Faroe Islands Languages

Faroe Islands

The principal language is Faeroese [føroyskt], a Nordic language descended from old Norse. It is closely related to Icelandic and the Western dialects of Norwegian, but with enough difference from both to make it unintelligible to outsiders, unless spoken very slowly. Faroese was long regarded as a peasant language and the written form was not standardized until the 1890s. Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish are widely understood and spoken. Knowledge of English is also quite common. Records are written in Danish or Faeroese.