Faroese in Different Languages: 90 names for the Faroese language
Faroese calls itself føroyskt; Danish says færøsk, Icelandic færeyska, German Färöisch and Japanese フェロー語 (ferōgo). Below, the name of the language in 90 languages, each in its own script.
Faroese and the islands behind the word
Faroese is a North Germanic language, the first language of about 69,000 people on the Faroe Islands and in Denmark.1 It is written with a Latin alphabet of 29 letters that leaves out c, q, w, x and z.1 The ISO 639 codes are fo and fao.2
Almost every name in the tables is built on the name of the islands, not on a native word for the language. The North Germanic neighbours share one stem: Danish færøsk, Norwegian færøysk, Swedish färöiska, Icelandic færeyska. Further away the island name is borrowed whole and a word for language put in front, as in Malay bahasa Faroe, Indonesian bahasa Faroese and Vietnamese tiếng Đảo Faroe. Armenian goes one step further and spells the description out: Ֆարերյան կղզիների լեզու, “language of the Faroe Islands”.
The second table carries the name through Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, Indic and East Asian scripts. Arabic gives الفاروية (al-fāruwīyâ), Hebrew פרואיזית (ferōʾīzīt), Georgian ფაროული (ṗarouli). Hindi फ़रोईज़ (faroīz) and Marathi फ़ारोईझ follow the English adjective, while Japanese フェロー語 (ferōgo) and Korean 파로스어 (paroseueo) close with their own words for language.
Faroese in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
61 rows. Languages that spell the word identically share a row. Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Moldovan, Turkmen and Uzbek appear twice, once here and once in the Cyrillic or Arabic table below.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Faroese | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English · eng | Faroese | |
| Estonian, Finnish · est, fin | fääri | |
| Afrikaans · afr | Färöers | |
| Azerbaijani (Latin) · aze | farercə | |
| Bosnian (Latin) · bos | farski | |
| Breton · bre | faeroeg | |
| Catalan · cat | feroès | |
| Czech · ces | faerština | |
| Welsh · cym | Ffaroeg | |
| Danish · dan | færøsk | |
| German · deu | Färöisch / Färöiſch | |
| Esperanto · epo | feroa | |
| Basque · eus | faroeera | |
| Faroese · fao | føroyskt | |
| French · fra | féroïen | |
| West Frisian · fry | Faeröersk | |
| Scottish Gaelic · gla | Fàrothais | |
| Irish · gle | Faróis | |
| Galician · glg | faroés | |
| Croatian · hrv | farski | |
| Hungarian · hun | feröeri | |
| Interlingua · ina | faroese | |
| Indonesian · ind | bahasa Faroese | |
| Icelandic · isl | færeyska | |
| Italian · ita | feroese | |
| Latin · lat | færoensis | |
| Latvian · lav | farēriešu; fēriešu | |
| Lithuanian · lit | fareriečių | |
| Maltese · mlt | Faerowiż | |
| Moldovan (Latin) · mol | feroeză | |
| Malay (Latin) · msa | bahasa Faroe | |
| Dutch · nld | Faeröers | |
| Norwegian · nor | færøysk | |
| Polish · pol | farerski | |
| Portuguese · por | faroês | |
| Romanian · ron | feroeză | |
| Slovak · slk | faerčina | |
| Slovio (Latin), constructed · no ISO code | Farovio | |
| Slovene · slv | ferščina | |
| Somali · som | farowsi | |
| Spanish · spa | feroés | |
| Albanian · sqi | faroishte | |
| Swahili · swa | kifaroe | |
| Swedish · swe | färöiska | |
| Tagalog · tgl | Faroeso | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | farerçe | |
| Turkish · tur | Faroece | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | farercha | |
| Vietnamese · vie | tiếng Đảo Faroe | |
| Walloon · wln | faeroyès | |
| Xhosa · xho | isi-Faroese | |
| Zulu · zul | isiFaro | |
| Belarusian (Latin) · bel | farerskaja | |
| Kazakh (Latin) · kaz | farerşe | |
| Kyrgyz (Latin) · kir | farerçe | |
| Serbian (Latin) · srp | farski | |
| Tajik (Latin) · tgk | farerī | |
| South Azerbaijani (Latin) · azb | farercə | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Latin) · ckb | feroyî | |
| Persian (Latin) · fas | fâroeyi | |
| Uyghur (Latin) · uig | faroéche |
Faroese in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic and Asian scripts
48 rows, with a romanisation wherever the source gives one. Arabic, Persian, Dari, Pashto, Sindhi, Urdu, Uyghur, Sorani Kurdish, Hebrew and Yiddish are set right to left.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Faroese | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | фарерҹә | |
| Bosnian (Cyrillic) · bos | фарски | |
| Moldovan (Cyrillic) · mol | фероезэ | |
| Malay (Arabic script) · msa | بهاس فارؤي | |
| Slovio (Cyrillic), constructed · no ISO code | Фаровио | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | фарерче | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | фарерча | |
| Uzbek (Arabic script) · uzb | فەرېرچە | |
| Belarusian (Cyrillic) · bel | фарэрская | |
| Bulgarian · bul | фарьорски | far'orski |
| Kazakh (Cyrillic) · kaz | фарерше | |
| Kazakh (Arabic script) · kaz | فارەرشە | |
| Kyrgyz (Cyrillic) · kir | фарерче | |
| Kyrgyz (Arabic script) · kir | فارەرچە | |
| Macedonian · mkd | фарски | farski |
| Mongolian · mon | фарер | farer |
| Ossetian · oss | фарераг | farerag |
| Russian · rus | фарерский | farerskij |
| Serbian (Cyrillic) · srp | фарски | |
| Tajik (Cyrillic) · tgk | фарерӣ | |
| Tajik (Arabic script) · tgk | فریری | |
| Ukrainian · ukr | фарерська | farers'ka |
| Arabic · ara | الفاروية | al-fāruwīyâ |
| South Azerbaijani (Arabic script) · azb | فارئرجه | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) · ckb | فەرئۆیی | |
| Persian (Arabic script) · fas | فاروئهٔی | |
| Dari · prs | فاروئی | fārōʾē |
| Pashto · pus | فاروئې | fārōʾe |
| Sindhi · snd | فيروايز | fērōʾīz |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | فاروئېچە | |
| Uyghur (Cyrillic) · uig | фароечә | |
| Urdu · urd | فیروئیز | fērōʾīz |
| Hebrew · heb | פרואיזית | ferōʾīzīt |
| Yiddish · yid | פֿאַראָעזיש | faroeziš |
| Amharic, Tigrinya · amh, tir | ፋሮኛ | faroñña |
| Greek · ell | φαροεζικά | faroeziká |
| Armenian · hye | Ֆարերյան կղզիների լեզու | Fareryan kġzineri lezou |
| Georgian · kat | ფაროული | ṗarouli |
| Hindi · hin | फ़रोईज़ | faroīz |
| Marathi · mar | फ़ारोईझ | fāroījʰ |
| Nepali · nep | फारोइज | pʰāroid͡z |
| Malayalam · mal | ഫാറോസ് | pʰāṟōs |
| Tamil · tam | பரோஸ் | parōs |
| Chinese · zho | 法羅語/法罗语, 法羅文/法罗文 | fǎluōyǔ, fǎluōwén |
| Japanese · jpn | フェロー語 | ferōgo |
| Korean · kor | 파로스어 | paroseueo |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาฟาโร | pʰāsā fārō |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາຟາໂຣ | pʰāsā fālō |
Questions about the name of Faroese
What do the Faroese call their language?
føroyskt. The Icelandic færeyska, Danish færøsk and Norwegian færøysk are built on the same stem.
What is the ISO code for Faroese?
fo in ISO 639-1 and fao in ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3.
How do Chinese and Japanese write Faroese?
Chinese uses 法羅語/法罗语 (fǎluōyǔ) for the spoken and 法羅文/法罗文 (fǎluōwén) for the written language; Japanese writes フェロー語, ferōgo.