Icelandic Learning Thread

[viola]

And now for the Icelandic culture post I promised in honour of Þjóðhátíðardagurinn.

I'll start with some information about important Icelandic symbols:



The red on the flag is for lava, the blue for mountains, and the white for ice.

The fjallkona (mountain lady) is the female personification of Iceland:



She was inspired by a poem written by Eggert Ólafsson and her appearance represents different aspects of the country as follows:
White dress - purity and integrity, glacial skirts
Lace veil - snowcapped mountains
Green cape - the Icelandic counryside
Gold crown - consisting of a star above a rising sun, contains the Icelandic Coat of Arms

Every year there is a tradition where a young woman is chosen to represent the fjallkona and recites poetry. This tradition is not only practised in Iceland, but also by Western Icelanders on Islendingadagurinn in New Iceland (Gimli, Manitoba).

Some traditional Icelandic music:

Spoiler: show

Guuuuyyyssss hear all the parallel 5ths. Soooooo beautifullllllll. I loooooove parallel 5ths. Nomnomnom musical harmonies.

Some modern Icelandic music (you know, for partying and stuff ):

Spoiler: show

This year's eurovision song

Sigur Rós Also guys this is the cutest music video ever.

[Laufey]

I LOVE your accent! This was really interesting because I've never heard West-Icelandic spoken before, it sounds so soft! You also seem to use way less of the "p pronounced as f but sometimes also f pronounced as p"-thing and preaspirations, which makes sense because languages are a living things and constantly mold themselves to suit their users' needs (and if there's one thing that doesn't ever mesh well it's English and Icelandic pronunciation at the same time). Likewise over here it's English that gets Icelandicized instead because the language background is Icelandic.

Don't worry about the pronunciation, for a West-Icelandic poem (especially one that pokes fun at the changes in the language) it works perfectly, and I hear a few occasions where I assumed some pronunciation parts wrong that work better in yours.

The only criticism I can give is that Icelandic occasionally ties certain words together by dropping the last sound of a word and pronouncing it and the next word as one instead of two separate words:

Hann lofði mér rjúpuna' að bera' upp í bæ

Is read as:

Hann lofði mér rjúpunað berupp í bæ

Sometimes the words can also be shortened from the front but the basics are the same (the ' marks where you're supposed to drop something)

Og duglega upp 'ana stoppti,

=

Og duglega uppana stoppti

And my eternal favourite that illustrates when the ' does not mark a sound being thrown away but it goes anyway - the last "i" of the word "drepti" gets unvoiced as well:

„Eg drepti 'ana,“ „sagði' ann, „á lofti.“

=

Ég dreptana, sagðann, 'a lofti

[viola]

I LOVE your accent! This was really interesting because I've never heard West-Icelandic spoken before, it sounds so soft! You also seem to use way less of the "p pronounced as f but sometimes also f pronounced as p"-thing and preaspirations, which makes sense because languages are a living things and constantly mold themselves to suit their users' needs (and if there's one thing that doesn't ever mesh well it's English and Icelandic pronunciation at the same time). Likewise over here it's English that gets Icelandicized instead because the language background is Icelandic.

Don't worry about the pronunciation, for a West-Icelandic poem (especially one that pokes fun at the changes in the language) it works perfectly, and I hear a few occasions where I assumed some pronunciation parts wrong that work better in yours.

I'm glad you like it. I'm terribly self conscious about my accent, especially because Icelandic isn't a language that is used to having accents being all in one relatively close place and all, so I always feel like I stick out a bit. I think maybe if I spend more time there I might get it to leave, just like after spending time in the US I can now do a US accent (although the Americans I've met seem to think Canadian accents are cute? Judging from the self insert topic though I think they might think all nonAmerican accents are cute?)
I think the hardest part about the switching back and forth was the Rs. The Rs are so different and come from such different places in one's mouth. I usually just use one or the other, but I tried to keep them apart in the recording. I think there may be a few times where I didn't though.

And thank you for the tips on smooshing words together

If anyone has any ideas for a next project or thing that we should explore please share! I am going to try and find something but I am also going to be off continent until August, so I may not be posting as much.

[Laufey]

I recently came across this beautiful thing which I figured might be interesting: some of the most popular board games played in Iceland (and the unfortunate effects of playing them).

[Fimbulvarg]

I recently came across this beautiful thing which I figured might be interesting: some of the most popular board games played in Iceland (and the unfortunate effects of playing them).

What does "Fimbulfambleiðindi" mean?

[Laufey]

What does "Fimbulfambleiðindi" mean?

"Nonsense-annoyance", the game is called Nonsense. You draw a card that has an ancient/obscure word in Icelandic and read it for the others, who write down what they think the word means. The person with the card then reads all guesses aloud including the correct answer, and the players then guess which one is right. Only fun as long as you don't have a player with excellent 100% correct knowledge of the language though...

[viola]

What does "Fimbulfambleiðindi" mean?

http://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=58102

According to this fimbulfamb originally meant a fool or an idiot.

[ruth]

What does "Fimbulfambleiðindi" mean?

They're actually two different words—"Fimbulfamb" is the name of the game, which I think means "gibberish" or something along those lines, and "leiðindi" means "boredom."

[Laufey]

http://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=58102

According to this fimbulfamb originally meant a fool or an idiot.

The word you're thinking of is "fimbulfambur" = massive idiot. Fimbulfamb, at least today, means "great nonsense/gibberish".

They're actually two different words—"Fimbulfamb" is the name of the game, which I think means "gibberish" or something along those lines, and "leiðindi" means "boredom."

Yup, Fimbulfamb indeed is the name of the game, but I think it actually works as a compound word: Fimbulfamb + leiðindi - Fimbulfambleiðindi. Or maybe it should be Fimbulfambsleiðindi?

Btw in this occasion leiðindi doesn't mean boredom, it means annoyance.

[ruth]

The word you're thinking of is "fimbulfambur" = massive idiot. Fimbulfamb, at least today, means "great nonsense/gibberish".

Yup, Fimbulfamb indeed is the name of the game, but I think it actually works as a compound word: Fimbulfamb + leiðindi - Fimbulfambleiðindi. Or maybe it should be Fimbulfambsleiðindi?

Btw in this occasion leiðindi doesn't mean boredom, it means annoyance.

Whoops! Thanks for that. That's kind of a great pair of meanings, though—I can totally see how boredom could get aggravating.

Incidentally, BÍN suggests that "Fimbulfambs" would be the genitive case. Though, wouldn't that overlap with fambur/famb/fambi/fambs? That might get a little confusing...

[viola]

Whoops! Thanks for that. That's kind of a great pair of meanings, though—I can totally see how boredom could get aggravating.

Incidentally, BÍN suggests that "Fimbulfambs" would be the genitive case. Though, wouldn't that overlap with fambur/famb/fambi/fambs? That might get a little confusing...

I think it comes from the same place, the site I looked at talks about the origin of the word, but since then its meaning has changed slightly as has the word.

[daiseerose]

In the Icelandic alphabet, what's the difference between the accented letters and the un accented one? Are they pronounced differently?

[viola]

In the Icelandic alphabet, what's the difference between the accented letters and the un accented one? Are they pronounced differently?

Yes

The A is like the A in apple and the Á is like saying "ow"
The E sounds like the E in egg and the É sounds like the YE in YES
The I is pronounced short like the I in pick while the Í is pronounced like the EE in green
The O is pronounced like the O in hot while the Ó is pronounced like saying "oh"
The U is pronounced like kinda like the French U (sorry I don't know a good english word for this) and the Ú is pronounced like the OO in moon
Y is pronounced just like I and Ý is pronounced just like Í

[daiseerose]

Yes

The A is like the A in apple and the Á is like saying "ow"
The E sounds like the E in egg and the É sounds like the YE in YES
The I is pronounced short like the I in pick while the Í is pronounced like the EE in green
The O is pronounced like the O in hot while the Ó is pronounced like saying "oh"
The U is pronounced like kinda like the French U (sorry I don't know a good english word for this) and the Ú is pronounced like the OO in moon
Y is pronounced just like I and Ý is pronounced just like Í

Ahhhh thanks for clearing that up! C:
Wait, how is Æ pronounced?

[viola]

Ahhhh thanks for clearing that up! C:
Wait, how is Æ pronounced?

Æ sounds like saying "eye"