Jan Terje Faarlund (born May 3, 1943) is a Norwegian linguist and professor emeritus of

North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

.Jan Terje Faarlund får svensk prestisjepris. Uniforum.

Career

Faarlund was born in

Østre Toten Østre Toten is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Len ...

. His academic career began with his '' magister'' dissertation ''Preposisjonsuttrykkenes syntaks i moderne norsk'' (Prepositional Phrase Syntax in Modern Norwegian, 1974) and he has also done substantial work on grammatical issues in Norwegian. One of his most extensive works is as a coauthor of ''Norsk referansegrammatikk'' (Norwegian Reference Grammar, 1997). Faarlund previously worked as a professor at the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...

. After two previous marriages, he was married to the social anthropologist Marianne Gullestad (1946–2008).Norsk biografisk leksikon: Marianne Gullestad
In his 2014 paper "English: The Language of the Vikings" (co-authored by Joseph Embley Emonds), Faarlund and Emonds assert that English is a Scandinavian language (or North Germanic language) which was influenced by

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

(a West Germanic language) which later died out. This view is at odds with the currently accepted view that English is a direct descendant of Anglo-Saxon which was merely influenced by the Norse language of the Vikings. Faarlund and Emonds' assertion, therefore, places English with Swedish and Norwegian as its closest relatives and not German, Frisian, or Dutch as is currently accepted by mainstream linguists.

Memberships and honours

He was elected as a member of the

Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (, DKNVS) is a Norway, Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The society's Protector is King Harald V of ...

in 1983 and as a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

in 1996. He has also been a member of the London Philological Society since 1977. In 2013 he was awarded the Gad Rausing Prize for Outstanding Research in the Humanities by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

Selected works

*''Syntactic Change. Towards a Theory of Historical Syntax'' (1990) *(with Svein Lie and Kjell Ivar Vannebo) ''Norsk referansegrammatikk'' (Norwegian Reference Grammar, 1997) *''Grammatical Relations in Change'' (2001) *''The Syntax of Old Norse'' (2004) *''Revolusjon i lingvistikken: Noam Chomskys språkteori'' (Revolution in Linguistics: Noam Chomsky's Language Theory, 2005) *"Parameterization and Change in Non-Finite Complementation" (2007) *''English: The Language of the Vikings'' (with Joseph Embley Emonds), Olomouc Modern Language Monographs (2014)

References

External links

*
Bibsys: publications by Jan Terje Faarlund
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faarlund, Jan Terje Linguists from Norway Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters People from Østre Toten 1943 births Living people Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters