The modern Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:

Eth

Thorn

A handwriting extract; the special letters ð and þ are visible. Icelandic ( is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, The letter A is the first letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (eɪ plural Á, á ( A - acute) is a letter of the Czech, Faroese, Hungarian, Icelandic, and Slovak languages B is the second letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled bee or occasionally be (biː plural bees. D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː Eth ( Ð, ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese (in E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled e (iː plural es or ees (also written E's E É, é ( E - acute) is a letter of Hungarian, Icelandic, Kashubian, Czech, Slovak, and Uyghur language F is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ef or eff (ɛf G is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled gee or occasionally ge (dʒiː I is the ninth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its English name is i (aɪ Í, í ( I - acute) is a letter of Faroese, Hungarian, Icelandic, Czech, Slovak, and Tatar language J is the tenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet; it was the last of the 26 letters to be added K is the eleventh letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled kay (keɪ L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is el or occasionally ell (ɛl M is the thirteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled em (ɛm N is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled en (ɛn O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin Alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (oʊ plural usually o's or os; sometimes Ó, ó ( O - acute) is a letter in the Faroese, Hungarian, Icelandic, Kashubian, Polish, Czech P is the sixteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled pee or occasionally pe (piː R is the eighteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ar (ɑr pronounced or) S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ess or occasionally es (ɛs generally es- T is the twentieth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled tee or occasionally te (tiː U is the twenty-first letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u (juː Ê, ê ( E - Circumflex) is a letter of Kurdish and Vietnamese language. V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː X is the twenty-fourth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ex or occasionally ecks (ɛks plural exes The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. History An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels. Î, î ( I - Circumflex) is a letter of Kurdish and Romanian language. Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. O-Umlaut The glyph O with Umlaut appears in the German alphabet. Lower case (also lower-case or lowercase) minuscule, or small letters are the smaller form of letters as opposed to upper Eth ( Ð, ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese (in Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia Eth ( Ð, ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese (in Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia

It is based upon a Latin alphabet with diacritics, in addition it includes the runic letter thorn Þþ (pictured to the right). A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation Thorn, or þorn (Þ þ is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Alphabets It was also used in Medieval Scandinavia Æ and ö are considered letters in their own right and not a ligature or diacritical version of their respective letters. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation

Often the glyphs are simplified when handwritten, for example ð may be written as a d with a horizontal line (đ) and the ligature æ (considered a separate letter) may be written as ae, both of which can make it easier to write cursively. A glyph is an element of writing Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol whether interchangeable or context-dependent are called Allographs the abstract unit they Eth ( Ð, ð; also spelled edh or eð) is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese (in D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled dee or occasionally de (diː Đ (lowercase đ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, formed from D with the addition of a bar or stroke through the letter Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. For the indie rock band see Cursive (band. Cursive is any style of handwriting that is designed for writing down notes and

History

The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century, by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask primarily. Icelandic ( is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Rasmus (Christian Rask (ʁɑsmus ʁɑsɡ̊ ( November 22, 1787 - November 14, 1832) Danish scholar and Philologist, was It is ultimately based heavily on an orthographic standard created in the early 12th century by a document referred to as The First Grammatical Treatise, author unknown. The First Grammatical Treatise is a 12th century work on the Phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language The standard was intended for the common language of Scandinavia, alias Old Norse. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age It did not have much influence, however, at the time.

The most defining characteristics of the alphabet were established in the old treatise:

• Use of the acute accent (originally to signify vowel length). History An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound
• Use of þ, also used in the Old English alphabet as the letter thorn. Î, î ( I - Circumflex) is a letter of Kurdish and Romanian language.

The later Rasmus Rask standard was basically a re-enactment of the old treatise, with some changes to fit concurrent Germanic conventions, such as the exclusive use of k rather than c. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Various old features, like ð, had actually not seen much use in the later centuries, so Rask's standard constituted a major change in practice.

Later 20th century changes are most notably the adoption of é, which had previously been written as je (reflecting the modern pronunciation), and the abolition of z in 1974. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar.

Letter names

The names of the letters are:

Notes

 Alphabet recital:

Icelandic alphabet

An Icelandic speaker reciting the alphabet in Icelandic

Problems listening to the file? See media help. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

The letters a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, u, ú, y, ý, æ and ö are considered vowels, and the remainder are consonants. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal

The letters C (sé, [sjɛ]), Q (kú, [kʰu]) and W (tvöfalt vaff, [ˈtʰvœfal̥t ˌvafː]) are only used in Icelandic in words of foreign origin and some proper names that are also of foreign origin.

The letter Z (seta, [ˈsɛta]) was used until 1974, when it was abolished, as it was only an etymological detail. Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. However, one of the most important newspapers in Iceland, the Morgunblaðið, still uses it sometimes (although very rarely), and a secondary school, Verzlunarskóli Íslands has it in its name. Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( Morgunblaðið ( The Morning Paper) is a Newspaper published in Iceland, founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen. Verzlunarskóli Íslands ( English The Commercial College of Iceland) is an Icelandic gymnasium It is also found in some proper names of people. Older people, who were educated before the abolition of the z sometimes also use it.

The Icelandic keyboard layout. QWERTY keyboardjpg|thumb|right|300px|QWERTY keyboard on a Laptop of 2007]]A keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional

Letter frequencies

The most common letters in Icelandic are n and a^[1].

The list above shows the letter frequencies for more letters in order of descending frequency.

See also

References

• http://www.ielanguages.com/icelandic.html used as source for pronunciation descriptions

External links

• (Icelandic) „Íslenska, í senn forn og ný“.