Talk:Icelandic language/Archive 4

Wow...
Just passing to congratulate all the effort that has been taken to make this article better. It's been a long time since I last visited it, and skimming through it I could see how much it has improved since then... Ciacchi 05:28, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Z
Now,I have a question which is kinda omited here. How exactly do they transcribe names begining or having Z as a part?

New Babylon 2 (talk) 10:53, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
 * If the name (or any other foreign word for that matter) comes from a language using the latin alphabet, the z is retained.
 * Cheers Io (talk) 17:46, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

The Z was taken out of the Icelandic language sometime in the late 20th century. Names of things such as companies retained the Z. Silenzer12 (talk) 12:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

What?
what is going on in this article? it is not about the Icelandinc language, but instead it is about cathedrals! i am changing it back to the article about icelandic languages.--Found5dollar (talk) 23:44, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

English dialects
I removed the mention about 'many English dialects have the same words in Icelandic due to Viking settlement' etc. Firstly any such words are not 'the same', they are similar. The two examples given 'gang' and 'laik' are not at all 'the same' as their Icelandic cognates, in spelling or pronounciation. Also, the Vikings that settled Northern England didn't come from Iceland. These cognates are the result of Danish influence and settlement..nothing to do with Icelandic. Vauxhall1964 (talk) 22:41, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Icelandic studies outside Iceland
I have reat that "the government of Iceland donated $1-million to the University of Manitoba, which has the only faculty of Icelandic studies outside Iceland" I don't know if this information is accurate or if there are other such faculties also. I believe we can include this information, but I do not know where it should be suitable to do so. Probable in a new section in the article? --Michkalas (talk) 08:49, 10 October 2008 (UTC) According to the text you quoted The University of Manitoba "has the only faculty of Icelandic studies outside Iceland". So there you have your answer to the your uncertainty: "or if there are other such faculties also". :) I do though think that Icelandic studies are often included in faculties of Nordic studies. --Orri Tómasson (talk) 01:47, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I think they have Icelandic studies at UCL. Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson (talk) 06:45, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Dual (grammatical number)
Could someone knowledgeable on the topic please describe the use of grammatical dual in the Icelandic language? Thanks. --Eleassar my talk 08:40, 2 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Icelandic distinguished between dual and plural of first and second person pronouns up to (at the top of my head) the 17th century; 'við' and 'þið' being the dual and 'vér' and 'þér' being the plural. Not much of a dual in the modern language, though 'hvor' is which/each of two and 'hver' is which/each of many. Haukur (talk) 10:37, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Old vs. Modern
How different is Old and Modern Icelandic?--206.78.50.75 (talk) 21:31, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Modern Icelanders read the sagas as easily as modern English speakers read the King James Bible (i.e. easily and without any special aids, as long as modern spelling is used). Reading the Poetic Edda is akin to modern English speakers reading Chaucer (i.e. moderately difficult and editions for the public usually include a glossary or other aids). Haukur (talk) 22:05, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Inflection, etc
From the article: "While most West European languages have greatly reduced levels of inflection, particularly in regards to noun declension, Icelandic retains an inflectional grammar comparable to that of Latin (a member of the group of Italic languages, which shares the Indo-European roots of Germanic) or, more closely, Old Norse and Old English. The main difference between the inflectional systems of Icelandic and Latin lies in the treatment of the verb. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and other word classes are handled in a similar way." How is Icelandic any different from High German? High German has retained its inflection too, has the same amount of noun cases Icelandic has, and three genders as well. And my understanding is that Icelandic has strong and weak verbs just like High German (and Old English, et al). What makes Icelandic more synthetic all round? The way this part is phrased, it comes across as my lingo is better than yours jingoism. Peter Greenwell (talk) 04:33, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Icelandic declines nouns with modifications to endings; German mostly relies on articles and adjective endings. Compare Icelandic fjörður "fjord" (nom.), fjörð (acc.), firði (dat.), fjarðar (gen.) to German Förde (all cases). German does indicate the genitive often and the dative sometimes with endings: Haus (nom., acc.), Hause (formal dat.), Hauses (gen.); Häuser (plural nom., acc., gen.), Häusern (dat.). Icelandic distinguishes gender in the plural with pronouns, articles, and adjective endings; German makes no gender distinctions in the plural. English has strong and weak verbs. Icelandic has six distinct forms of the present verb. German has four or five. Icelandic keeps six distinct forms for the subjunctive and past forms; German reduces them to three. Icelandic also has a distinct "middle voice" not found in German. German uses only schwas and umlaut in its inflection; Icelandic uses distinct vowels and umlaut. But Icelandic isn't unique in retaining inflection. The Baltic and Slavic languages are highly inflectional, too. Greek and Romanian retain grammatical complexity comparable to German. All the Romance languages have highly fusional verb systems (much more so than Icelandic). 75.132.168.114 (talk) 07:54, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Unpopularity
I have heard a few times that the Icelandic language is unpopular with Icelanders because it is difficult to speak. Is this true? Maybe the article should say something about that. The first time I heard this was in a documentary about savantism, where a guy with an exceptional memory and synesthesia learns Icelandic in a week. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Envergure (talk • contribs) 15:57, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I have never heard anything like that before. Icelandic is as easy to Icelanders as Chinese to the Chinese. I remember seeing that documentary but I don't recall such a statement nor fact. Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson (talk) 06:41, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Nope. This is a rumor. Like Stefán so aptly put it; it's as easy for us as Chinese is to the Chinese. Or Norsk to Norwegians, ---hthth (talk) 09:36, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Icelandic in Norway? - and the other way around
Could someone cite, or perhaps explain, exactly where in Norway icelandic is spoken? What's the reason behind this claim? The norwegian article claims the same thing only the other way around. Why is this? Someone enlighten me please.. Martinor (talk) 18:18, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It probably refers to Icelandic expats living in Norway, Denmark being listed for the same reason. Those countries are home to a significant portion of the total number of Icelandic speakers in the world. --Bjarki (talk) 20:15, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Speakers in Canada
I've never edited a Wikipedia article before, but I noticed the figure given for Icelandic-speakers in Canada was off by a full thousand. Since it needed to be corrected anyway, I updated from the 2001 census figure to the latest figure (2006). Unfortunately, my attempt to change the citation to the relevant 2006 census page failed, so it still points to the 2001 data. If some more experienced editor has the time and inclination to change it, the reference should be to http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=89189&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971,97154&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=705&Temporal=2006&THEME=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= Or we could just wait for the 2011 figures to come out. I'm sure I'll know how to do it properly by then. Acanuck (talk) 20:42, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

History section - contradictory?
The section both claims major change in the 13th - 16th centuries, AND little change since the 1200s. Can we take a look, and maybe reconcile these, or remove the wrong one? Jd2718 (talk) 03:51, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Apparently one reference was to the sounds of the language, the other to the writing. I've edited. The section, though, still needs work. Jd2718 (talk) 12:44, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Grammar - nitpicking
Wondering if the translations of examples chosen are meant to be in the nearest valid English possible, or if they're meant for explaining the grammatical feature --> word order in this case
 * Ég veit það ekki. (I don't know that.) --> English translation should be (I know that not.) ??
 * Ekki veit ég það. (I do not know that.)
 * Það veit ég ekki. (That I don't know.)

Sveinn í Felli — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.30.246.130 (talk) 08:22, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

translation help
Hi - I can't find a Iceland wikiproject, so am posting here. Can anyone help with a translation from English to Icelandic - the question is at the Reference Desk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Language#poster / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Language#poster.2Fis Thank you 184.147.123.69 (talk) 16:03, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

Thorn
The text said þorn is "anglicised" as "thorn". The word þorn/thorn is the native English name for the letter, going back to Old English, and probably Anglo Saxon. It would be just as reasonable to say that the Icelandic name þorn was derived from English!

The name "eth" for the letter ð has a less clear history. It was called "āþ" in Old English, so is the modern name an evolution from that, or a reintroduction from elsewhere? (English never standardized which letter was hard or soft "th".) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.56.224.235 (talk) 06:26, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

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