Faroese | |
---|---|
føroyskt | |
Pronunciation | [ˈføːɹɪst ˈmɔaːl] |
Native to | Faroe Islands |
Ethnicity | Faroe Islanders |
Native speakers | 69,000 (2015)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Faroe Islands |
Recognised minority language in | |
Regulated by | Faroese Language Board Føroyska málnevndin |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | fo |
ISO 639-2 | fao |
ISO 639-3 | fao |
Glottolog | faro1244 |
Linguasphere | 52-AAA-ab |
![]() Faroese is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Faroese[a] (/ˌfɛəroʊˈiːz, ˌfær-/ FAIR-oh-EEZ, FARR-;[3] endonym: føroyskt [ˈføːɹɪst ˈmɔaːl]) is a North Germanic language spoken as a first language by about 69,000 Faroe Islanders, of which 21,000 reside mainly in Denmark and elsewhere.
It is one of five languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages; the others include Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn and Greenlandic Norse. Faroese and Icelandic, its closest extant relative, are not easily mutually intelligible in speech, but the written languages resemble each other quite closely, largely owing to Faroese's etymological orthography.[4]
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