Prompting in Faroese

Almost every day, we are engulfed with concepts and words from around the world. We eventually got our own localized words for computer, helicopter, and memory stick: telda, tyrla, and geymi. Technology development moves at a breakneck pace, and before we knew it, AI could write assignments for us. And now we even have our own word for AI: vitlíki!

In order to get AI to do some work for us, we must give it a command that tells it what to do. In English, these commands are called "prompts," and you can also use it as a verb, "to prompt." Many of you have undoubtedly tried to prompt – but did you know that in Faroese we can birta? Looking into the New Words List made by the Faroese Language Council, we can find the words birt (noun) and at birta (verb). At the Centre for Language Technology, we strive to use these neat words. 

It's not only the name of the prompt that is now in Faroese – the content can be in Faroese too! Some language models understand Faroese so well today that we can prompt in Faroese and get good results. It's important that we develop the use of the Faroese language in this domain, and we do that, among other things, by creating the habit of prompting in Faroese. 

So, the next time you want ChatGPT to translate a text for you, you can write the prompt "Týð tekstin úr føroyskum til enskt" (Translate the text from Faroese to English) and prompt it. In fact, the image inserted in this news article is AI-generated using a Faroese prompt!

Oh, and if you are interested in the inflection, the noun birt inflects like "orð." The verb birta inflects like "keypa." You can see the inflections below.