Icelandic íslenska
Pronunciation:	[ˈislɛnska]
Spoken in:	Iceland, Denmark, Norway, USA[1] and Canada[2]
Total speakers:	310,000
Language family:	Indo-European  Germanic   North Germanic    West Scandinavian     Icelandic
Writing system:	Latin (Icelandic variant)
Official status
Official language in:	Iceland
Regulated by:	Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	is
ISO 639-2:	ice (B)	isl (T)
ISO 639-3:	isl
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. 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 A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. History The modern Icelandic Alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask primarily Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies ( Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum) is an institute of the Ministry of Education Science and Culture ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Icelandic (íslenska (help·info)) is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland and the mother tongue of the Icelandic people. 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 Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( A first language (also mother tongue, native language, arterial language, or L1) is the language a human being learns from birth Icelanders are the Nation or Ethnic group of Iceland descended primarily from Norsemen of Scandinavia. Its closest relatives are Faroese and West Norwegian dialects such as Sognamål. Faroese ( føroyskt ˈføːɹɪst or) often also spelled Faeroese (cf The Norwegian dialects are commonly divided into 5 main groups North Norwegian (nordnorsk Trøndelag Norwegian ( Trøndersk[http //www Sognamål (literally "Sogn language" is a conservative Norwegian dialect which is spoken in the area of Sogn.

Whilst most West European languages have greatly reduced levels of inflection, particularly in regards to noun declension, Icelandic retains an inflectional grammar comparable to that of Latin or, more closely, Old Norse and Old English. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age

Classification

Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. 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 The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. It is the closest living relative of Faroese and along with this and Norwegian it forms the West Scandinavian languages, the descendant of the western dialects of Old Norse. Faroese ( føroyskt ˈføːɹɪst or) often also spelled Faeroese (cf Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age Danish and Swedish make up the other branch, called the East Scandinavian languages. Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the More recent analysis divides the North Germanic languages into insular Scandinavian and continental Scandinavian languages, grouping Norwegian with Danish and Swedish based on mutual intelligibility and the fact that Norwegian has been heavily influenced by East Scandinavian (particularly Danish) during the last millennium and has diverged considerably from both Faroese and Icelandic. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand

Geographic distribution

The vast majority of Icelandic speakers live in Iceland. Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( There are about 8,165 speakers of Icelandic living in Denmark,^[3] of which approximately 3,000 are students^[4]. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe The language is also spoken by 5,655 people in the USA^[1] and by 2,385 in Canada^[2] (mostly in Gimli, Manitoba). The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Gimli is a Rural municipality and the town of the same name located within it in south-central Manitoba, Canada. Manitoba (English ˌmænɨˈtoʊbə French /manitoba/ is a province of Canada, spanning 647797 square kilometres (250116  sq mi of North America 97% of the population of Iceland consider Icelandic their mother tongue^[5], but in communities outside Iceland the usage of the language is declining. Extant Icelandic speakers outside Iceland represent recent emigration in almost all cases except Gimli, which was settled from the 1880s onwards.

The Icelandic constitution does not mention the language as the official language of the country. Though Iceland is a member of the Nordic Council, the Council uses only Danish, Norwegian and Swedish as its working languages, though it publishes material in Icelandic ^[6]. The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers is an intergovernmental forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the Under the Nordic Language Convention, since 1987, citizens of Iceland have the opportunity to use Icelandic when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs. The Nordic Language Convention is a convention of Linguistic rights which came into force in March 1, 1987, under the auspices of the Nordic The Convention covers visits to hospitals, job centres, the police and social security offices,^[7][8] however the Convention is not very well known and is mostly a recommendation. The countries have committed themselves to providing services in various languages, but citizens have no absolute rights except for criminal and court matters. ^[9][10]

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 Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies ( Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum) is an institute of the Ministry of Education Science and Culture The Icelandic Language Council, made up of representatives of universities, the arts, journalists, teachers, and the Ministry of Culture, Science and Education, advises the authorities on language policy. Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular Language or set of languages The Icelandic Language Fund supports activities intended to promote the Icelandic language. Since 1995 November 16 each year, the birthday of 19th century poet Jónas Hallgrímsson is celebrated as Icelandic Language Day^[11][5]. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 Events 534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published Jónas Hallgrímsson ( November 16, 1807 &ndash May 26, 1845) was an Icelandic Poet and Author. Icelandic Language Day (dagur íslenskrar tungu or "day of the Icelandic tongue" is celebrated on 16 November each year in Iceland.

Icelandic is a language nearly without dialects. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of

History

Main article: History of the Icelandic language

A page from the Landnámabók. The history of the Icelandic language began in the 9th century with the Settlement of Iceland when settlers who mostly came from Norway, brought a dialect of Landnámabók (meaning "The Book of Settlement" often shortened to Landnáma) is a medieval Icelandic manuscript describing in considerable detail the

The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around 1100. Many of them are actually based on material like poetry and laws, preserved orally for generations before being written down. The most famous of these, which were written in Iceland from the 12th century onward, are without doubt the Icelandic Sagas, the historical writings of Snorri Sturluson and eddaic poems. The Sagas of Icelanders ( Icelandic: Íslendingasögur)&mdashmany of which are also known as family sagas &mdashare prose histories describing Snorri Sturluson (1178 – September 23, 1241) was an Icelandic historian poet and politician The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval Manuscript Codex Regius.

The language of the era of the sagas is called Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse, the common Scandinavian language of the Viking era. The sagas (from Icelandic saga, plural sögur) are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history about early Viking voyages Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age Viking Age is the term denoting the years from about 700 to 1066 in European history. Old Icelandic was, in the strict sense of the term, Old Norse with some Celtic influence. The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Danish rule of Iceland from 1380 to 1918 has had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic, which remained in daily use among the general population and Danish was not used for official communications. This article is about the history of Iceland and the areas comprising modern day Iceland. The same applied to the U.S. occupation of Iceland during World War II which was gradually withdrawn in the 1950s. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Though Icelandic is considered more archaic than other living Germanic languages, important changes have occurred. The pronunciation, for instance, changed considerably from the 12th to the 16th century, especially of vowels.

The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century, by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask primarily. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either 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 mysterious document referred to as The First Grammatical Treatise by an anonymous author who has later been referred to as the First Grammarian. The First Grammatical Treatise is a 12th century work on the Phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language The later Rasmus Rask standard was basically a re-creation 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.

Written Icelandic has, thus, 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. The Sagas of Icelanders ( Icelandic: Íslendingasögur)&mdashmany of which are also known as family sagas &mdashare prose histories describing This page refers to the Eddur poems and tales of Norse Mythology 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. Many Icelanders can also understand the original manuscripts, with a little effort.

Phonology

Main article: Icelandic phonology

Unlike many languages, Icelandic has only very minor dialectal differences in sounds. Icelandic phonology is the study of the Phonology of the Icelandic language. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of The language has both monophthongs and diphthongs, and consonants can be voiced or unvoiced. A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless

Voice plays a big role in the pronunciation of many consonants. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless 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 For most Icelandic consonants, there are voiced and unvoiced counterparts. However, b, d, and g are never voiced in Icelandic. These letters only differ from p, t and k because p, t and k become aspirated when they are the first letter of a word; b, d and g do not. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed

Consonants

The voiced fricatives /v/, /ð/, /j/ and /ɣ/ are not completely constrictive and are often closer to approximants than fricatives. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation.

Vowels

Grammar

A sample extract. A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A near-close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with

Main article: Icelandic grammar

Icelandic retains many grammatical features of other ancient Germanic languages, and resembles Old Norwegian before its inflection was greatly simplified. Icelandic grammar is a body of rules specifying how meanings are created in Icelandic. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Old Norwegian is a term used for the Old Norse language as spoken and written in Norway in the Middle Ages. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice Modern Icelandic is still a heavily inflected language with four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice This is a list of grammatical cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have Declension. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another Icelandic nouns can have one of three grammatical genders —masculine, feminine or neuter. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong There are two main declension paradigms for each gender: strong and weak nouns, which are furthermore divided in smaller paradigms for declension, according to many criteria (sound-shifts, consonant clusters etc. In the Icelandic language, a strong noun is one which falls into one of four categories depending on the endings of the characteristic cases, i In the Icelandic language Nouns are considered weak, if they fulfill the following conditions Masculines The nominative singular ends in ) Additionally, Icelandic permits a Quirky subject, which is a phenomenon whereby certain verbs specify that their subjects are to be in a case other than the nominative. Quirky subjects (also called "oblique subjects" are a linguistic phenomenon whereby certain verbs specify that their subjects are to be in a case other than the nominative

Nouns, adjectives and pronouns are declined in the four cases, and for number in the singular and plural. T-V distinction ("þérun") in modern Icelandic seems on the verge of extinction, yet can still be found, especially in structured official address and tradional phrases. In Sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a Language has second-person Pronouns that distinguish varying levels of

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, person, number and voice. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified 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. They have up to ten tenses, but Icelandic, like English, forms most of these with auxiliary verbs. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs In Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning There are three main groups of verbs in Icelandic: -a, -i, and -ur, referring to the endings that these verbs take when conjugated in the first person singular present. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others SINGULAR is a Computer algebra system for Polynomial computations with special emphasis on the needs of Commutative algebra, Algebraic geometry The present is the Time that is perceived directly not as a recollection or a speculation Some Icelandic infinitives end with the -ja suffix. In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word For many verbs that require an object, a reflexive pronoun can be used instead. An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. The case of the pronoun depends on the case that the verb governs.

The basic word order in Icelandic is subject-verb-object. In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object However, as words are heavily inflected, the word order is fairly flexible.

Vocabulary

Main articles: Icelandic vocabulary and Icelandic name

A simple family tree showing the Icelandic patronymic naming system. The vocabulary of the Icelandic language is heavily derived from and built upon Old Norse and contains relatively few Loanwords where these do exist their spelling Icelandic names differ from most Western Family name systems by being Patronymic (and sometimes Matronymic) in that they reflect the immediate

Early Icelandic vocabulary was largely Old Norse. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age The introduction of Christianity to Iceland in the 11th century brought with it a need to describe new religious concepts. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Within Religion, philosophy a religious concept is an abstract idea that is entirely within the spiritual or metaphysical domain The majority of new words were taken from other Scandinavian languages; kirkja (‘church’) and biskup (‘bishop’), for example. 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 A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight Numerous other languages have had their influence on Icelandic: French for example 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. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people A court is a forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour administrative and criminal Justice under its Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages. The semantic field of a Word is the set of Sememes (distinct meanings expressed by the word Trade is the willing exchange of goods, services, or both Trade is also called Commerce. Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer Low German or Low Saxon (in Germany: Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch; in Netherlands: Nedersaksisch or Nederduuts In the late 18th century, language purism began to gain noticeable ground in Iceland; since the early 19th century, language purism has been the linguistic policy in the country (see linguistic purism in Icelandic). Linguistic purism (or linguistic protectionism) is the definition of one language variety as purer than other varieties often in reference to a perceived decline Linguistic purism in Icelandic is the sociolinguistic phenomenon of Linguistic purism in the Icelandic language. Nowadays, it is common practice to coin new compound words from Icelandic derivatives.

Icelandic names differ from most Western family name systems by being patronymic (and sometimes matronymic) in that they reflect the immediate father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage. Icelandic names differ from most Western Family name systems by being Patronymic (and sometimes Matronymic) in that they reflect the immediate The Western Hemisphere, also Western hemisphere or western hemisphere, is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies West A family name or last name is a type of Surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs A patronym, is a component of a Personal name based on the name of one's father A matronymic is a Personal name based on the name of one's mother Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Icelanders, unlike other Scandinavians, have generally continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used in all of Scandinavia.

Linguistic purism

Main article: Linguistic purism in Icelandic

During the 18th century, a movement started by writers and other educated people of the country to rid the language of foreign words as much as possible and to create a new vocabulary and adapt the Icelandic language to the evolution of new concepts, and thus not having to resort to borrowed neologisms as in many other languages. Linguistic purism in Icelandic is the sociolinguistic phenomenon of Linguistic purism in the Icelandic language. A neologism (from Greek neo = "new" + logos = "word" is a word that although devised relatively recently in a specific time period has been Many old words that had fallen into misuse were updated to fit in with the modern language, and neologisms were created from Old Norse roots. For example, the word rafmagn ("electricity"), literally means "amber power" from Greek elektron ("amber"), similarly the word sími ("telephone") originally meant "cord" and tölva ("computer") combines tala ("digit; number") and völva ("seeress"). Amber is Fossil tree Resin, which is appreciated for its color and beauty

Writing system

Main articles: Icelandic alphabet and Icelandic orthography

The Icelandic alphabet is notable for its retention of two old letters which no longer exist in the English alphabet: Þ,þ (þorn, anglicized as "thorn") and Ð,ð (eð, anglicized as "eth" or "edh"), representing the voiceless and voiced "th" sounds as in English thin and this respectively. History The modern Icelandic Alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask primarily Icelandic orthography is the way in which Icelandic words are spelt and how their spelling corresponds with their pronunciation The modern English alphabet consists of 26 letters derived from the Latin alphabet: History See also History of the 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 Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless The complete Icelandic alphabet is:

It should be noted that letters with diacritics, such as á and ö, are considered to be separate letters and not variants of their derivative vowels. History The modern Icelandic Alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask primarily 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. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation The letter é was officially adopted in 1929 replacing je,^[12] and z was officially abolished in 1974.

Cognates with English

As Icelandic shares its ancestry with English, there are many cognate words in both languages; each have the same or a similar meaning and are derived from a common root. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from Phonological and orthographical changes in each of the languages will have changed spelling and pronunciation. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language Spelling is the Writing of a Word or words with the necessary letters and Diacritics present in an accepted standard order But a few examples are given below.

Many dialects in England have inherited words from the Vikings and are thus the same as in Icelandic. For example, the word laik for "to play" is common across the north of England. In the north-east of England, to gang is used for "to go".

Examples

Page 49 from Kvennafræðarinn.

The following is an extract from Kvennafræðarinn (Elín Briem, 1889); a recipe book (page pictured right):

Which translates approximately as:

See also

• Icelandic exonyms
• Icelandic name
• Icelandic literature
• Icelandic Sign Language

References

Bibliography

• Árnason, Kristján; Sigrún Helgadóttir (1991). "Terminology and Icelandic Language Policy". Behovet och nyttan av terminologiskt arbete på 90-talet. Nordterm 5. Nordterm-symposium: pp. 7-21.  
• Halldórsson, Halldór (1979). "Icelandic Purism and its History". Word 30: 76–86.  
• Kvaran, Guðrún; Höskuldur Þráinsson; Kristján Árnason; et al. (2005). Íslensk tunga I–III. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið. ISBN 9979-2-1900-9.  
• Orešnik, Janez, and Magnús Pétursson (1977). Janez Orešnik (born 12 December 1935) is a Slovene Linguist. "Quantity in Modern Icelandic". Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 92: 155–71.  
• Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur (1993). Íslensk hljóðkerfisfræði. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands. ISBN 9979-853-14-X.  
• Scholten, Daniel (2000). Einführung in die isländische Grammatik. Munich: Philyra Verlag. ISBN 3-935267-00-2.  
• Vikør, Lars S. (1993). The Nordic Languages. Their Status and Interrelations. Oslo: Novus Press, pp. 55-59, 168-169, 209-214.  

External links

General

• The Icelandic Language, an overview of the language from the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
• BBC Languages - Icelandic, with audio samples
• Icelandic: at once ancient and modern, a 16-page pamphlet with an overview of the language from the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2001.
• Icelandic language at Ethnologue
• Icelandic language at Language Museum
• Icelandic language at The Rosetta Project
• Icelandic language at Omniglot
• University of Iceland (English) (Icelandic)
  • Íslensk málstöð (The Icelandic Language Institute)
  • (Icelandic) Lexicographical Institute of Háskóli Íslands / Orðabók Háskóla Íslands
  • (Icelandic) Íslenskuskor Háskóla Íslands
  • (English) Icelandic Online a free beginner's and intermediate course in Icelandic from the University of Iceland
• An Icelandic minigrammar
• (Icelandic) Iðunn - Poetry society
  • (Icelandic) Bragfræði og Háttatal
• (Icelandic) Daily spoken Icelandic - a little help
• (Icelandic) Mannamál, Some tricky points of daily spoken Icelandic
• Mimir - Online Icelandic grammar notebook
• Thorn and eth: how to get them right
• Verbix - an online Icelandic verb conjugator
• Mentalcode - Icelandic Language Lessons

Dictionaries

• Icelandic-English Dictionary / Íslensk-ensk orðabók Sverrir Hólmarsson, Christopher Sanders, John Tucker. Ethnologue Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics a Christian The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone to The University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands is an Icelandic State university, founded in 1911 Searchable dictionary from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
• Icelandic - English Dictionary: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
• Collection of Icelandic bilingual dictionaries
• Old Icelandic-English Dictionary by Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson
• Icelandic dictionary