The 3rd NLVN Training Seminar and the 5th NORMS Dialect Workshop
Tórshavn, August 8 – August 15/16, 2008

Organizers and teachers

The 3rd NLVN Training Seminar and the 5th NORMS dialect workshop will be organized jointly in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, in August. The topic of the seminar will be field work (from sociolinguistic and generative points of view) and the seminar will be followed by actual field work in different places in the Faroes. Teachers will include the following, in addition to local linguists and possibly others:

Bert Vaux, University of Cambridge, UK
Carson Schütze, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Helge Sandøy, University of Bergen, Norway
Caroline Heycock, University of Edinburgh, UK

The non-local and local organizers include:

Höskuldur Thráinsson
Thórhallur Eythórsson
Øystein Vangsnes
Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen
Victoria Absalonsen
Helena í Løgmansbø

A tentative schedule

Preparation and participation

Since this is a training seminar and a dialect workshop, active participation will be required of all those registered. Because the field work will be on Faroese, all participants are expected to have some prior knowledge of Faroese linguistics and an idea of what they want to study. This could e.g. be some variation in Faroese phonology, morphology or syntax, or comparison between some aspect of Faroese and another Scandinavian language. The easiest way to prepare for this would be to consult the handbook Faroese – An Overview and Reference Grammar by Höskuldur Thráinsson, Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen and Zakaris Svabo Hansen (published 2004 by Føroya Fróðskaparfelag and available e.g. from Bókasølan (www.bokasolan.fo) in Tórshavn).

Application for admission

For budgetary reasons and since the seminar and workshop will require active participation, we estimate that the total number of participants will have to be limited to about 30. The NLVN and NORMS networks will cover the expenses of the selected participants. The hotels in Tórshavn can only hold reservations for us for a very limited time without having a definite list of participants; therefore, those who are interested need to send application for admission by April 15 (by e-mail to hoski@hi.is with a cc to tolli@hi.is and oystein.vangsnes@hum.uit.no), including the following information:

Travel information

We urge all participants to try to find as reasonably priced tickets as possible. Participants will buy their tickets themselves beforehand and get reimbursed after the event has taken place by sending in a travel reimbursement form.

• By air

Most flights to and from the Faroe Islands are operated by the Faroese airliner Atlantic Airways. The islands are well-connected with Copenhagen to which there are several flights a day, and there are also daily flights to Billund. In addition there are direct connections to several other European destinations, but not every day. According to the current information on AAs home page (http://www.atlantic.fo/), flights are scheduled for August as follows to/from various places:

FAE – London on Mondays and Fridays
FAE – Stavanger on Thursdays and Sundays
FAE – Stockholm on Thursdays and Sundays
FAE – Reykjavík on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays
FAE – Aalborg on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays

Notice that Atlantic Airways cooperates with SAS so that it is possible to get connecting flights to your home destination. Best prices may be obtained by booking through a general travel server on the web or through your travel agent.

• By ferry

You can reach the Faroe Islands by ferry from Norway (Bergen), Denmark (Hanstholm), Scotland (Scrabster), and Iceland (Seyðisfjörður). The ferry is operated by Smyril Line, and you can get further information about the sailing schedule and prices at http://www.smyril-line.com/.