#icelandic langblr
Okay, Icelandic, I need an explanation for ð
WHAT SOUND DOES THAT MAKE?????
It’s so hard to pronounce anything here, good lord.
ð is pronounced like the “th” in the “the” or “then.” it’s called Eth.
I thought that was what Þ was for…
Icelandic has two letters representing the English sound ‘th’. The ‘þ’ (thorn) is an unvoiced ‘th’, whereas the ‘ð’ (eth) is a voiced ‘th’ sound. The difference is minimal to English speakers and often goes unnoticed; we don’t actually distinguish such a difference in our language. You can feel the difference however, if you gently put your hand on your throat and say ‘thistle’ and then ‘the’, or even ‘breathe’. When pronouncing ‘thistle’, you shouldn’t feel any vibration, but you should when saying ‘the’.
Here is a video that may be helpful:
I hope that helps!
Bless bless!
– Fjörn
Learning Icelandic:
- Digital Dialects: Basic words and phrases in Icelandic
- Icelandic 101: A great source for beginners, including pronunciation guides and history on the language.
- Icelandic Online: Free Icelandic lessons put out by a university in Iceland
- ieLanguages: A very basic guide to Icelandic
- Live Mocha: A great website with multiple lesson levels. (A poor man’s Rosetta Stone, if you will.)
- My Languages: Very basic Icelandic lessons
- Quizlet: Colloquial Icelandic flashcards
- Tungumalatorg: Icelandic video lessons with subtitles to help with following and understanding the dialogues.
Pronunciation:
- Introduction to Icelandic Pronunciations
- Forvo: Lists of words with translations and native pronunciations.
- Sigur Ros: Icelandic Pronunciations
- Wikipedia: Icelandic Phonology
General:
Grammar:
- Icelandic mini-grammar: A brief introduction to Icelandic grammar.
- Mirmir: A website with nothing but Icelandic grammar. Very indepth.
- Nativlang: A basic introduction to Icelandic grammar.
- Verbix: A great website that gives conjugations for nearly any verb you can think of. (Also has most other languages as well.)
- Wikipedia: Icelandic Grammar
- Icelandic Noun Phrases: An indepth article discussing grammar and noun placement. PDF
- An Icelandic Primer: Grammar text-book. PDF
Icelandic Dictionaries:
- Icelandic-English: This is very indepth, but hard to navigate unless you know what you’re looking for.
- Icelandic-English: A great resource, with links to common abbreviations and short grammar guides.
- English-Icelandic-Danish: Online dictionary that has English-Icelandic, and Danish-Icelandic. Though it may require payments to access some information.
- Slangurorðabókin: Icelandic Slang dictionary. It is in Icelandic, but fun for someone learning to see.
Tumblrs:
- everysinglewordinicelandic: Posts random words with descriptions.
- fuckyeahislenska: Posts pictures with words on them. The posts usually include notes on the declensions and uses.
- icelandiclanguage: A really great resource for anyone interested in studying Icelandic, run by an incredibly nice person that is always very helpful to anyone with questions.
- longicelandicwords: Like most Germanic languages, Icelandic has many long compound words. This tumblr shares some of the longer ones.
Other:
- Flick: Kind of like an Icelandic Reddit or 9gag.
- Icelandic Tongue-twisters
- Gossip.is: Icelandic Gossip
Radio:
- Bylgjan 98,9: Popular Music (Reykjavik)
- FM957: Popular Music (Reykjavik)
- Gull Bylgjan: Oldies (Reykjavik)
- Létt Bylgjan: ‘Contemporary Adult’ (Reykjavik)
- Lindin Radio: Religious (Reykjavik)
- Rás 1: Classical
- Rás 2: Pop Music/Sports
- Suðurland FM 96.3: Popular Music (Selfoss)
- Útvarp Kántrýbær: Country music (Skagaströnd)
- Utvarp Saga 99,4: News (Reykjavik)
- Xid 97,7: Rock (Reykjavik)
News:
- Bæjarins Besta: News printed in Isafjordur
- Dagblaðið Vísir(DV): Oldest Newspaper in Iceland? Tabloid.
- Eyjafréttir: News from Westman Islands.
- Eyjar: Local news from Westman Islands.
- Fjarðar pósturinn: News from Hafnarfjörður
- Iceland Review: Icelandic news in English.
- IceNews: Icelandic news in English
- Morgunblaðið: Icelandic newspaper. (This link is for the English page, but it also offers the news in Icelandic)
- Reykjavik Grapvine: News in English; more cultural than political?
- Skarpur: News from Húsavík.
- Sports.is: Sports news
- Víkurfréttir: News from Southwest Iceland
- Vísir: Icelandic News from Reykjavik
Some Basic Icelandic Notes.
Komið sæl og blessuð, vinir mínir!
I was reviewing lesson 1 of my Icelandic ‘textbook’ today. I felt like sharing some of my notes, so here they are! they are not very detailed, but they can still come in handy. Perhaps some of you will find them useful (especially if you are just starting out). My apologies, by the way, if the handwriting is a bit sloppy; I’m not used to taking digital notes quite yet.
Since I didn’t include the vocabulary section of my notes, heita means ‘to be named’. So, for the last picture of this photoset, ég heiti… means ‘I am named…’, þú heitir… means ‘you are named…’, etc.
Bless bless!
– Fjörn
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03/07/21 ♡ Picking up some Icelandic work again ahead of going to study in Ísafjörður next year. So, my notes alongside a photo I took in Þingvellir
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