In Icelandic we don’t say “leg” or “arm” we say “fótleggur” and “handleggur” which means “foot leg” and “hand leg” and I think that’s truely beautiful.
Since talk of forming a study group is going around, I cannot help but ‘promote’ the app HelloTalk. This app is specifically designed for language acquisition, aiming to connect learners with native speakers (but also more experienced learners). On this app, you can post statuses, pictures, and more in your target language, and other people can correct them and also add comments. Corrects appear in both red (before) and green (after), making it really easy to learn from them! It is also possible to post audio clips, or to share audio via chats so that people can correct your pronunciation without always having to schedule face-to-face conversations (making it very convenient to collaborate without conflicting schedules). Of course, there is the option of setting up both voice and video calls so that we have the option to speak live with one another, should the need arise. We can also form group chats for all of these things, so that we may share text, audio, and even video within our own bubble of space.
Overall, this app is phenomenal for group language study. The only problem so far, other than a few pestering people trying to hook-up, is that there aren’t a lot of Icelandic learners or speakers on the app yet. That could change, though, if we all decided to hop on it and bring the Icelandic ‘section’ to life.
If you decide to join HelloTalk for learning Icelandic, search “fjorn_is” to find me! I can make a post later to share all of our usernames and tags, or you can feel free to post it on the blog (via submission) yourself!
You all showed interest in an Icelandic study group of sorts, if I’m not mistaken (on this post). So what platform would you all like to make use of? I was browsing some options, and I noticed Google Hangouts. It can be used for both a regular chat and video chat. We don’t always have to chat via video, of course.
There is also an app called HelloTalk. It’s meant to connect people learning languages with native speakers, but I haven’t had a lot of luck finding people learning Icelandic there. Perhaps we could change that by all hoping on there? It’s an option to consider, at least.
Feel free to use this blog for questions as well, by the way. I may not be able to answer them, but the-icelandic-huntress or someone else may be able to. Also, feel free to submit audio posts of you speaking Icelandic. That way people who know their pronunciation can lend a hand, perhaps. There is a lot of potential on the blog itself, so we don’t necessarily need a separate app for everything.
Let me know what you all think! I’m open to ideas.
After waiting several months, I finally got myself this dictionary. I haven’t had the chance to use it much yet (just got it last night), but it looks great! This, in combination with ‘textbooks’ and Madison-Wisconsin’s online dictionary, should prove to be very useful!
This is a subject that I frequently post about, and yet its basics have yet to be properly discussed. This post will help you to achieve familiarity with the Icelandic language, both in terms of written characters and their respective sounds. This guide may also be used as a method for pronouncing Old Norse. It is a lengthy guide, but that is because Icelandic, in all its beauty, is a bit difficult for most people to pronounce. In the end, this quite is only “basic” because it does not delve deeply into the linguistics behind certain sounds involved. Nonetheless, this guide should provide to be very helpful!
When working through this guide, try to avoid becoming overwhelmed. I strongly recommend working through only one section at a time.
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.
It is troublesome finding good apps for learning Icelandic. My books are great, but apps are more helpful for establishing daily learning routines. I have been using Duolingo for Norwegian the past two weeks, but they do not have Icelandic, unfortunately. And it is Icelandic that I truly love and want to ‘master’ one day.
I took the University of Iceland online tutored course Icelandic Plus, but it was not especially helpful. The material isn’t well-organized, and there were a number of technical issues with the website. The self-taught course is free, but the tutored course carries a fee of about US $500. I passed, but I didn’t feel I’d learned anything, so I’m starting over with the Hilmisdottir course.
What I really want to do is go to Iceland and do an immersion course, but that doesn’t quite fit with my day job at present.
Since no ones really made a comprehensive Icelandic Textbook for non-Icelandic speaks that isn’t total crap, I’d like to second Helga Hilmisdottir’s Beginner’s Icelandic Book with CD set, it’s very helpful with pronunciation and was recommended to me by my prof who said my pronunciation was too Faroese urgh. I´ve tried the University of Iceland´s online site and it´s just not run very well it´s very disorganized.
The Íslenska to enska vasaorðabók by Forlagið is also the god damn best dictionary ever that has helped me sooooo soooo much in learning. It´s expensive and like a pain in the ass to get but oh my goddddd it´s so helpful.
Arnold Taylor’s dictionary is okay in an emergency but it’s not a good trust worthy book.
My prof Jackson Crawford might come up with a comprehensive Icelandic Textbook for English speakers in the future tho so there is hope!
If we are talking Icelandic text books I really enjoyed the Learning Icelandic by Audur Einarsdottir and co. Which was really helpful for my first year taking Icelandic. It was published in 2001??? And also comes with an audio cd going over most of the Icelandic text in the book.
Another REALLY GOOD through incredibly HARD TO READ textbook is islenska fyrir utlendinga by Asta Svavarsdottir and Margret Jonsdottir. For a textbook that is specifically for foreigners to learn Icelandic it is written in a very advanced Icelandic. But what you learn from it is incredibly detailed and very good. While this one doesn’t have an audio cd it does had a super handy exercise book to help work those grammar skills. I know my instructor at the university of manitoba as well as the intermediate students are working on translating this one though I am unclear on if it will be published or not (fingers crossed for it to be because it is a good textbook)
If you are just looking for some exercises, Hitt og Þetta is great workbook for that. you can actually get the workbook PDF free to download here: https://www.mms.is/namsefni/hitt-og-thetta-pdf Ive found sitting down to translate these and answer the questions really help. I believe it also has an audio CD you can also download? but Ive never used it myself so I’m not quite sure on it.
For apps, I dont really have much, but I know if you use quizlet there are a few flash cards and flashcard games you can get to practice. All you have to do is download the app and search for sets any classes or sets people have made available to share and you can use them! I think I may also have a few sets available to use on there as well.
and for websites I’ve used and have been told they are quite handy sites.
http://icelandiconline.is/index.html this site has modules you can work through from easy to harder levels! its mainly in Icelandic but is easy enough to navigate and fun to use! Also free to use!
http://tungumalatorg.is/viltu_laera_islensku/ and then this website has some videos you can watch. They are made specifically for foreigners learning Icelandic so they speak verrrryyy slooowwlllyyy and their pronunciations are verrryyy pronounced.
Lastly, the best icelandic dictionary ever is available online here: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/IcelOnline/Search.TEId.html I use it for all of my translations and its free and easy to use (and you can cheat at finding english words by typing in the english word and changing the drop box option from Headword Only to Entire Entry, though, it is hit or miss depending on the word you are looking for)
Anyways sorry for the information drop but I’ve got plenty more for anyone who ever needs to know!
Aspirations occurs in English in initial onsets like in ‘pat’ [pʰæt], ‘tack’ [’tʰæk] or ‘cat’ [’kʰæt]. It is not phonemic, since it doesn’t distinguish meanings, but it’s distinctive in Mandarin e.g. 皮 [pʰi] (skin) vs. 比 [pi] (proportion).
School begins for me today with two philosophy classes- Intro to Ethics and Elementary Logic. I’m really excited for this semester, even though it will all be online
I’m supposed to be studying some Italian, but instead, I was googling in my computer how to learn a new language (no, googling how to learn will not teach you shit, you have to sit down and learnyour target language not how to do it, I know but I’m lazy.) and I came across LingoHut, and I have to share it.
I don’t know if someone ever talked about this page, but if they did is worth mentioning again.
So basically you go to the website and in the Home Page you have to choose what is your first language and what language are you trying to learn.
Once you choose it’ll take you to another page in which you have tons of lessons, for ex. In Italian, there are 109 lessons.
I haven’t checked every lesson yet but for example, the first one is greetings and such. You click that lesson and you have 16 flashcards that will show you the word in your target language and the translation, at the same time that someone pronounces the words.
Below the flashcards, you have this ⬇️
And basically is a bunch of game, an easy matching words kind of game, some kind of tic tac toe with words, a memory game do you know the one that kids play in which they have to find the matching pictures? Same but with words and lastly a listening and matching game.
Below the bar of the games, we have the vocabulary list of the words we are taught in that lesson, and you can click the word and listen the pronunciation.
In the end, you have a bunch of the next lessons.
The lessons vary from the content it can be greetings, numbers, health stuff, office words, computer terminology, etc.
The website doesn’t have every language in the world, but it has a lot of them. choose your target language, in my case Italian, and enjoy, is fun and simple if you want to practice or do something related to your target language but you don’t have the willingness that day to study something more consistent like structure.
And the best part is that as far as I went looking around in this page it’s fucking free. Sure, you won’t end the one hundred and something lessons speaking like a native from whatever target language you’re learning, but it can be useful to expand your vocabulary.
![Aspirated plosivesAspirations occurs in English in initial onsets like in ‘pat’ [pʰæt], ‘tack’ [’tʰæ](https://64.media.tumblr.com/336a13765fb031784e1593639b0bb427/49a2b1dfe50b20fa-60/s1280x1920/bacfce7c8a594925b494a66a1177334d9a84edb7.png "Aspirated plosivesAspirations occurs in English in initial onsets like in ‘pat’ [pʰæt], ‘tack’ [’tʰæ")
