Icelandic - The Rough Guide to Iceland - page 335

use of a preceding preposition, for instance, í Reykjavík (“in Reykjavík”) but til
Reykjavíkur (“to Reykjavík”).
Vowels also have an unnerving ability to shift - for example, hér er amma (“here is
grandma”) but ég sé ömmu (“I see grandma”); this also happens with proper nouns.
There is no indefinite article in Icelandic with the result that jörður can mean both
“jord” and “a jord”. he definite article , as in the other Scandinavian languages, is
suffixed to the noun; for example, maður means “a man”, but maðurinn means “the
man”. The definite article is declined according to the gender and number of the noun.
Adjectives generally precede the noun they qualify and are inflected according to the
gender and case gender of the noun. The strong declension is used with indefinite
nouns, as in góður maður - “a good man”. Definite nouns (those with the definite
article or other determinatives) require the weak declension, so góði maðurinn , “the
good man”.
Names and numbers
Icelanders take the forename of their father as the first part of their own surname , plus
the Icelandic word for son ( son ) or daughter ( dóttir ). For example, the son of a man
whose forename is Jón will have Jónsson as a surname; a daughter of the same man will
have Jónsdóttir as a surname. A family of four in Iceland can therefore have four
different surnames, which can certainly throw things into confusion when they travel
abroad. When asking someone's surname Icelanders will enquire “ hvers son er
Kristbjörn? ” (“Whose son is Kristbjörn?”) for example, to which the reply might be
“ hann er Egils son ” (“He's Egil's son”). Formally or informally, Icelanders are always
addressed by their forename and are listed accordingly in the telephone directory.
When giving their addresses , Icelanders put their street names in the dative case but
their town and country in the nominative case. They decline their own names, for
instance, ég tala við Önnu - “I'm speaking to Anna” ( Önnu is the accusative, genitive
and dative form of “ Anna ”) and bókin er eftir Ingibjörgu Sigurðardóttur - “the topic is
by Ingibjörg Sigurðardóttir”.
When counting , the nominative masculine form of the numerals is used, i.e. einn ,
tveir , þrír , fjórir. . However, street numbers and the time are given in the neuter form.
Learning Icelandic
In theory, the Germanic roots of English and Icelandic, coupled with over two
centuries of Norse influence in England during the Viking era, should make Icelandic a
fairly easy language for English speakers to learn. It doesn't - and any foreigner who has
mastered even a smattering of the language will find Icelandic jaws dropping at his
every turn. Conversely, most Icelanders speak excellent English, and young people in
particular are only too keen to try out turns of phrase on you.
If you want to teach yourself Icelandic, however, your best bet is the widely available
and excellent Colloquial Icelandic by Daisy L. Neijmann, a thoroughly contemporary
and well-constructed beginners' course accompanied by a couple of CDs. There is only
one Icelandic reference work in English on the subject of grammar , Icelandic Grammar ,
Texts and Glossary , by Stefán Einarsson. Originally published in 1945 and still printed
today in paperback, it offers a very thorough if somewhat stodgy analysis of the
language.
Dictionaries and phrasebooks
Dictionaries are exceptionally thin on the ground outside Iceland, but the pocket-sized
Icelandic-English , English-Icelandic Dictionary , published by Hippocrene Books, New
York, is good for basic reference and is fairly easy to get hold of. Larger dictionaries are
best bought in Iceland, where they are much less expensive.