All phonetic transcriptions in this letter are written
in my own pseudo-Sampa variant.
In modern Icelandic and Faroese the descendant of the
Old Norse word 'bátr' [ba:tR] is pronounced in a number
of ways. Some of them are listed below.
[pau:tYR] (Most of Iceland)
[pau:thYR] (Many people in the north of Iceland)
[pa:thUr] (Northern Faroese)
[pa:tUr] (Another variant of Northern Faroese)
[pOa:tUr] (Most of the Faroes)
There are many more possibilities. In particular the
final vowel is pronounced many different ways.
But how is the word spelled? Are there five (or more)
ways to do it? No. Despite dialectical differences
we all spell it the same way: "bátur". The word is instantly
recognizable by any Icelander or Faroean - and everyone
will pronounce it according to their dialect. In fact the
spelling doesn't favor any particular dialect - the
symbol chosen to represent the first vowel is chosen
etymologically to be that of Old Norse; the mother tongue.
A child starting to spell in Klaksvík learns that the symbol
'á' stands for [a:] in this position; another child in Tórshavn
learns that it stands for [Oa:] - when I learned to spell I
was taught it was [au:]. It is no more difficult for a sex-
year-old to learn that 'á' stands for [au:] than (say) that
/au/ stands for [au:]. To the child it will all seem pretty
arbitrary anyhow.
But what is the advantage of etymological spelling?
Clearly - a child in Klaksvík can read and understand
texts written in all other parts of the Faroes; without
having the slightest idea of the phonology of the various
dialects. Even better; when I was 10 year old and got
a comic book in Faroese - I could easily understand it.
If Icelandic and Faroese were spelled in entirely different
ways (let's say "more phonologically") I would never have
been able to.
Another advantage of etymological spelling is that no single
dialect has priority. If the various dialects were spelled
in different ways - the most common dialect (let's say that
of the capital) would tend to take precedence and perhaps
unduly influence the others.
Advantages of etymological spelling:
1. It serves as a bridge between different dialects.
2. It does no harm to the individual dialects.
3. It serves as a bridge back in time - to the mother tongue.
4. It serves as a bridge to other languages - at least
as long as they too are spelled etymologically.
Disadvantages of etymological spelling:
If you take it very far it will be hard to learn.
It is not hard for an Icelander to learn that 'á'
is pronounced [au] - but it is hard to learn that
[i] is sometimes written 'i' and sometimes 'y'.
Faroese spelling is, in fact, quite hard to learn.
It might even be as difficult as the spelling of English.