Faroese orthography
Faroese orthography is the method employed to write the Faroese language, using a 29-letter Latin alphabet. Although it does not include the letters C, Q, W, X and Z, in a keyboard, it includes C, Q, W, X and Z.
Alphabet
The Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin script:- Eth never appears at the beginning of a word, which means its majuscule form rarely occurs except in situations where all-capital letters are used, such as on maps.
- can also be written in poetic language, such as Föroyar. This has to do with different orthographic traditions. Originally, both forms were used, depending on the historical form of the word; was used when the vowel resulted from I-mutation of while was used when the vowel resulted from U-mutation of. In handwriting, is sometimes used.
- While,,,, and are not found in the Faroese language, was known in earlier versions of Hammershaimb's orthography, such as for Saksun.
- While the Faroese keyboard layout allows one to write in Latin, English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, etc., the Old Norse and Modern Icelandic letter is missing. In related Faroese words, it is written as either or. If an Icelandic name has to be transcribed, is common.
Spelling-to-sound correspondence
This section lists Faroese letters and letter combinations and their phonemic representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet.Vowels
Faroese vowels may be either long or short, but this distinction is only relevant in stressed syllables: the only unstressed vowels are. The vowel length is determined by the number of consonants that follow the vowel: if there is only one consonant, the vowel is long; if there are more than one, counting geminates and pre-aspirated stops as CC, the vowel is short. In addition to long monophthongs, Faroese also has diphthongs, which are always long. There are, however, some exceptions to the vowel length rule:- A vowel is long if it precedes a consonant combination +. Examples include akrar, epli, møblar. The situation is however more complex, as seen below:
- * When the second consonant is, as in vekja, vitja, and tysja, the combination is treated as one sound, and thus the vowel is long. However, the vowel before is short.
- * is not considered to be a consonant cluster, so the vowel preceding it is short.
- In loanwords before, the vowel is optionally long.
- The genitive suffix does not affect the vowel length; e.g., báts, skips.
Special combinations
There are special combinations of vowels and consonants with unexpected pronunciations in Faroese.| Grapheme | Phonetic realisation | Examples |
| ógv | nógv "plenty " | |
| úgv | kúgv "cow " | |
| ígg, ýgg | before i or j:Glide insertionFaroese avoids having a hiatus between two vowels by inserting a glide. Orthographically, this is shown in three ways:
The value of the glide is determined by the surrounding vowels:
|