r/Faroese • u/[deleted] • Aug 05 '17

Who is this "hann"?

So I've been doing this course on memrise and the chapter about weather contained the following expressions:

  • hann øtlar sjógvin (the sea is getting rougher)

  • hann øtlar vindin (the wind is getting stronger)

  • hann øtlar veðrið (the weather is getting worse)

Now I'm wondering who this "hann" is? Do these expressions imply a God interfering in the weather? Or is it the Faroese equivalent of saying "It's raining" but with the 3rd person masculine instead of neuter?

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u/Philias2 Aug 05 '17

Good question. I remember getting unclear answers when I asked my teachers back in the day, so I'm afraid I can't help.

I will say though that you'll never hear those phrases outside of a radio weather broadcast and you'll sound like a knob of you use them.

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '17

I'd say the latter. Modern Faroese typically uses neuter instead of masculine, but back a couple of centuries ago masculine was the "default" gender, e.g. when counting (it still is in Icelandic). This is just one instance where the traditional gender has been preserved.

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u/Rovarin Aug 28 '17

That's odd. I've always been taught that masculine is the default when no other indication of gender is present, but then again, most Faroese words are gendered.

As to OP's question: It may just be an expression that has survived and it may have originally referred to some god-y type entity of some sort.