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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.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2015) |
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.
The Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin script:
| Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Á | B | D | Ð | E | F | G | H | I | Í | J | K | L | M | N | O | Ó | P | R | S | T | U | Ú | V | Y | Ý | Æ | Ø |
| Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | á | b | d | ð | e | f | g | h | i | í | j | k | l | m | n | o | ó | p | r | s | t | u | ú | v | y | ý | æ | ø |
| Letter | Name | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| Aa | fyrra a ("leading a") | [ˈfɪɹːaɛaː] |
| Áá | á | [ɔaː] |
| Bb | be | [peː] |
| Dd | de | [teː] |
| Ðð | edd | [ɛtː] |
| Ee | e | [eː] |
| Ff | eff | [ɛfː] |
| Gg | ge | [keː] |
| Hh | há | [hɔaː] |
| Ii | fyrra i ("leading i") | [ˈfɪɹːaiː] |
| Íí | fyrra í ("leading í") | [ˈfɪɹːaʊiː] |
| Jj | jodd | [jɔtː] |
| Kk | ká | [kʰɔaː] |
| Ll | ell | [ɛlː] |
| Mm | emm | [ɛmː] |
| Nn | enn | [ɛnː] |
| Oo | o | [oː] |
| Óó | ó | [ɔuː] |
| Pp | pe | [pʰeː] |
| Rr | err | [ɛɹː] |
| Ss | ess | [ɛsː] |
| Tt | te | [tʰeː] |
| Uu | u | [uː] |
| Úú | ú | [ʉuː] |
| Vv | ve | [veː] |
| Yy | seinna i ("latter i") | [ˈsaiːtnaiː] |
| Ýý | seinna í ("latter í") | [ˈsaiːtnaʊiː] |
| Ææ | seinna a ("latter a") | [ˈsaiːtnaɛaː] |
| Øø | ø | [øː] |
| Obsolete letters | ||
| Xx | eks | [ɛʰks] |
| Grapheme | Short | Long |
|---|---|---|
| A, a | /a/ | /ɛaː/ |
| Á, á | /ɔ/ | /ɔaː/ |
| E, e | /ɛ/ | /eː/ |
| I, i | /ɪ/ | /iː/ |
| Í, í | /ʊi/ | /ʊiː/ |
| O, o | /ɔ/ | /oː/ |
| Ó, ó | /œ/ | /ɔuː/ |
| U, u | /ʊ/ | /uː/ |
| Ú, ú | /ʏ/ | /ʉuː/ |
| Y, y | /ɪ/ | /iː/ |
| Ý, ý | /ʊi/ | /ʊiː/ |
| Æ, æ | /a/ | /ɛaː/ |
| Ø, ø | /œ/ | /øː/ |
| EI, ei | /ai/ | /aiː/ |
| EY, ey | /ɛi/ | /ɛiː/ |
| OY, oy | /ɔi/ | /ɔiː/ |
| Grapheme | IPA |
|---|---|
| B, b | /p/ |
| D, d | /t/ |
| >dj | /tʃ/ |
| Ð, ð | /j/,/w/,/v/,Ø |
| F, f | /f/ |
| G, g | /k/,/tʃ/,/j/,/w/,/v/,Ø |
| >gj | /tʃ/ |
| H, h | /h/ |
| >hj | /tʃʰ/,/j/ |
| >hv | /kv/ |
| J, j | /j/ |
| K, k | /kʰ/,/tʃʰ/ |
| >kj | /tʃʰ/ |
| >kk | /kː/[ʰkː] |
| L, l | /l/,[l],[ɬ] |
| >ll | /tl/[tɬ],/lː/ |
| M, m | /m/ |
| N, n | /n/ |
| >ng | /nk/[ŋk],/ntʃ/[ɲtʃ] |
| >nk | /nkʰ/[ŋ̊kʰ],/ntʃʰ/[ɲ̊tʃʰ] |
| >nj | /ɲ/,/nj/ |
| >nn | /tn/,/nː/ |
| P, p | /pʰ/ |
| >pp | /pː/[ʰpː] |
| R, r | /ɹ/[ɹ],[ɻ] |
| S, s | /s/,/ʃ/ |
| >sj | /ʃ/ |
| >sk | /sk/,/ʃ/ |
| >skj | /ʃ/ |
| >stj | /ʃ/ |
| T, t | /tʰ/ |
| >tj | /tʃʰ/ |
| >tt | /tː/[ʰtː] |
| V, v | /v/[v],[ʋ],[f] |
Faroese avoids having a hiatus between two vowels by inserting a glide. Orthographically, this is shown in three ways:
Typically, the first vowel is long and in words with two syllables always stressed, while the second vowel is short and unstressed. In Faroese, short and unstressed vowels can only be /a,i,u/.
| First vowel | Second vowel | Examples | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i[ɪ] | u[ʊ] | a[a] | ||
| i, y[iː] | [j] | [j] | [j] | sigið, siður, siga |
| í, ý[ʊiː] | [j] | [j] | [j] | mígi, mígur, míga |
| ey[ɛiː] | [j] | [j] | [j] | reyði, reyður, reyða |
| ei[aiː] | [j] | [j] | [j] | reiði, reiður, reiða |
| oy[ɔiː] | [j] | [j] | [j] | noyði, royður, royða |
| u[uː] | [w] | [w] | [w] | suði, mugu, suða |
| ó[ɔuː] | [w] | [w] | [w] | róði, róðu, Nóa |
| ú[ʉuː] | [w] | [w] | [w] | búði, búðu, túa |
| a, æ[ɛaː] | [j] | [v] | ∅ | ræði, æðu, glaða |
| á[ɔaː] | [j] | [v] | ∅ | ráði, fáur, ráða |
| e[eː] | [j] | [v] | ∅ | gleði, legu, gleða |
| o[oː] | [j] | [v] | ∅ | togið, smogu, roða |
| ø[øː] | [j] | [v] | ∅ | løgin, røðu, høgan |
The value of the glide is determined by the surrounding vowels:
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek διακριτικός, from διακρίνω. The word diacritic is a noun, though it is sometimes used in an attributive sense, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritics, such as the acute ⟨á⟩, grave ⟨à⟩, and circumflex ⟨â⟩, are often called accents. Diacritics may appear above or below a letter or in some other position such as within the letter or between two letters.
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The acute accent, ◌́, is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed characters are available.
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Æ is a character formed from the letters a and e, originally a ligature representing the Latin diphthong ae. It has been promoted to the status of a letter in some languages, including Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. It was also used in Old Swedish before being changed to ä. The modern International Phonetic Alphabet uses it to represent the near-open front unrounded vowel. Diacritic variants include Ǣ/ǣ, Ǽ/ǽ, Æ̀/æ̀, Æ̂/æ̂ and Æ̃/æ̃.
Ø is a letter used in the Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, and Southern Sámi languages. It is mostly used as to represent the mid front rounded vowels, such as and, except for Southern Sámi where it is used as an diphthong.
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