandinavian languages is so familiar that they are tapped the traditional altfäröischen texts.
As a result, he began the systematic publication of old ballads as the Sigurdlieder and the Faroese in the neufäröischen language, which he laid the foundations for the modern Faroese literature.
Even the spelling of the places in the Faroe Islands is based on Hammershaimb specifications. It was established in 1873 by Copenhagen Ny matriculation for Færøerne. Another important influence, the newspaper has Dimmalætting (founded in 1877), the orthography used from the start in their feuilleton Hammershaimb.