Together with Norwegian and Icelandic, Faroese forms the West-Scandinavian group within the North-Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.
The language is spoken by 45,000-48,000 people on the Faroese Islands (an island group in the north of the Atlantic Ocean), which politically belong to Denmark, but which have extensive autonomy rights. It is also spoken by Faroese people abroad.
According to UNESCO the language is endangered.
The Faroese alphabet has 29 letters, such as: Á, Ð, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý, Æ, Ø.
Whereas the word for “tenosynovitis” in German has 24 letters and is “Sehnenscheidenentzündung” or in Danish “seneskedehindebetændelse”, this ailment is simpy called “gø” in Faroese.
Faroese in Denmark (45.400 Speaker)