This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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The phonology of Faroese has an inventory similar to the closely related Icelandic language, but markedly different processes differentiate the two. Similarities include an aspiration contrast in stop consonants, the retention of front rounded vowels and vowel quality changes instead of vowel length distinctions.
The long mid vowels /eː,øː,oː/ tend to be diphthongized to [eɛː~eəː,øœː~øəː,oɔː~oəː].[1]
According to the mean formant values of the native vowels (so excluding /yː/ and /aː/) in Peterson (2000), cited in Árnason (2011:76):
/ɪ,ʏ,ʊ/ are more open than the corresponding tense vowels, with /ɪ/ being the most open of the three ([ɪ̞]) and having the same F1 value as the back /oː/. The F2 value of /ʏ/ is closer to that of /ɪ/, which means that it is a front vowel.
/øː/ and especially /eː/ are more open than the phonetically close-mid /oː/ ([oː], often diphthongized to [oɔː~oəː]). Both /øː/ and /eː/ are more open than the corresponding short vowels; in addition, /øː/ is more central than any of the mid front vowels, including /œ/, whereas /eː/ is the most front of the mid vowels. This suggests that they are best transcribed [ɞː] and [ɛː] in narrow transcription, at least in the case of the monophthongal variants (Árnason reports opening diphthongs [øœː] and [eɛː] as one common type of realization of /øː/ and /eː/. Those diphthongs have considerably more close starting points).
The F1 value of /a/ is just slightly higher than that of /eː/, suggesting that it is a near-open vowel. In addition, its F2 value is closer to /ɔ/ than /œ/, which suggests that it is a near-open near-back vowel [ɑ̽].
/œ/ is considerably more close than /a/ but not as close as /oː/. It is more front than /øː/, which suggests that it is a mid front vowel [œ̝].
/ɔ/ has the same F1 value as /œ/, which suggests that it is also true-mid [ɔ̝]. The remaining short mid /ɛ/ is more open than those two, suggesting [ɛ] as the best narrow transcription.
As with other Germanic languages, Faroese has a large number of vowel phonemes; by one analysis, long and short vowels may be considered separate phonemes, with 26 in total. Vowel distribution is similar to other North Germanic languages in that short vowels appear in closed syllables (those ending in consonant clusters or long consonants) and long vowels appearing in open syllables.
The only unstressed vowels in Faroese are short [a,ɪ,ʊ]; these appear in inflectional endings: áðrenn (e.g. [ˈɔaːɹɪnː] 'before'). Very typical are endings like -ur, -ir, -ar. The dative is often indicated by [ʊn].
In some dialects, unstressed short /ʊ/ is realized as [ø] or is reduced further to [ə]. /ɪ/ goes under a similar reduction pattern as it varies between [ɪ~ɛ~ə] so unstressed /ʊ/ and /ɪ/ can rhyme. This can cause spelling mistakes related to these two vowels. The following table displays the different realizations in different dialects.
The so-called "skerping" ([ʃɛʂpɪŋk] 'sharpening')[4] is a typical phenomenon of fronting back vowels before [kv] and monophthongizing certain diphthongs before long [tʃː]. Skerping is not indicated orthographically.
[ɛkv]: Jógvan[ˈjɛkvan] (a form of the name John), gjógv[tʃɛkv] ('cleft')
/f,v/ are normally labiodental, but may sometimes be bilabial ([ɸ,β~β̞]). Intervocalic /v/ is normally an approximant [ʋ], whereas word-initial /v/ varies between an approximant [ʋ] and a fricative [v].[5]
/n/ is dental [n̪], whereas /tʰ,t/ vary between being dental [t̪ʰ,t̪] and (less commonly) alveolar [tʰ,t].[5]
Initial /l/ is dental [l̪] or alveolar [l]. Postvocalic /l/ may be more of a postalveolar lateral [l̠], especially after back vowels.[5]
/s/ before another consonant becomes /ʃ/ after /ɛi,ai,ɔi,ʊi/
/sk/ becomes /ʃ/ before /iː,ɪ,eː,ɛ,ɛi,j/ (but in morphological forms often /stʃ/ word internally, i.e. elski[ɛɬstʃɪ] 'I love')
/ɹ/retroflexes itself as well as following consonants in consonant clusters, yielding the allophones [ʂ,ɭ,ʈ,ɳ] while /ɹ/ itself becomes [ɻ], example: ⟨rd⟩[ɻʈ]; preaspirated consonants devoice the rhotic: example: ⟨rt⟩[ɻ̊ʈ]; ⟨rs⟩ is usually [ʂː] (only in some loanwords [ɻ̊ʂ]). Voiceless [ɻ̊] is usually realised as [ʂ].
Pre-stopping of original ⟨ll⟩ to [tl] and ⟨nn⟩ to [tn].
Faroese tends to omit the first or second consonant in clusters of different consonants:
fjals[fjals] ('mountain's') instead of *[fjatls] from [fjatl] (NOM). Other examples for genitives are: barns[ˈpans] ('child's'), vatns[van̥s] ('water's').
hjálpti[jɔɬtɪ] ('helped' PAST SG) instead of *[ˈjɔɬptɪ] from hjálpa[ˈjɔɬpa]. Other examples for past forms are: sigldi[ˈsɪltɪ] ('sailed'), yrkti[ˈɪɻ̊ʈɪ] ('wrote poetry').
homophone are fylgdi ('followed') and fygldi ('caught birds with a net'): [ˈfɪltɪ].
skt will be:
[st] in words of more than one syllable: føroyskt[ˈføːɹɪst] ('Faroese' N.SG); russiskt[ˈɹʊsːɪst] ('Russian' N.SG); íslendskt[ˈʊʃlɛŋ̊st] ('Icelandic' N.SG).
Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199229314
Þráinsson, Höskuldur (2004), Faroese: An Overview and Reference Grammar, Føroya Fróðskaparfelag, ISBN 978-9991841854
Peterson, Hjalmar Páll (January 2000). "Mátingar av sjálvljóðum í føroyskum" [Measurement of Faroese vowels] (PDF). Málting: Tíðarrit um føroyskt mál og málvísindi (in Faroese). 10 (1): 37–43. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-12-30.
Further reading
Barnes, Michael P.; Weyhe, Eivind (2013) [First published 1994], "7 Faroese", in van der Auwera, Johan; König, Ekkehard (eds.), The Germanic Languages, Routledge, pp. 190–218, ISBN 978-0-415-05768-4
Cathey, James (1997), "Variation and reduction in Modern Faroese vowels", in Birkmann, Thomas; Klingenberg, Heinz; Nübling, Damaris; Ronneberger-Sibold, Elke (eds.), Vergleichende germanische Philologie und Skandinavistik: Festschrift für Otmar Werner, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, pp. 91–100, ISBN 978-3484730311
O'Neil, Wayne A. (1964), "Faroese Vowel Morphophonemics", Language, 40 (3), Linguistic Society of America: 366–371, doi:10.2307/411501, JSTOR 411501
Rischel, Jørgen (1964). "Toward the phonetic description of Faroese vowels". Fróðskaparrit. 13: 99–113. doi:10.18602/fsj.v13i.347 (inactive 31 January 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
