NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Icelandic

Icelandic (íslenska) is a North Germanic language spoken in Iceland. It is an inflected language with four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Jump to: navigation, search This is a list of languages ordered by number of first-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... Jump to: navigation, search The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, Christian, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... A North Germanic language is any of several Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the islands west of Scandinavia. ... Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ... This is a list of cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ...

While most Western European languages have reduced greatly the extent of inflection, particularly in noun declension, Icelandic retains an inflectional grammar comparable to that of Latin, Ancient Greek, or more closely, Old English. A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... Jump to: navigation, search Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Ancient Greek refers to the stage in the history of the Greek language corresponding to Classical Antiquity, which normally applies on two ancient periods of Greek history: Archaic and Classic Greece. ... Jump to: navigation, search Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ...

Written Icelandic has 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 read, more or less, the original sagas and Eddas that were written some eight hundred years ago. This old form of the language is called Old Icelandic, but also commonly equated to Old Norse (an umbrella term for the common Scandinavian language of the Viking era). (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... The Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: Íslendingasögur), are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. ... For Edda great-grandmother as the ancestress of serfs see RÃg. ... The Old Icelandic language was the most prominent of the Old Norse languages. ... This is the approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century. ...

Icelandic orthography is notable for its retention of two old letters which no longer exist in the English alphabet: þ (thorn) and ð (eth or edh), representing the voiceless and voiced "th" sounds as in English thin and this respectively. The complete Icelandic alphabet is: The Icelandic alphabet consists of the following letters: A Ã B (C) D Ã E Ã‰ F G H I Ã J K L M N O Ã“ P (Q) R S T U Ãš V (W) X Y Ã (Z) Ãž Ã† Ã– The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century, by the... The English language has been written using the Latin alphabet from ca. ... ÃžÃ¾ The letter Ãž (miniscule: Ã¾), which is also known as thorn or Ã¾orn is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets. ... Ã (capital Ã, lower-case Ã°) (or eth, eÃ° or edh, Faroese: edd) is a letter used in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and present-day Icelandic and Faroese. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that doesnt have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... The Icelandic alphabet consists of the following letters: A Ã B (C) D Ã E Ã‰ F G H I Ã J K L M N O Ã“ P (Q) R S T U Ãš V (W) X Y Ã (Z) Ãž Ã† Ã– The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century, by the...

onmouseover="pv(event, 40)" onmouseout="unpv(40)" style="">A Á B D Ð E É F G H I Í J K L M N O Ó P R S T U Ú V X Y Ý Þ Æ Ö (32 letters) Jump to: navigation, search The letter A is the first (1st) letter in the Latin alphabet. ... The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin script. ... The letter B is the second letter of the modern Latin alphabet. ... The letter D is the fourth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... Ã (capital Ã, lower-case Ã°) (or eth, eÃ° or edh, Faroese: edd) is a letter used in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and present-day Icelandic and Faroese. ... Jump to: navigation, search The letter E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. ... The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin script. ... The letter F is the sixth (6th) letter in the Latin alphabet. ... G is the seventh letter in the Roman alphabet. ... ... Due to MediaWikis uppercase algorithm, Ä± (lower case dotless i) will bring you here. ... The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin script. ... Jump to: navigation, search For the programming language, see J programming language. ... The eleventh letter of the Latin alphabet, K, or k comes from the Greek Îš or Îº (Kappa) developed from the Semitic Kap, symbol for an open hand. ... L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... M is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... N is the fourteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. ... O is the fifteenth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin script. ... ... R is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... Jump to: navigation, search S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. ... T is the twentieth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. ... U is the twenty-first letter of the modern Latin alphabet. ... The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin script. ... V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. ... X is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... Y is the twenty-fifth letter of the Latin alphabet. ... The acute accent ( Â´ ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin script. ... ÃžÃ¾ The letter Ãž (miniscule: Ã¾), which is also known as thorn or Ã¾orn is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets. ... Ã†, or Ã¦, is a vowel and a grapheme used in the Icelandic, Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Ossetian alphabets. ... Ã–, or Ã¶, is a glyph which represents either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, the letter O with umlaut, or a letter O with diaeresis. ...

The preservation of the Icelandic language is taken seriously by the Icelanders — rather than borrow foreign words for new concepts, new Icelandic words are diligently forged for public use.

Phonology

Icelandic phonology is somewhat unusual for European languages in having an aspiration contrast in its stops, rather than a voicing contrast (though, in fact, English exhibits some characteristics of such a contrast). However, Icelandic continuant phonemes exhibit regular contrasts in voice, including in nasals (rare in the world's languages). Additionally, length is contrastive for nearly all phonemes; voiceless sonorant consonants seem to be the only exception. The chart below was developed from data found at BRAGI and related pages; refer to the IPA article for information on the sounds of the following symbols: The International Phonetic Alphabet. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... Jump to: navigation, search Unicode is an international standard whose goal is to provide the means by which text of all forms and languages can be encoded for use by computers. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have a distinct meaning. ... In oral language, a phoneme is the theoretical basic unit of sound that can be used to distinguish words or morphemes; in sign language, it is a similarly basic unit of hand shape, motion, position, or facial expression. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet. ...

Consonants

(*These two sounds, in English, are completely constrictives, but in Icelandic they are something like an approximant, though not completely). In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... 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). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Rhotic consonants, or R-like sounds, are non-lateral liquids. ... In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ... Jump to: navigation, search Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ...

Vowels

Monophthongs

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Morphology

Many German speakers will find Icelandic morphology familiar. Almost every morphological category in one language is represented in the other. Nouns are declined for case, number and gender, adjectives for case, number, gender and comparison, and there are two declensions for adjectives, weak and strong. Icelandic possesses only the definite article, which can stand on its own, or be attached to its modified noun (as in other North-Germanic languages). Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, person, number and voice. There are three voices, active, passive and medial, but it may be debated, whether the medial voice is a voice or simply an independent class of verbs of its own. There are only two simple tenses, past and present, but to make up for that there are a number of auxiliary constructions, some of which may be regarded as tenses, other as aspects to varying degrees. A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... This is a list of cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension. ... Number, in linguistics, is a grammatical category used to express the quantity of objects referred to by a noun. ... In linguistics, grammatical genders, also called noun classes, are classes of nouns requiring different agreement forms on determiners, adjectives, verbs or other words. ... Jump to: navigation, search An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ... A comparison is an evaluation of similarities and differences - described by Gregory Bateson in his book Mind and Nature as the two quanta of experience. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... An article is a word that is put next to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made to the noun. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... Jump to: navigation, search A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... Jump to: navigation, search Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... Jump to: navigation, search In linguistics, grammatical aspect is a property of a verb that defines the nature of temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ...

Syntax

Icelandic is SVO, generally speaking, but the inflectional system allows for quite some freedom in word order. In linguistic typology, subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence subject verb object in neutral expressions: Sam ate oranges. ...

Icelandic sign language

Icelandic sign language was originally based on Danish Sign Language. Until 1910, deaf Icelandic people were sent to school in Denmark. Today, Icelandic sign language has evolved apart from its Danish roots. The language is regulated by a national committee. The icelandic sign language is the sign language of the deaf community in Iceland. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

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