Icelandic language

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For other meanings, see Icelandic (disambiguation).

{{language |name=Icelandic |nativename=íslenska |states=Iceland, parts of Canada (Manitoba) |region=Iceland |speakers=300,000 |familycolor=Indo-European |fam2=Germanic |fam3=North Germanic |fam4=West Scandinavian |nation=Iceland |agency=Íslensk málstöð The Icelandic Language Institute |iso1=is|iso2=isl|iso3=isl}}

Icelandic (íslenska) is a North Germanic language spoken in Iceland. It is an inflected language with four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Its closest relative is Faroese and can be somewhat understood by some Norwegians as well, depending on their dialect and education.

While most Western European languages have reduced greatly the extent of inflection, particularly in noun declension, Icelandic retains an inflectional grammar comparable to that of Latin, Ancient Greek, or more closely, Old English.

Written Icelandic has changed relatively little since the 13th century. As a result of this, and of the similarity between the modern and ancient grammar, modern speakers can still understand, more or less, the original sagas and Eddas that were written some eight hundred years ago. This ability is sometimes mildly overstated by Icelanders themselves, most of whom actually read the Sagas with updated modern spelling and footnotes - though otherwise intact. This old form of the language is called Old Icelandic, but also commonly equated to Old Norse, an umbrella term also known as "Danish Tongue" used for the common Scandinavian language of the Viking era.

The Icelandic alphabet is notable for its retention of two old letters which no longer exist in the English alphabet: þ (thorn) and ð (eth or edh), representing the voiceless and voiced "th" sounds as in English thin and this respectively. The complete Icelandic alphabet is:

A Á B D Ð E É F G H I Í J K L M N O Ó P R S T U Ú V X Y Ý Þ Æ Ö (32 letters)

a á b d ð e é f g h i í j k l m n o ó p r s t u ú v x y ý þ æ ö

The preservation of the Icelandic language is taken seriously by the Icelanders — rather than borrow foreign words for new concepts, new Icelandic words are diligently forged for public use.

Icelandic does not have any notable dialect differences.

1 Sounds
- 1.1 Consonants
- 1.2 Vowels
2 Morphology
3 Syntax
4 Icelandic sign language
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

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Sounds

Template:IPA notice Icelandic has an aspiration contrast between plosives, rather than a voicing contrast, something relatively rare among European languages. Preaspirated voiceless stops are also common. However fricative and sonorant consonant phonemes exhibit regular contrasts in voice, including in nasals (rare in the world's languages). Additionally, length is contrastive for many phonemes; voiceless sonorant consonants seem to be the only exception. The chart below is based on Scholten (2000, p. 22); refer to the IPA article for information on the sounds of the following symbols:

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Consonants

**Consonant phones**
	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosive	Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Nasal	Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Fricative			Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Trill							Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Lateral approximant							Template:IPA Template:IPA	Template:IPA

The voiced fricatives Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are not completely constrictive and are often closer to approximants than fricatives.

The status of Template:IPA and Template:IPA as phonemes or as allophones of Template:IPA and Template:IPA is the topic of some debate. On the one hand, the presence of minimal pairs like gjóla Template:IPA "light wind" vs. góla Template:IPA "howl" and kjóla Template:IPA "dresses" vs. kóla Template:IPA "cola" suggests that the palatal stops are separate phonemes. On the other hand, only the palatal stops, not the velars, may appear before front vowels, and some linguists (e.g. Rögnvaldsson 1993) have held out for an underlying phonemic representation of Template:IPA and Template:IPA as Template:IPA and Template:IPA respectively, with a phonological process merging Template:IPA into Template:IPA. Whether this approach, which is consistent with the orthography and historical processes, represents a synchronic reality is disputed, especially since most phonological phenomena are adequately explained diachronically, so an artificial, synchronic system seems somewhat unnecessary.

The dental fricatives Template:IPA and Template:IPA are allophones of a single phoneme. Template:IPA is used word-initially, as in þak Template:IPA "roof", and before a voiceless consonant, as in maðkur Template:IPA "worm". Template:IPA is used intervocalically, as in iða Template:IPA "vortex" and word-finally, as in bað Template:IPA "bath", although it can be devoiced to Template:IPA before pause.

Of the voiceless nasals, only Template:IPA occurs in word-initial position, for example in hné Template:IPA "knee". Recently, there has been an increasing tendency, especially among children, to pronounce this as voiced, for example pronouncing hnífur Template:IPA "knife" rather than standard Template:IPA. The palatal nasal appears before palatal stops and the velar nasals before velar stops. Template:IPA appears also before Template:IPA and Template:IPA through the deletion of Template:IPA in the consonant clusters Template:IPA and Template:IPA.

The preaspirates Template:IPA (e.g. löpp Template:IPA "foot") do not occur in initial position. The geminates Template:IPA are not necessarily longer than simple Template:IPA but do cause shortening of a preceding vowel. Still, they may be pronounced long in certain styles of speech, such as when talking to children.

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Vowels

Monophthongs	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Near-close	Template:IPA
Open-mid	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Open	Template:IPA

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel.

Diphthongs	Closer component is front	Closer component is back
Opener component is mid	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Opener component is fully open	Template:IPA	Template:IPA

Vowel length is predictable in Icelandic (Orešnik and Pétursson 1977). Stressed vowels (both monophthongs and diphthongs) are long:

In one-syllable words where the vowel is word-final:
- fá Template:IPA "get"
- nei Template:IPA "no"
- þú Template:IPA "you (singular)"
Before a single consonant:
- fara Template:IPA "go"
- hás Template:IPA "hoarse"
- vekja Template:IPA "wake up"
- ég Template:IPA "I"
- spyr Template:IPA "ask (1 person, singular)"
Before any of the consonant clusters Template:IPA, Template:IPA, or Template:IPA:
- lipra Template:IPA "agile (accusative, feminine)"
- sætra Template:IPA "sweet (genitive, plural)"
- akra Template:IPA "fields (accusative, plural)"
- hásra Template:IPA "hoarse (genitive, plural)"
- vepja Template:IPA "lapwing"
- letja Template:IPA "dissuade"
- Esja Template:IPA proper noun, a mountain
- götva Template:IPA as in uppgötva "discover"
- vökva Template:IPA "water (verb)"

Before other consonant clusters (including the preaspirated stops Template:IPA and geminate consonants), stressed vowels are short. Unstressed vowels are always short.

Karl Template:IPA proper noun
standa Template:IPA "stand"
sjálfur Template:IPA "self"
kenna Template:IPA "teach"
fínt Template:IPA "fine"
loft Template:IPA "air"
upp Template:IPA "up"
yrði Template:IPA as in nýyrði "neologism"
ætla Template:IPA "will (verb)"
laust Template:IPA "lightly"

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Morphology

Many German speakers will find Icelandic morphology familiar. Almost every morphological category in one language is represented in the other. Nouns are declined for case, number and gender, adjectives for case, number, gender and comparison, and there are two declensions for adjectives, weak and strong. Icelandic possesses only the definite article, which can stand on its own, or be attached to its modified noun (as in other North-Germanic languages). Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, person, number and voice. There are three voices, active, passive and medial, but it may be debated whether the medial voice is a voice or simply an independent class of verbs of its own. There are only two simple tenses, past and present, but to make up for that there are a number of auxiliary constructions, some of which may be regarded as tenses, others as aspects to varying degrees.

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Syntax

Icelandic is SVO, generally speaking, but the inflectional system allows for quite some freedom in word order.

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Icelandic sign language

Main article: Icelandic Sign Language

Icelandic sign language was originally based on Danish Sign Language. Until 1910, deaf Icelandic people were sent to school in Denmark. Today, Icelandic sign language has evolved apart from its Danish roots. The language is regulated by a national committee.

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