Faroese language

Faroese
Faroese
føroyskt mál
Pronunciation	[ˈføːɹɪst ˈmɔaːl]
Native to	Faroe Islands
Ethnicity	Faroe Islanders
Native speakers	69,000 (2015)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic West Scandinavian Insular Scandinavian Faroese; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Old Norse Old West Norse Old Norwegian Old Faroese ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (Faroese alphabet); Faroese Braille;
Official status
Official language in	Faroe Islands
Recognised minority; language in	Denmark
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 (/ˌfɛəroʊˈiːz, ˌfær-/ FAIR-oh-EEZ, FARR-; endonym: føroyskt mál [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 six languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being 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.

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