The phonology of Faroese has an inventory similar to the closely related Icelandic language, but markedly different processes differentiate the two. Similarities include an aspiration contrast in stop consonants, the retention of front rounded vowels and vowel quality changes instead of vowel length distinctions.
Vowels
and appear only in loanwords. The long mid vowels tend to be diphthongized to . According to the mean formant values of the native vowels (so excluding and ) in , cited in : are more open than the corresponding tense vowels, with being the most open of the three () and having the same F1 value as the back . The F2 value of is closer to that of , which means that it is a front vowel. and especially are more open than the phonetically close-mid (, often diphthongized to ). Both and are more open than the corresponding short vowels; in addition, is more central than any of the mid front vowels, including , whereas is the most front of the mid vowels. This suggests that they are best transcribed and in narrow transcription, at least in the case of the monophthongal variants (Árnason reports opening diphthongs and as one common type of realization of and . Those diphthongs have considerably more close starting points). The F1 value of is just slightly higher than that of , suggesting that it is a near-open vowel. In addition, its F2 value is closer to than , which suggests that it is a near-open near-back vowel . is considerably more close than but not as close as . It is more front than , which suggests that it is a mid front vowel . has the same F1 value as , which suggests that it is also true-mid . The remaining short mid is more open than those two, suggesting as the best narrow transcription.
As with other Germanic languages, Faroese has a large number of vowel phonemes; by one analysis, long and short vowels may be considered separate phonemes, with 26 in total. Vowel distribution is similar to other North Germanic languages in that short vowels appear in closed syllables (those ending in consonant clusters or long consonants) and long vowels appearing in open syllables.
Faroese avoids having a hiatus between two vowels by inserting a glide between them.
There is considerable variation among dialects in the pronunciation of vowels.
The only unstressed vowels in Faroese are short ; these appear in inflectional endings: áðrenn (e.g. 'before'). Very typical are endings like -ur, -ir, -ar. The dative is often indicated by . – bátar ('boats'), kallar ('[you] call') – gestir ('guests'), dugir ('[you] can') – bátur ('boat'), gentur ('girls'), rennur ('[you] run').
In some dialects, unstressed short is realized as or is reduced further to . goes under a similar reduction pattern as it varies between so unstressed and can rhyme. This can cause spelling mistakes related to these two vowels. The following table displays the different realizations in different dialects.
Skerping
The so-called "skerping" ( 'sharpening') is a typical phenomenon of fronting back vowels before and monophthongizing certain diphthongs before long . Skerping is not indicated orthographically. : Jógvan (a form of the name John), gjógv ('cleft') : kúgv ('cow'), trúgva ('believe'), but: trúleysur ('faithless') : heyggjur ('high'), but heygnum ('high [dat. sg.]') : nýggjur ('new [M.]'), but nýtt ('New [Nn.]') : beiggi ('brother') : oyggj ('island'), but oynna ('island [acc. sg.]')
Consonants
are normally labiodental, but may sometimes be bilabial (). Intervocalic is normally an approximant , whereas word-initial varies between an approximant and a fricative . is dental , whereas vary between being dental and (less commonly) alveolar . Initial is dental or alveolar . Postvocalic may be more of a postalveolar lateral , especially after back vowels. are palato-alveolar, and vary between stops and affricates . are velar, whereas is glottal.
There are several phonological processes involved in Faroese, including: