Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken in Iceland. It is an inflected language of moderate complexity. 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 very little since the Viking era. As a result of this, and of the grammatical similarity between the modern and ancient grammar, modern speakers can still read, more or less, the original sagas and Eddas that were written some eight hundred years ago. This old form of the language is called Old Icelandic, but also commonly equated to Old Norse (an umbrella term for the common Scandinavian language of the Viking era). Icelandic orthography is notable for its retention of two old letters: thorn (þ) and eth or edh (ð), representing the voiceless and voiced "th" sounds as in English thin and this respectively. The preservation of the Icelandic language has been taken seriously by the Icelanders - rather than borrow foreign words for new concepts, new Icelandic words are diligently forged for public use.

Phonology

Icelandic phonology is somewhat unusual for European languages in having an aspiration contrast in its stops, rather than a voicing contrast (though, in fact, English exhibits some characteristics of such a contrast). However, Icelandic continuant phonemes exhibit regular contrasts in voice, including in nasals (rare in the world's languages). Additionally, length is contrastive for nearly all phonemes; voiceless sonorant consonants seem to be the only exception. The chart below was developed from data found at BRAGI and related pages; refer to the SAMPA Chart article for information on values of the symbols. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Consonants

	bilabial	interdental	dental	palatal	velar	glottal
stops	p / ph		t / th	c / ch	k / kh
fricatives	f / v	T / D	s	C	x / G	h
nasalss	m / m.		n / n.	J / J.	N / N.
semivowels	w			j
laterals			l / l.
rhotics (trills)			r / r.

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Vowels

	front unrounded	front rounded	central & back
close	i		u
mid	e	2
open-mid	E	9	O
open			a

Morphology

\nAnyone, who knows German, 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 and number. 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, other as aspects to varying degrees.

Syntax

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

External links

\n*Icelandic version of Wikipedia.

• Íslensk málstöð (The Icelandic Language Institute)\n* Lexicographical Institute of Háskóli Íslands (In icelandic only) / Orðabók Háskóla Íslands \n* BRAGI - website on the Icelandic language, primarily in Icelandic and German, though other languages are available for some sub-pages.\n* Iðunn - Poetry society\n* Bragfræði og Háttatal\n* Icelandic-division of Háskóli Íslands / Íslenskuskor Háskóla Íslands\n* Some Icelandic sayings (I)\n* Some Icelandic sayings (II)\n* Meanings of Icelandic names\n* Various dictionaries regarding Icelandic\n*http://www.ethnologue.com/show_iso639.asp?code=isl\n* Some tricky points of daily spoken Icelandic (For people who speak Icelandic)\n* Icelandic - English Dictionary: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.\n* Íslenska - German magazine for Learners of Icelandic

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