Icelandic language - Wikipedia

Icelandic language - Wikipedia
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North Germanic language
Icelandic
íslenska
Detail of a miniature from a thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript
Pronunciation
[ˈiːstlɛnska]
Native to
Iceland
Ethnicity
Icelanders
Native speakers
(undated figure of 390,000)
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
North Germanic
West Scandinavian
Insular Scandinavian
Icelandic
Early forms
Old Norse
Old West Norse
Old Icelandic
Writing system
Latin
Icelandic alphabet
Icelandic Braille
Official status
Official language in
Iceland
Nordic Council
Regulated by
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Language codes
ISO 639-1
is
ISO 639-2
ice
isl
ISO 639-3
isl
Glottolog
icel1247
Linguasphere
52-AAA-aa
Geographic distribution of the Icelandic language
This article contains
IPA
phonetic symbols.
Without proper
rendering support
, you may see
question marks, boxes, or other symbols
instead of
Unicode
characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see
Help:IPA
Icelandic
or
Icelandish
aɪ
eyess-
LAN
-dik
aɪ
eyess-
LAN
-dish
endonym
íslenska
pronounced
[ˈi(ː)stlɛnska]
íslensk tunga
[ˈi(ː)stlɛnsk
ˈtʰuŋka]
) is a
North Germanic language
from the
Indo-European language family
spoken by about 390,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in
Iceland
, where it is the national language.
Since it is a
West Scandinavian language
, it is most closely related to
Faroese
, western
Norwegian dialects
, and the
extinct language
Norn
. It is not mutually intelligible with the continental Scandinavian languages (
Danish
Norwegian
, and
Swedish
) and is more distinct from the most widely spoken Germanic languages,
and
German
. The written forms of Icelandic and Faroese are very similar, but their spoken forms are not
mutually intelligible
The Icelandic language is more
conservative
than most other Germanic languages. Most have greatly reduced levels of
inflection
(particularly noun
declension
), but Icelandic retains a four-
case
synthetic
grammar (comparable to
German
, though considerably more conservative and synthetic) and is distinguished by a wide assortment of irregular declensions. Icelandic vocabulary is also deeply conservative, with the country's
language regulator
maintaining an active policy of coining terms based on older Icelandic words rather than directly taking in
loanwords
from other languages.
Aside from the 300,000 Icelandic speakers in Iceland, Icelandic is spoken by about 8,000 people in Denmark,
5,000 people in the United States,
and more than 1,400 people in Canada,
notably in the region known as
New Iceland
in
Manitoba
which was settled by Icelanders beginning in the 1880s.
The state-funded
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
serves as a centre for preserving the medieval Icelandic manuscripts and studying the language and its literature. The Icelandic Language Council, comprising representatives of universities, the arts, journalists, teachers, and the
Ministry of Culture, Science and Education
, advises the authorities on
language policy
. Since 1995, on 16 November each year, the birthday of 19th-century poet
Jónas Hallgrímsson
is celebrated as
Icelandic Language Day
Classification
edit
See also:
Germanic languages
Icelandic is an
Indo-European language
and belongs to the
North Germanic
group of the
Germanic languages
. Icelandic is further classified as a West Scandinavian language.
Icelandic is derived from an earlier language
Old Norse
, which later became
Old Icelandic
and currently Modern Icelandic. The division between old and modern Icelandic is said to be before and after 1540.
Proto-Germanic
East Germanic languages
West Germanic languages
Proto-Norse
Old Norse
Old West Norse
Icelandic
Faroese
Norwegian
Old East Norse
Danish
Swedish
History
edit
Main article:
History of Icelandic
A page from the
Landnámabók
, an early Icelandic manuscript
This section
needs additional citations for
verification
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improve this article
by
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Around 900 CE, the language spoken in the Faroes was
Old Norse
, which Norse settlers had brought with them during the time of the settlement of Faroe Islands (
landnám
) that began in 825. However, many of the settlers were not from
Scandinavia
, but descendants of Norse settlers in the
Irish Sea
region. In addition, women from Norse Ireland,
Orkney
, or
Shetland
often married native Scandinavian men before settling in the Faroe Islands and Iceland.
10
The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around 1100. Many of the texts are based on poetry and laws traditionally preserved orally. The most famous of the texts, which were written in
Iceland
from the 12th century onward, are the
sagas of Icelanders
, which encompass the historical works and the
Poetic Edda
The language of the sagas is
Old Icelandic
, a western dialect of
Old Norse
. The
Dano-Norwegian
, then later Danish rule of Iceland from 1536 to 1918 had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic (in contrast to the Norwegian language), which remained in daily use among the general population. Though more archaic than the other living Germanic languages, Icelandic changed markedly in pronunciation from the 12th to the 16th century, especially in vowels (in particular,
au
, and
). The letters -ý & -y lost their original meaning and merged with -í & -i in the period 1400–1600. Around the same time or a little earlier the letter -æ originally signifying a simple vowel, a type of open -e, formed into the double vowel -ai, a double vowel absent in the original Icelandic.
The modern
Icelandic alphabet
has developed from a standard established in the 19th century, primarily by the Danish linguist
Rasmus Rask
. It is based strongly on an
orthography
laid out in the early 12th century by a document referred to as the
First Grammatical Treatise
by an anonymous author, who has later been referred to as the First Grammarian. The later Rasmus Rask standard was a re-creation of the old treatise, with some changes to fit concurrent
Germanic
conventions, such as the exclusive use of
rather than
. Various archaic features, such as the letter
, had not been used much in later centuries. Rask's standard constituted a major change in practice. Later 20th-century changes include the use of
instead of
je
11
and the replacement of
with
in 1974.
12
Apart from the addition of new vocabulary, written Icelandic has not changed substantially since the 11th century, when the first texts were written on
vellum
13
Modern speakers can understand the original sagas and
Eddas
which were written about eight hundred years ago. The sagas are usually read with updated modern spelling and footnotes, but otherwise are intact (as with recent English editions of
Shakespeare's
works). With some effort, many Icelanders can also understand the original manuscripts.
Legal status and recognition
edit
According to an act passed by the
Parliament
in 2011, Icelandic is "the national language of the Icelandic people and the official language in Iceland"; moreover, "[p]ublic authorities shall ensure that its use is possible in all areas of Icelandic society".
14
Iceland is a member of the
Nordic Council
, a forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries, but the council uses only Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish as its working languages (although the council does publish material in Icelandic).
15
Under the
Nordic Language Convention
, since 1987 Icelandic citizens have had the right to use Icelandic when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries, without becoming liable for any interpretation or translation costs. The convention covers visits to hospitals, job centres, the police, and social security offices.
16
17
It does not have much effect since it is not very well known and because those Icelanders not proficient in the other Scandinavian languages often have a sufficient grasp of English to communicate with institutions in that language (although there is evidence that the general English skills of Icelanders have been somewhat overestimated).
18
The Nordic countries have committed to providing services in various languages to each other's citizens, but this does not amount to any absolute rights being granted, except as regards criminal and court matters.
19
20
Phonology
edit
Main article:
Icelandic phonology
Consonants
edit
All Icelandic
stops
are voiceless and are distinguished as such by
aspiration
21
Stops are realised post-aspirated when at the beginning of the word, but pre-aspirated when occurring within a word.
22
Consonant phones
Labial
Coronal
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
Nasal
m̥
n̥
ɲ̊
ŋ̊
Stop
pʰ
tʰ
cʰ
kʰ
Continuant
N-Sib.
j̊
Sibilant
Vibrant
r̥
Lateral
l̥
l̥ˠ
lˠ
/n̥
tʰ
t/
are laminal
denti-alveolar
/s/
is apical alveolar,
23
/θ
ð/
are alveolar non-sibilant fricatives; the former is
laminal
, while the latter is usually
apical
24
A phonetic analysis reveals that the voiceless lateral approximant
[l̥]
is, in practice, usually realised with considerable friction, especially word-finally or syllable-finally, i. e., essentially as a
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
[ɬ]
25
/j̊/ are phonetic to Einarsson and Haugen, but are always indistinguishable from [ç].
26
27
28
29
30
Scholten (2000
, p. 22) includes three extra phones:
[ʔ
l̥ˠ
lˠ]
Word-final voiced consonants are devoiced pre-pausally, so that
dag
('day (acc.)') is pronounced as
[ˈtaːx]
and
dagur
('day (nom.)') is pronounced
[ˈtaːɣʏr̥]
31
Vowels
edit
Vowel chart of the 8 monophthongs
Icelandic has 8 monophthongs and 5 diphthongs.
32
The diphthongs are created by taking a monophthong and adding either
/i/
or
/u/
to it.
33
All the vowels can either be long or short; vowels in open syllables are long, and vowels in closed syllables are short.
34
Monophthongs
Front
Back
plain
round
Close
Near-close
Open-mid
Open
Diphthongs
Front
offglide
Back
offglide
Mid
ei
œi
[œy]
ou
Open
ai
au
Grammar
edit
Main article:
Icelandic grammar
Photograph taken from page 176 of
Colloquial Icelandic
This section
needs additional citations for
verification
Please help
improve this article
by
adding citations to reliable sources
in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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Icelandic retains many grammatical features of other ancient
Germanic languages
, and resembles
Old Norwegian
before much of its
fusional
inflection was lost. Modern Icelandic is still a heavily
inflected language
with four
cases
nominative
accusative
dative
and
genitive
. Icelandic nouns can have one of three
grammatical genders
: masculine, feminine or neuter. There are two main declension paradigms for each gender:
strong
and
weak nouns
, and these are further divided into subclasses of nouns, based primarily on the
genitive singular
and
nominative plural
endings of a particular noun. For example, within the strong masculine nouns, there is a subclass (class 1) that declines with
-s
hests
) in the genitive singular and
-ar
hestar
) in the nominative plural. However, there is another subclass (class 3) of strong masculine nouns that always declines with
-ar
hlutar
) in the genitive singular and
-ir
hlutir
) in the nominative plural. Additionally, Icelandic permits a
quirky subject
, that is, certain verbs have subjects in an oblique case (i.e. other than the nominative).
Nouns, adjectives and pronouns are declined in the four cases and for number in the singular and plural.
Verbs
are
conjugated
for
tense
mood
person
number
and
voice
. There are three voices: active, passive and middle (or medial), but it may be debated whether the middle voice is a voice or simply an independent class of verbs of its own, as every middle-voice verb has an active-voice ancestor, but sometimes with drastically different meaning, and the middle-voice verbs form a conjugation group of their own. Examples are
koma
("come") vs.
komast
("get there"),
drepa
("kill") vs.
drepast
("perish ignominiously") and
taka
("take") vs.
takast
("manage to"). Verbs have up to ten tenses, but Icelandic, like English, forms most of them with
auxiliary verbs
. There are three or four main groups of weak verbs in Icelandic, depending on whether one takes a historical or a formalistic view:
-a
-i
, and
-ur
, referring to the endings that these verbs take when conjugated in the first person
singular
present.
Almost all Icelandic verbs have the ending -a in the infinitive, some with
, two with
munu
skulu
), one with
þvo
: "wash") and one with
. Many transitive verbs (i.e. they require an
object
), can take a
reflexive pronoun
instead. The case of the pronoun depends on the case that the verb governs. As for further classification of verbs, Icelandic behaves much like other Germanic languages, with a main division between weak verbs and strong, and the strong verbs, of which there are about 150 to 200, are divided into six classes plus reduplicative verbs.
The basic word order in Icelandic is
subject–verb–object
. However, as words are heavily inflected, the word order is fairly flexible, and every combination may occur in poetry; SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV and OVS are all allowed for metrical purposes. However, as with most Germanic languages, Icelandic usually complies with the
V2 word order
restriction, so the conjugated verb in Icelandic usually appears as the second element in the clause, preceded by the word or phrase being emphasised. For example:
Ég veit það ekki.
know it not.)
Ekki veit ég það.
Not
know I it.)
Það veit ég ekki.
It
know I not.)
Ég fór til Bretlands þegar ég var eins árs.
(I went to Britain when I was one year old.)
Til Bretlands fór ég þegar ég var eins árs.
(To Britain went I, when I was one year old.)
Þegar ég var eins árs fór ég til Bretlands.
(When I was one year old, went I to Britain.)
In the above examples, the conjugated verbs
veit
and
fór
are always the
second element
in their respective clauses.
A distinction between formal and informal address (
T–V distinction
) had existed in Icelandic from the 17th century, but use of the formal variant weakened in the 1950s and rapidly disappeared.
36
It no longer exists in regular speech, but may occasionally be found in pre-written speeches addressed to the
bishop
and members of
parliament
36
Vocabulary
edit
Main articles:
Icelandic vocabulary
and
Icelandic name
A simple family tree showing the Icelandic patronymic naming system
Eyjafjallajökull
, one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, situated to the north of
Skógar
and to the west of
Mýrdalsjökull
, is Icelandic for "glacier of
Eyjafjöll
", in turn "glacier of island mountains".
Early Icelandic vocabulary was largely
Old Norse
with a few words being Celtic from when Celts first settled in Iceland.
37
38
The
introduction of Christianity to Iceland
in the 11th century
39
brought with it a need to describe new
religious concepts
. The majority of new words were taken from other
Scandinavian languages
kirkja
("church"), for example. Numerous other languages have influenced Icelandic:
French
brought many words related to the court and knightship; words in the
semantic field
of trade and commerce have been borrowed from
Low German
because of trade connections. In the late 18th century,
linguistic purism
began to gain noticeable ground in Iceland and since the early 19th century it has been the linguistic policy of the country.
40
Nowadays, it is common practice to
coin
new compound words from Icelandic derivatives.
Icelandic personal names
are
patronymic
(and sometimes
matronymic
) in that they reflect the immediate father or mother of the child and not the historic family lineage. This system, which was formerly used throughout the Nordic area and beyond, differs from most
Western
systems of
family name
. In most Icelandic families, the ancient tradition of patronymics is still in use; i.e. a person uses their father's name (usually) or mother's name (increasingly in recent years) in the genitive form followed by the morpheme -son ("son") or -dóttir ("daughter") in lieu of family names.
41
In 2019, changes were announced to the laws governing names. Icelanders who are officially registered with
non-binary gender
will be permitted to use the suffix
-bur
("child of") instead of
-son
or
-dóttir
42
Language policy
edit
A core theme of Icelandic language ideologies is grammatical, orthographic and lexical purism for Icelandic. This is evident in general language discourses, in polls, and in other investigations into Icelandic language attitudes.
43
The general consensus on Icelandic language policy has come to mean that language policy and language ideology discourse are not predominantly state or elite driven; but rather, remain the concern of lay people and the general public.
44
The Icelandic speech community is perceived to have a protectionist language culture,
41
however, this is deep-rooted ideologically primarily in relation to the forms of the language, while Icelanders in general seem to be more pragmatic as to domains of language use.
45
Linguistic purism
edit
Main article:
Linguistic purism in Icelandic
Since the late 16th century, discussion has been ongoing on the purity of the Icelandic language. The bishop Oddur Einarsson wrote in 1589 that the language has remained unspoiled since the time the ancient literature of Iceland was written.
46
Later in the 18th century the purism movement grew and more works were translated into Icelandic, especially in areas that Icelandic had hardly ever been used in. Many
neologisms
were introduced, with many of them being loan-translations.
46
In the early 19th century, due to the influence of
romanticism
, importance was put on the purity of spoken language as well. The written language was also brought closer to the spoken language, as the sentence structure of literature had previously been influenced by
Danish
and
German
47
The changes brought by the purism movement have had the most influence on the written language, as many speakers use foreign words freely in speech but try to avoid them in writing. The success of the many neologisms created from the movement has also been variable as some loanwords have not been replaced with native ones.
48
There is still a conscious effort to create new words, especially for science and technology, with many societies publishing dictionaries, some with the help of The Icelandic Language Committee (
Íslensk málnefnd
).
49
Writing system
edit
Main articles:
Icelandic orthography
and
Icelandic Braille
The Icelandic alphabet is notable for its retention of three old letters that no longer exist in the
English alphabet
Þ, þ
þorn
, modern English "thorn"),
Ð, ð
eð
, anglicised as "eth" or "edh") and
Æ, æ
(æsc, anglicised as "ash" or "asc"), with þ and ð representing the
voiceless
and
voiced
"th" sounds (as in English
thin
and
this
), respectively, and æ representing the
diphthong
/ai/ (as in English
ride
). The complete Icelandic alphabet is:
Majuscule forms
(also called
uppercase
or
capital letters
Minuscule forms
(also called
lowercase
or
small letters
The
letters with diacritics
, such as
and
, are for the most part treated as separate letters and not variants of their derivative vowels. The letter
officially replaced
je
in 1929, although it had been used in early manuscripts (until the 14th century) and again periodically from the 18th century.
11
The letter
was formerly in the Icelandic alphabet, but it was abolished in 1973, and gradually stopped being used after the 1980s, except in people's names.
12
50
Sample
edit
Ljóni, highly proficient
L2
Icelandic speaker
SUB:Subjunctive mood
IMP:Imperative mood
PRS:Present tense
PST:Past tense
DF:Definite
IDF:Indefinite
N:Nominative case
A:Accusative case
D:Dative case
G:Genitive case
MA:Masculine gender
FE:Feminine gender
NT:Neuter gender
CMPA:Comparative
SPER:Superlative
SHRT:Shortened (either number)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
edit
The following is a sample text of Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
. Two major version are circulating: this is the one found on the United Nations website and in an illustrated book co-edited by the Icelandic Human Rights Office and Iceland's Ministry of foreign affairs. The first line is the orthographic version;
51
52
the second is the
International Phonetic Alphabet
transciption; the third is the gloss.
Grein
ˈkreiːn-∅
Article-
SG
DF
1:
ˈʔei-ht
||
one-
NT
SG
Allir
ˈʔatl-ɪr
All-
PL
IDF
eru
ɛr-ʏ
be\
PRS
IND
3PL
bornir
ˌpɔ(r)-tnɪr̥‿
born-
PL
IDF
frjálsir
ˈfrjauls-ɪr
free-
PL
IDF
og
and
jafnir
ˈjapn-ɪr
equal-
PL
IDF
öðrum
ˌœðr-ʏm |
(an)other\-
PL
að
in terms of
virðingu
ˈvɪrð.iŋk-ʏ
respect-
SG
IDF
og
and
réttindum.
ˈrjɛhtɪnt-ʏm ||
rights-
IDF
Allir
ˈʔatl-ɪr
All-
PL
IDF
eru
ɛr-ʏ
be\
PRS
IND
3PL
gæddir
ˌkaitː-ɪr̥‿
endowed-
PL
IDF
skynsemi
ˈscɪn.sɛm-ɪ
rea.son-
IDF
og
and
samvisku
ˈsaɱ‿.vɪsk-ʏ |
con.science-
IDF
og
and
ber að
ˈpɛːr-∅ a
be.to-
PRS
IMP
SHRT
breyta
ˌpreit-a
behave-
INF
bróðurlega
ˈprouːðʏr.ˌlɛɣ-a
brother.ly-
ADV
hverjum
ˈkʰvɛr-jʏɱ‿
each-
PL
við
vɪð
with
annan.
ˈanː-an
(an)other-
MA
SG
Grein
1:
Allir eru bornir frjálsir og jafnir öðrum að virðingu og réttindum. Allir eru gæddir skynsemi og samvisku og {ber að} breyta bróðurlega hverjum við annan.
ˈkreiːn-∅
ˈʔei-ht
||} ˈʔatl-ɪr ɛr-ʏ ˌpɔ(r)-tnɪr̥‿ ˈfrjauls-ɪr ɔ ˈjapn-ɪr {ˌœðr-ʏm |} a ˈvɪrð.iŋk-ʏ ɔ {ˈrjɛhtɪnt-ʏm ||} ˈʔatl-ɪr ɛr-ʏ ˌkaitː-ɪr̥‿ ˈscɪn.sɛm-ɪ ɔ {ˈsaɱ‿.vɪsk-ʏ |} ɔ {ˈpɛːr-∅ a} ˌpreit-a ˈprouːðʏr.ˌlɛɣ-a ˈkʰvɛr-jʏɱ‿ vɪð ˈanː-an
Article-N.SG.DF one-NT.N.SG: All-N.PL.IDF be\PRS.IND-3PL born-M.N.PL.IDF free-M.N.PL.IDF and equal-M.N.PL.IDF (an)other\-D.PL {in terms of} respect-D.SG.IDF and {rights-D.IDF .} All-N.PL.IDF be\PRS.IND-3PL endowed-M.N.PL.IDF rea.son-D.IDF and con.science-D.IDF and be.to-PRS.IMP.SHRT behave-INF brother.ly-ADV each-D.PL with {(an)other-MA.A.SG .}
Article 1:
All [humans] are born free and equal from another in terms of respect and rights. All are endowed with conscience and reason and are to behave brotherly with one another.
The second version by the United Nations Information Centre of Denmark is found on the
OHCHR
website.
53
Grein
ˈkreiːn-∅
Article-
SG
DF
1:
ˈʔei-ht
||
one-
NT
SG
Hver
ˈkʰvɛːr-∅
each-
MA
SG
maður
ˈmaːð-ʏr
person-
SG
IDF
er
ɛ(r)-∅
be\
PRS
IND
3SG
borinn
ˌpɔr-ɪn
born-
SG
IDF
frjáls
ˈfrjauls-∅
free-
SG
IDF
og
and
jafn
ˈjapn-∅
equal-
SG
IDF
öðrum
ˌœðr-ʏm |
(an)other\-
PL
að
in terms of
virðingu
ˈvɪrð.iŋk-ʏ
respect-
SG
IDF
og
and
réttindum.
ˈrjɛhtɪnt-ʏm ||
rights-
IDF
Menn
ˈmɛnː
People\
PL
IDF
eru
ɛr-ʏ
be\
PRS
IND
3PL
gæddir
ˌkaitː-ɪr̥‿
endowed-
PL
IDF
vitsmunum
ˈvɪts.mʏn-ʏm
intel.ligence(s)-
IDF
og
and
samvi[s]ku,
ˈsaɱ‿.vɪsk-ʏ |
con.science-
IDF
og
and
ber
ˈpɛːr-∅
be.to-
PRS
IMP
SHRT
þeim
‿ðeim
PL
að breyta
a ˌpreit-a
to behave-
INF
bróðurlega
ˈprouːðʏr.ˌlɛɣ-a
brother.ly-
ADV
hverjum
ˈkʰvɛr-jʏɱ‿
each-
PL
við
vɪð
with
annan.
ˈanː-an
(an)other-
MA
SG
Grein
1:
Hver maður er borinn frjáls og jafn öðrum að virðingu og réttindum. Menn eru gæddir vitsmunum og samvi[s]ku, og ber þeim {að breyta} bróðurlega hverjum við annan.
ˈkreiːn-∅
ˈʔei-ht
||} ˈkʰvɛːr-∅ ˈmaːð-ʏr ɛ(r)-∅ ˌpɔr-ɪn ˈfrjauls-∅ ɔ ˈjapn-∅ {ˌœðr-ʏm |} a ˈvɪrð.iŋk-ʏ ɔ {ˈrjɛhtɪnt-ʏm ||} ˈmɛnː ɛr-ʏ ˌkaitː-ɪr̥‿ ˈvɪts.mʏn-ʏm ɔ {ˈsaɱ‿.vɪsk-ʏ |} ɔ ˈpɛːr-∅ ‿ðeim {a ˌpreit-a} ˈprouːðʏr.ˌlɛɣ-a ˈkʰvɛr-jʏɱ‿ vɪð ˈanː-an
Article-N.SG.DF one-NT.N.SG: each-MA.N.SG person-N.SG.IDF be\PRS.IND-3SG born-M.N.SG.IDF free-M.N.SG.IDF and equal-M.N.SG.IDF (an)other\-D.PL {in terms of} respect-D.SG.IDF and {rights-D.IDF .} People\N.PL.IDF be\PRS.IND-3PL endowed-M.N.PL.IDF intel.ligence(s)-D.IDF and {con.science-D.IDF ,} and be.to-PRS.IMP.SHRT D.PL {to behave-INF} brother.ly-ADV each-D.PL with {(an)other-MA.A.SG .}
Article 1:
Each person is born free and equal from another in terms of respect and rights. People are endowed with intelligence and reason, and are to behave brotherly with one another.
The North Wind and the Sun
edit
The following is a sample text consisting of the first sentence of the fable "
The North Wind and the Sun
". The first line is the orthographic version; the second is the
International Phonetic Alphabet
transciption; the third is the gloss.
54
Recordings are available on Jo Verhoeven's
personal website
55
Einu
ˈʔei-nʏ
One-
SG
DF
sinni
ˈsɪnː-ɪ
time-
SG
IDF
deildu
ˌteil-tʏ
dispute-
IND
PST
3PL
norðanvindurinn
ˈnɔrðaɱ‿.ˌvɪnt-ʏrɪn
north.wind-
SG
DF
og
and
sólin
ˈsouːl-ɪn ||
sun-
SG
DF
um,
ˈʔʏm
about
hvort
kʰvɔr̥-t(ː‿)
which.of.two-
NT
SG
þeirra
(θ)eira
NT
PL
væri
ˌvair-ɪ
be\
SUB
PST
SUB
3SG
sterkara.
ˈstɛr̥k-ar-a
strong-
CMPA
NT
SG
Einu sinni deildu norðanvindurinn og sólin um, hvort þeirra væri sterkara.
ˈʔei-nʏ ˈsɪnː-ɪ ˌteil-tʏ ˈnɔrðaɱ‿.ˌvɪnt-ʏrɪn ɔ {ˈsouːl-ɪn ||} ˈʔʏm kʰvɔr̥-t(ː‿) (θ)eira ˌvair-ɪ ˈstɛr̥k-ar-a
One-N.SG.DF time-D.SG.IDF dispute-IND.PST.3PL north.wind-N.SG.DF and sun-N.SG.DF about which.of.two-NT.N.SG NT.G.PL be\SUB.PST-SUB.3SG strong-CMPA-NT.N.SG
One time the north wind and the sun were quarreling over which of the two was stronger.
See also
edit
Basque–Icelandic pidgin
(a
pidgin
that was used to trade with
Basque
whalers)
Icelandic exonyms
Icelandic literature
Icelandic name
References
edit
Notes
edit
In an advisory capacity.
pre-aspirated stops are
typologically
rare.
22
[œy]
is thought of being a result from co-articulation, so the phonemic representation is
/œi/
35
Citations
edit
Icelandic
at
Ethnologue
(26th ed., 2023)
Icelandic language
at
Ethnologue
(19th ed., 2016)
Barbour & Carmichael 2000
, p. 106.
"StatBank Denmark"
www.statbank.dk
"Icelandic"
MLA Language Map Data Center
Modern Language Association
. Archived from
the original
on 6 December 2010
. Retrieved
17 April
2010
Based on
2000 US census data
Government of Canada (8 May 2013).
"2011 National Household Survey: Data tables"
Statistics Canada
"Icelandic: At Once Ancient And Modern"
(PDF)
Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
. 2001. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 26 August 2019
. Retrieved
27 April
2007
Karlsson 2013
, p. 8.
Þráinsson 1994
, p. 142.
"Letter from the Faroes - Lost History of the Sheep Islands - Archaeology Magazine - March/April 2023"
Archaeology Magazine
. Retrieved
7 July
2024
Kvaran, Guðrún (12 November 2001).
"Hvenær var bókstafurinn 'é' tekinn upp í íslensku í stað 'je' og af hverju er 'je' enn notað í ýmsum orðum?"
[When was the letter 'é' adopted in Icelandic instead of 'je', and why is 'je' still used in various words?].
Vísindavefurinn
(in Icelandic)
. Retrieved
20 June
2007
Kvaran, Guðrún (7 March 2000).
"Hvers vegna var bókstafurinn z svona mikið notaður á Íslandi en því svo hætt?"
[Why was the letter 'z' used so much in Iceland, and why was it then discontinued?].
Vísindavefurinn
(in Icelandic).
Archived
from the original on 29 October 2023
. Retrieved
29 October
2023
Sanders, Ruth (2010).
German: Biography of a Language
. Oxford University Press. p. 209.
Overall, written Icelandic has changed little since the eleventh century Icelandic sagas, or historical epics; only the addition of significant numbers of vocabulary items in modern times makes it likely that a saga author would have difficulty understanding the news in today's [Icelandic newspapers].
"Act [No 61/2011] on the status of the Icelandic language and Icelandic sign language"
(PDF)
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
. p. 1
. Retrieved
15 November
2013
Article 1; National language – official language; Icelandic is the national language of the Icelandic people and the official language in Iceland. Article 2; The Icelandic language — The national language is the common language of the Icelandic general public. Public authorities shall ensure that its use is possible in all areas of Icelandic society. All persons residing in Iceland must be given the opportunity to learn Icelandic and to use it for their general participation in Icelandic society, as further provided in leges speciales.
"Norden"
. Retrieved
27 April
2007
"Nordic Language Convention"
. Archived from
the original
on 29 June 2007
. Retrieved
27 April
2007
"Nordic Language Convention"
. Archived from
the original
on 28 April 2009
. Retrieved
27 April
2007
Robert Berman.
"The English Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency of Icelandic students, and how to improve it"
. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016.
English is often described as being almost a second language in Iceland, as opposed to a foreign language like German or Chinese. Certainly in terms of Icelandic students' Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), English does indeed seem to be a second language. However, in terms of many Icelandic students' Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)—the language skills required for success in school—evidence will be presented suggesting that there may be a large number of students who have substantial trouble utilizing these skills.
Language Convention not working properly
Archived
2009-04-28 at the
Wayback Machine
Nordic news
, March 3, 2007. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
Helge Niska,
"Community interpreting in Sweden: A short presentation"
International Federation of Translators
, 2004. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
Archived
2009-03-27 at the
Wayback Machine
Árnason 2011
, p. 99.
Flego & Berkson 2020
, p. 1.
Kress 1982
, pp. 23-24: "It's never voiced, as
in
sausen
, and it's pronounced by pressing the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, close to the upper teeth – somewhat below the place of articulation of the German
sch
. The difference is that German
sch
is labialized, while Icelandic
is not. It's a pre-alveolar, coronal, voiceless spirant.".
Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996
, pp. 144–145.
Liberman, Mark.
"A little Icelandic phonetics"
Language Log
. University of Pennsylvania
. Retrieved
1 April
2012
Einarsson, Stefan (1949).
Icelandic
. Johns Hopkins Press.
Haugen, Einar (1958). "The Phonemics of Modern Icelandic".
Language
34
1:
55–
88.
doi
10.2307/411276
JSTOR
411276
Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel, eds. (2019).
Icelandic sound inventory (SPA)
. Stanford Phonology Archive. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
"PHOIBLE 2.0 -"
phoible.org
. Retrieved
25 July
2025
"PHOIBLE 2.0 - Consonant j̥"
phoible.org
. Retrieved
25 July
2025
Árnason 2011
, pp. 107, 237.
Flego & Berkson 2020
, p. 8.
Árnason 2011
, p. 57.
Árnason 2011
, pp. 58–59.
Árnason 2011
, p. 58.
"Þéranir á meðal vor"
Morgunblaðið
. 29 October 1999.
Brown & Ogilvie 2010
, p. 781.
Karlsson 2013
, p. 9.
Forbes 1860
Van der Hulst 2008
Hilmarsson-Dunn & Kristinsson 2010
Kyzer, Larissa (22 June 2019).
"Icelandic names will no longer be gendered"
Iceland Review
Kristinsson 2018
Kristinsson 2013
Kristinsson 2014
Karlsson 2013
, p. 36.
Karlsson 2013
, pp. 37–38.
Karlsson 2013
, p. 38.
Þráinsson 1994
, p. 188.
Ragnarsson 1992
, p. 148.
"Mannréttindayfirlýsing Sameinuðu þjóðanna"
un.is
. 29 November 2018. 1.grein.
Archived
from the original on 8 May 2021
. Retrieved
13 November
2025
Stefánsdóttir, Au. B.; Guðmunsdóttir, G. D., eds. (2008).
Mannréttindayfirlýsing Sameinuðu þjóðanna
(PDF)
. Mannréttindaskrifstofa Íslands, Utanríkisráðuneytið.
ISBN
978-9979-9177-9-3
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 17 November 2024.
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Icelandic (íslenska)"
ohchr.org
. 1. grein.
Archived
from the original on 8 August 2024.
Flego & Berkson (2020)
, pp. 11–13.
Verhoeven, Jo.
"North Wind and the Sun in Icelandic"
phonetics.expert
Archived
from the original on 14 August 2025.
Bibliography
edit
Árnason, Kristján; Helgadóttir, Sigrún (1991). "Terminology and Icelandic Language Policy".
Behovet och nyttan av terminologiskt arbete på 90-talet
. Nordterm. Vol. 5. pp.
7–
21.
Árnason, Kristján (2011).
The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-922931-4
Barbour, Stephen; Carmichael, Cathie (2000).
Language and Nationalism in Europe
. OUP.
ISBN
978-0-19-158407-7
Brown, Edward K.; Ogilvie, Sarah (2010).
Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world
. Elsevier.
ISBN
978-0-08-087775-4
OCLC
944400471
Forbes, Charles St. (1860).
Iceland: Its Volcanoes, Geysers, And Glaciers
. Creative Media Partners. p. 61.
ISBN
978-1-298-55142-9
{{
cite book
}}
ISBN / Date incompatibility (
help
Halldórsson, Halldór (1979). "Icelandic Purism and its History".
Word
30
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86.
Hilmarsson-Dunn, Amanda; Kristinsson, Ari P. (2010).
"The language situation in Iceland"
Current Issues in Language Planning
11
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207–
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10.1080/14664208.2010.538008
ISSN
1466-4208
S2CID
144856348
Karlsson, Stefán (2013) [2004].
The Icelandic language
. Translated by McTurk, Rory (1st Reprinted with minor corrections ed.). London: Viking Society for Northern Research,
UCL
ISBN
978-0-903521-61-1
Kress, Bruno (1982).
Isländische Grammatik
VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie Leipzig
Kristinsson, Ari P. (2013).
"Die Entwicklung neuer Sprachideologien und Medienpraktiken in Island"
[Evolving language ideologies and media practices in Iceland].
Sociolinguistica
(in German).
27
(1):
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ISSN
1865-939X
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Kristinsson, Ari P. (2014).
"Ideologies in Iceland: The protection of language forms"
. In Hultgren, Anna Kr.; Gregersen, Frans; Thøgersen, Jacob (eds.).
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. Studies in World Language Problems. Vol. 5. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp.
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177.
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978-90-272-2836-9
Kristinsson, Ari P. (2018).
"National language policy and planning in Iceland – aims and institutional activities"
(PDF)
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. Budapest:
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ISBN
978-963-9074-74-3
Kvaran, Guðrún; Höskuldur, Þráinsson; Kristján, Árnason; et al. (2005).
Íslensk tunga I–III
. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið.
ISBN
9979-2-1900-9
OCLC
71365446
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: publisher location (
link
Ladefoged, Peter
Maddieson, Ian
(1996).
The Sounds of the World's Languages
. Oxford: Blackwell.
ISBN
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Orešnik, Janez
; Pétursson, Magnús (1977). "Quantity in Modern Icelandic".
Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi
92
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Ragnarsson, Baldur (1992).
Mál og málsaga
Language and language history
] (in Icelandic). Mál og Menning.
ISBN
978-9979-3-0417-3
Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur (1993).
Íslensk hljóðkerfisfræði
Icelandic phonology
]. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.
ISBN
9979-853-14-X
Scholten, Daniel (2000).
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. Munich: Philyra Verlag.
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3-935267-00-2
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76178278
Flego, Stefon; Berkson, Kelly (2020).
"A Phonetic Illustration of the Sound System of Icelandic"
ResearchGate
Þráinsson, Höskuldur (1994). "Icelandic". In König, Ekkehard; Van der Auwera, Johan (eds.).
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. Routledge language family descriptions. London: Routledge.
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978-0-415-05768-4
Van der Hulst, Harry (2008).
Word Prosodic Systems in the Languages of Europe
. Mouton de Gruyter. p. 377.
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978-1-282-19366-6
OCLC
741344348
Vikør, Lars S. (1993).
The Nordic Languages: Their Status and Interrelations
. Oslo: Novus Press. pp.
55–
59,
168–
169,
209–
214.
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