Overview of the Icelandic Language

Icelandic is the official language of Iceland. It is a member of the Northern Germanic language branch of the Indo-European language family. The modern language is descended from Old Norse, and in fact retains a close similarity to that language. People who speak Icelandic can often read the Old Norse sagas with only minor assistance.

The Icelandic Alphabet

Icelandic uses a version of the Latin alphabet, the same alphabet used by English. However, the Icelandic alphabet does not include the letters C, Q, W, or Z. It does include vowels with acute accents (Á/á, É/é, Í/í, Ó/ó, Ú/ú, and Ý/ý) as well as the special letters Ö/ö, Æ/æ, Ð/ð and Þ/þ. Be especially careful with the Icelandic letters Ð/ð and Þ/þ. The letter Ð/ð is called "eth" and pronounced "th" as in "this", while Þ/þ is called "thorn" and pronounced "th" as in "think".

Icelandic Vocabulary

Modern Icelandic does not usually borrow words directly from other languages. Instead, people who speak Icelandic will normally create new words based on Icelandic roots to cover new concepts. Thus, there are few imported foreign words used in daily Icelandic speech. However, English speakers will still find many Icelandic words familiar - English, like Icelandic, is a Germanic language, and the languages share many roots. Compare hair / hár, tree / tré, mother / móðir, and father / faðir, for example.

Icelandic Grammar

In contrast to the relative familiarity of Icelandic vocabulary, Icelandic grammar differs notably from English. Icelandic nouns have grammatical gender, meaning that each noun is considered to be either masculine, feminine, or neuter. In addition, nouns have singular and plural forms. Icelandic nouns are also declined for case, meaning that they change form to indicate their role in a sentence. Adjectives also change form to match the gender, number, and case of the word they are modifying. Unlike many Germanic languages, Icelandic only has one definite article, which can either be used on its own or attached to the noun it modifies. Icelandic verbs are conjugated to show tense, mood, person, number, and voice.

The normal word order for Icelandic sentences is Subject-Verb-Object, the same as English. However, because the case ending of each Icelandic noun indicates how it is being used, Icelandic word order can actually be quite flexible.

Icelandic Names

Icelanders very rarely address each other using last names. An Icelandic last name is more of an identification code than a real name. A last name is formed by taking one's father's first name, putting it in the correct grammatical form (genitive), and adding "-dóttir" (female) or "-son" (male). This pattern explains names such as Eriksson (son of Erik) and Hannesdóttir (daughter of Hannes). When addressing someone in written language, an Icelander may use "Frú " for Mrs., "Ungfrú" for Miss, and "Hr" for Mr. If you learn Icelandic and choose to visit Iceland, be sure to address others (and look them up in the phone book) by their first name. You'll be one step ahead!

Regular practice is important to learn to speak Icelandic well. That's why good Icelandic software programs can really help you learn. It's easier than it's ever been to begin speaking Icelandic with the language resources and language software from Transparent Language. We hope you enjoy learning Icelandic!