Faroese phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

• and appear only in loanwords.
• The long mid vowels tend to be diphthongized to. Those diphthongs tend to have noticeably closer starting points.
• conducted preliminary acoustic studies in fall 1997 on unknown informants, giving insights on the precise acoustic of native vowels :
• * are more open than the corresponding tense vowels, with being the most open of the three and having a smaller F1 difference with as with . The F2 value of is a flick higher than 's.
• * has the same F1 value as, which in trun serves as middle point between and this suggests true-mid opening . Meanwhile, the F2 of is remarkably close, standing on a median line between and ; this points to the narrow transcriptions,.
• * The F1 value of is just slightly higher than that of, suggesting that it is a near-open vowel. In addition, its F2 value is right between that of and, which suggests that it is a near-open near-back vowel.
• * are very close to the value usually denoted by such symbols. Of anecdotal importance is that is closer than . Also is somewhat backer than, comparable to the difference between and .

Diphthongs

• Árnason observes that the rounding of the first element in is variable. This is reminiscent of the -vowel in dialect fronting it in English.
• In the north native has merged with.
• can be pronounced a variety of ways. In addition to the diphthong nominally transcribed as, it can be an unrounded monophtong of variable backness, a trait said to belong to the northern and eastern islands.
• In the North and the West the first element of is central, its roundedness being another variable, some varieties even making it identifiable as. This creates a possible merger between nón , nøvn . It is also possible for dialects which have a back to make it alternate with instead of .
• Short is a debatable entity. A lot of native speakers pronounce words like javnt as and short does not occur in roots, which would shelter against analogy. Other instances like klaustrofobi and sound are unhelpful; the former often falls under secondary stress, where vowel duration is less prominent and the latter can be considered an unadapted borrowing.
• divides diphthongs into falling, further subdivised into i- and u-diphthongs and hovering diphthongs for which it is imossible to determine which part is the most proeminent. He also gives insight into the acoustic of them :
• * starts heavily front whilst starts as central as and as close as to end up as front as and negligeably more open than
• * starts where all other i-diphthongs end to itself end at cardinal . 's onset is on par with and fronter than to end at the openest mouth position of the inventory being in the meantime as back as ., written on the charts, shares it's F2 value with but is more open by a large margin
• * is a bit closer than, as it is closer to the F1 of and almost as central as the former is, ditto for the first element, halts its opening at the level of but backer, on par with .
• * is a schwa plus an offglide. was not included in the study but stems from an a sequence plus offglide, labialised velar or weak fricative.

Length

• Long vowels are so because they take the entire lengthening potential of a stress on them.
• * tú, gleða are long because they aren't any following closing consonnant.
• * túa, bátur, akrar, vekja, bát, báts are long because the following consonant is syllabified as onset to the next syllable.
• Short vowels are so because a following consonant takes a moraic slot; such syllables tend to be slightly longer.
• * størstur, vatn, vatnið are short because a coda is allowed by a following onset.
• * arr, størri are short because the following consonant is long.
• * gjógv, gjógvin, fedrar, eydnast are short because they stem from older fricatives and they tend to be analysed cross-lingustically as codas.
• * øll, allir, oynni are short because they were historically followed by geminates.

Hiatus phenomena

Mending

• 1) High vowels are followed by a glide, whether it is inserted or already present is a debatable matter.
• * E.g. siga , deyður ; fluga , búði , túa .
• 2) When followed by close, they have an epenthetic lenis continuant separating them.
• * E.g. legu ; laðin
• 3) When followed by open, no instertion takes place and the hiatus stays.
• * E.g. lega ; laða ; fáar

Smoothing

Unstressed vowels

• – bátar , kallar
• – gestir , dugir
• – bátur , gentur , rennur .

Consonants

• are normally labiodental, albeit "not as clearly labiodental as in English" according to Kristján Árnason. Intervocalic is normally an approximant, whereas word-initial varies between an approximant and a fricative.
• ranges from (post-)alveolar to retroflex, and from a trill to an approximant, fricatives being the predominant allophones. Taps regularly occur in stressed syllables onsets, especially after unaspirated.
• is dental, whereas vary between being dental and alveolar.
• Initial is dental or alveolar. Postvocalic may be more of a postalveolar lateral, especially after back vowels.
• assimilates to nearby palatals, resulting in the variants : , . Pronunciation of initial varies situationally between the sequence and a palatal lateral or, possibly the most common realisation, a palatal approximant.
• are palato-alveolar, and vary between stops and affricates.
• is the vocalised allophone of in coda position. Such sequences are treated as diphthongs, as they can be either long or short. Also, is the only native source of, e.g. , . Vocalisation is not the only option as and havs ~ show it.
• are highly marginal allophones of only reported to have occurred before another plosive.
• is treated by Árnason as voiced.
• frequently occurs in stressed syllable with an "empty" onsets. In this position, its most notable feature is its blocking of vowel elision: Okkurt um árið 190'8 .

• Liquid consonants are devoiced before voiceless consonants
• Nasal consonants generally assume the place of articulation and laryngeal settings of following consonants, especially.
• Velar stop consonants palatalize to postalveolar affricates before.
• becomes devoiced to before voiceless consonants
• before another consonant becomes after
• becomes before , e.g. Tórshavn. Voiceless is usually realised as.
• Pre-stopping of original to and to.
• Intervocalically the aspirated consonants become pre-aspirated unless followed by a closed vowel. In clusters, the aspiration merges with sonorants, rendering them voiceless: e.g. ,

Omissions in consonant clusters

• fjals instead of from . Other examples for genitives are: barns , vatns .
• hjálpti instead of from hjálpa. Other examples for past forms are: sigldi , yrkti .
• homophone are fylgdi and fygldi :.
• skt will be:
• # in words of more than one syllable: føroyskt ; russiskt ; íslendskt .
• # in monosyllables: enskt ; danskt ; franskt ; spanskt ; svenskt ; týskt .
• #* However in: írskt , norskt

Phonological history

Vowel mergers

Skerping

• : Jógvan , gjógv
• : kúgv , trúgva , but: trúleysur
• : heyggjur , but heygnum
• : nýggjur , but nýtt
• : beiggi
• : oyggj , but ''oynna''

Sample

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Lord's Prayer