Jan Terje Faarlund (born 3 May 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 ...

at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

.Jan Terje Faarlund får svensk prestisjepris. Uniforum.

Career

Faarlund was born in

Østre Toten Østre Toten is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lena. Other villages in the municipality include Kapp, Kolbu, Krab ...

. 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 Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including th ...

. After two previous marriages, he was married to the social anthropologist

Marianne Gullestad Marianne Gullestad (28 March 1946 – 10 March 2008) was a Norwegian social anthropologist. Gullestad grew up in Bergen, took her magister degree in social anthropology from the University of Bergen in 1975 and her dr. philos. in 1984. Her t ...

(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 English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

is a Scandinavian language (or North Germanic language) which was influenced by

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

(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 Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

as its closest relatives and not

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, Frisian, or

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

as is currently believed.

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 ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The ...

in 1983 and as a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, 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 Unive ...

in 1996. He has also been a member of the

London Philological Society The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promote ...

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 The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish roy ...

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