Íslenzka [latest: 12. Vowels]

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Prinsessa
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Íslenzka [latest: 12. Vowels]

Post by Prinsessa »

:isl: Hello there! I thought I'd be a nice lass and teach some Icelandic.

I picked an awesome-looking title with a <z> to lure you all into this thread, but I'll have to disappoint you; the modern Icelandic orthography does no longer use <z>, and the current spelling of the language's endonym is actually <íslenska> (do note that Icelandic, unlike English and like most languages, does not capitalise the names of languages).

I will not go through pronunciation initially. For now, let us merely focus on grammar and lexicon. What can be said to begin with? Well, the language is Indo-European, specifically Germanic and even more specifically Northern Germanic. If we're to get really intimate, it is most specifically West Northern Germanic. It has a lot of interesting stuff going on, and retains some nice quirks that have generally been lost elsewhere in Germanic, and also has several unique innovations that sets it apart from the rest of its family, away in its insular isolation in Iceland, where the tongue is mainly spoken.

The main grammatical features that one may want to be aware of is that Icelandic has 3 genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), 2 numbers (singular and plural), suffixed definite articles but no indefinite articles, personal/numeral agreement on verbs (but not gender agreement), adjectives that inflected for definiteness as well as gender, number and the 4 cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive) that the language has.

The default word order is SVO.

-----------------------

0. Phrases

What would any tutorial be without a couple of phrases before we get to the actual grammar and separated vocabulary? Let's start with some lightweight stuff first, shall we?

:isl: Hæ.
Hello. (somewhat informal, although Icelandic doesn't really care too much)

:isl: Sæll. (said to male) / Sæl. (said to female)
Hello. (more formal)

:isl: Góðan daginn.
Good day.

:isl: Góðan morgun.
Good morning.

:isl: Gott kvöld.
Good evening.

:isl: Góða nótt.
Good night.

:isl: Sjáumst.
See you.

:isl: Bless.
Bye.

:isl: Já.
Yes.

:isl: Jú.
Yes. (said in response to negative statements)

:isl: Nei.
No.

-----------------------

1. Personal pronouns

So let's move on to some more interesting stuff. Icelandic differentiates between all three genders in the third person pronouns both in the singular and plural, but not in the first or second persons. Let us look at the nominative and accusative forms of the singular pronouns to begin with.

Nominative:

:isl: ég - :eng: I (1SG.NOM)
:isl: þú - :eng: thou (2SG.NOM)
:isl: hann - :eng: he (3SG.M.NOM)
:isl: hún - :eng: she (3SG.F.NOM)
:isl: það - :eng: it (3SG.N.NOM)

Accusative:

:isl: mig - :eng: me (1SG.ACC)
:isl: þig - :eng: thee (2SG.ACC)
:isl: hann - :eng: him (3SG.M.ACC)
:isl: hana - :eng: her (3SG.F.ACC)
:isl: það - :eng: it (3SG.N.ACC)

As one can see, the third person masculine and neuter do not change in the accusative here. This is not universal throughout the language, but does happen in some other places too.

Icelandic is generally not pro-drop, even though it conjugates verbs for person, and will prefer to use pronouns along with the verbs.

Don't worry about T-V distinction crap in Icelandic.

-----------------------

2. Verbs

So these pronouns will do us no good until we can use them with some verbs too. Let us take some transitive verb that we can use together with both the nominative and accusative forms that we have learned now, and conjugate them according to the persons listed. As the third person pronouns all take the same verb form, as the verbs are not conjugated for gender, I will only use hann to demonstrate this form.

Infinitives in Icelandic almost invariably end in -a, and so does the first one that we shall learn; elsk-a means to love (Icelandic does not use hyphens orthographically like this; I only use it to show the boundary between the root and the infinitive suffix - the actual written form of the word is thus simply <elska>).

Present tense, indicative mood:

:isl: ég elsk-a - :eng: I love (1SG.NOM love-1SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: þú elsk-ar - :eng: thou lovest (2SG.NOM love-2SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: hann elsk-ar - :eng: he loves (3SG.M.NOM love-3SG.PRES.IND)

In this particular conjugation, the 2SG and 3SG are indeed the same, but this does not hold true for all conjugations. This is however a conjugation that may be considered a weak one, and this is the one within which new words and loanwords tend to go. The other weak conjugation is similar but uses the endings -i and -ir instead (but the infinitive is still -a).

Now, elska governs the accusative, so let us use it together with the accusatives we have already learned too.

:isl: ég elsk-a þig - :eng: I love thee (1SG.NOM love-1SG.PRES.IND 2SG.ACC)
:isl: þú elsk-ar mig - :eng: thou lovest me (2SG.NOM love-2SG.PRES.IND 1SG.ACC)
:isl: hann elsk-ar hana - :eng: he loves her (3SG.M.NOM love-3SG.PRES.IND 3SG.F.ACC)
:isl: hún elsk-ar hann - :eng: she loves him (3SG.F.NOM love-3SG.PRES.IND 3SG.M.ACC)

2.1. Questions

To turn an affirmative statement into an interrogation in Icelandic, the word order is changed to VSO. The 2SG has a special unstressed form here, where the conjugted verb is merged with the pronoun þú. Depending on the final consonant of the conjugated verb, the suffix is either -ðu, -du or -tu (note that the acute accent is removed). I will use hyphens here as well, but Icelandic doesn't actually use hyphens to write the merged words; the endings are just tacked on with no divider of any sort. For conjugated verbs ending in -r, the ending is -ðu.

:isl: elsk-a ég þig? - :eng: do I love thee? (love-1SG.PRES.IND 1SG.NOM 2SG.ACC)
:isl: elsk-ar-ðu mig? - :eng: dost thou love me? (love-2SG.PRES.IND=2SG.NOM 1SG.ACC)
:isl: elsk-ar hann hana? - :eng: does he love her? (love-3SG.PRES.IND 3SG.M.NOM 3SG.F.ACC)
:isl: elsk-ar hún hann? - :eng: does she love him? (love-3SG.PRES.IND 3SG.F.NOM 3SG.M.ACC)

The stressed, non-merged 2SG form is used for emphasis.

:isl: elsk-ar þú mig? - :eng: dost thou (as opposed to someone else) love me? (love-2SG.PRES.IND 2SG.NOM 1SG.ACC)

-----------------------

Exercise #1

So let us begin with some practice. I will give you some new verbs and then some sentences to translate.

:isl: hat-a - :eng: to hate
:isl: hopp-a - :eng: to jump
:isl: hitt-a - :eng: to meet (this verb uses the aforementioned -i and -ir instead of -a and -ar)
:isl: snert-a - :eng: to touch (also conjugated like hitta)

Please translate the following:
Spoiler:
1. He hates me.
2. She jumps.
3. I meet her.
4. She touches thee.
5. Good day. Dost thou love me?
6. I love him. Bye.
7. Does he hate me?
Last edited by Prinsessa on 18 Sep 2014 15:15, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by CMunk »

You sure tricked me with that title! I recognized that it looked like icelandic, but the unusual spelling made me think it was some sort of derrived conlang.

Anyway, I've been interested in Icelandic ever since I went there for three weeks of exchange, but never really got to study it too much. I remember one phrase that I was able to decode; it was scratched into a table at a school where I was staying, and it said:

"Ég hata dönsku"

This both confirmed what I had heard - that Icelanders are taught Danish in school - and that they hate it - just like many Danish school kids hate German and/or French.

So, I know the first person singular conjugation of hata. Let's see about the others.
Spoiler:
1. Hann hatar mig.
2. Hún hoppar.
3. Ég hitta hana.
4. Hún snertir þig.
5. Góðan daginn. Elskarðu mig?
6. Ég elska hann. Bless.
7. Hatar hann mig?
Native: :dan: | Fluent: :uk: | Less than fluent: :deu:, :jpn:, :epo: | Beginner: Image, :fao:, :non:
Creating: :con:Jwar Nong, :con:Mhmmz
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

CMunk wrote:You sure tricked me with that title! I recognized that it looked like icelandic, but the unusual spelling made me think it was some sort of derrived conlang.

Anyway, I've been interested in Icelandic ever since I went there for three weeks of exchange, but never really got to study it too much. I remember one phrase that I was able to decode; it was scratched into a table at a school where I was staying, and it said:

"Ég hata dönsku"
I remember that, actually, haha. You've mentioned it sometime before.
CMunk wrote:This both confirmed what I had heard - that Icelanders are taught Danish in school - and that they hate it - just like many Danish school kids hate German and/or French.
That's sad! Languages are fun!
CMunk wrote:
Spoiler:
1. Hann hatar mig.
2. Hún hoppar.
3. Ég hitta hana.
4. Hún snertir þig.
5. Góðan daginn. Elskarðu mig?
6. Ég elska hann. Bless.
7. Hatar hann mig?
Corrections:
Spoiler:
1. Hann hatar mig.
2. Hún hoppar.
3. Ég hitta hitti hana. (mixed it up with the similar <hata>, since you got snerta right?)
4. Hún snertir þig.
5. Góðan daginn. Elskarðu mig?
6. Ég elska hann. Bless.
7. Hatar hann mig?

Very, very well done!
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

3. Plural

Time for the rest of the pronouns. Another five, for gender is differentiated in the plural as well, so there will be one gender-neutral form each for the first and second persons, and then three forms in the third person; one for each gender.

Nominative:

:isl: við - :eng: we (1PL.NOM)
:isl: þið - :eng: ye (2PL.NOM)
:isl: þeir - :eng: they (3PL.M.NOM)
:isl: þær - :eng: they (3PL.F.NOM)
:isl: þau - :eng: they (3PL.N.NOM)

Accusative:

:isl: okkur - :eng: us (1PL.ACC)
:isl: ykkur - :eng: ye (2PL.ACC)
:isl: þá - :eng: them (3PL.M.ACC)
:isl: þær - :eng: them (3PL.F.ACC)
:isl: þau - :eng: them (3PL.N.ACC)

As one can see, this time the masculine one does indeed shift to a new form in the accusative, while, on the other hand, this time, unlike the last, the femine along with the neuter does not change.

Let us conjugate elska for these too. Just like in the singular, the same form is used for every gender in the third person in the plural as well, and I will only list þeir.

:isl: við elsk-um - :eng: we love (1PL.NOM to_love-1PL.PRES.IND)
:isl: þið elsk-ið - :eng: ye love (2PL.NOM to_love-2PL.PRES.IND)
:isl: þeir elsk-a - :eng: they love (3PL.M.NOM to_love-3PL.PRES.IND)

The third person plural form is always the same as the infinitive in the present indicative. The only exception is the copula. The first person singular is indeed the same, too, but it only applies to this conjugation, and not to the other weak conjugation with the -I suffix or to the strong verbs.

3.1. The first person plural

A closer look must be given here. Icelandic has a highly consistent and regular umlaut system that will turn <a> in root syllables before suffixes containing <u> into <ö> and <a> in corresponding syllables in suffixes into <u>. So in order to conjugate the word hata properly, we need to watch out for the <u> in the 1PL ending -um and apply the umlaut process to the <a> in the root of hat-a properly. Let us simply conjugate the verb in all six forms that we know so far.

:isl: ég hat-a - :eng: I hate (1SG.NOM to_hate-1SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: þú hat-ar - :eng: thou hatest (2SG.NOM to_hate-2SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: hann hat-ar - :eng: he hates (3SG.NOM to_hate-3SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: við höt-um - :eng: we hate (1PL.NOM to_hate-1PL.PRES.IND)
:isl: þið hat-ið - :eng: ye hate (2PL.NOM to_hate-2PL.PRES.IND)
:isl: þeir hat-a - :eng: they hate (3PL.NOM to_hate-3PL.PRES.IND)

Note how the 1PL is not *hatum, but hötum.

-----------------------

4. Copula

Icelandic is very Germanic in this sense. There is one copula. One word for 'to be' that also serves a lot of other semantically and auxiliary functions. It is, not very surprisingly, irregular. The infinitive is ver-a.

Present tense, indicative mood:

:isl: ég er-Ø - :eng: I am (1SG.NOM to_be-1SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: þú er-t - :eng: thou art (2SG.NOM to_be-2SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: hann er-Ø - :eng: he is (3SG.NOM to_be-3SG.PRES.IND)
:isl: við er-um - :eng: we are (1PL.NOM to_be-1PL.PRES.IND)
:isl: þið er-uð - :eng: ye are (2PL.NOM to_be-2PL.PRES.IND)
:isl: þeir er-u - :eng: they are (3PL.NOM to_be-3PL.PRES.IND)

Note how the third person plural present indicative form of this verb thus is not the same as the infinitive; this happens only in this verb. For this particular verb and form, the first and third person singulars are the equal. This is more often the case in the past tense, but not so often in the present, where the third person instead tends to copy the second in the singular, as we saw with elska earlier.

The copula connects things by putting the arguments on either side in the nominative.

The contracted form of ert þú? is ertu?.

-----------------------

5. Adverbials

To round up this time, and to put the copula to use, let us learn a couple of adverbials.

:isl: hérna (more common) / hér - :eng: here
:isl: þarna (more common) / þar - :eng: there
:isl: núna (more common) / - :eng: now
:isl: aldrei - :eng: never
:isl: alltaf - :eng: always
:isl: enn - :eng: yet / still
:isl: í dag - :eng: today
:isl: í morgun - :eng: (during) this morning
:isl: á morgun - :eng: tomorrow
:isl: í kvöld - :eng: tonight (during evening)
:isl: í nótt - :eng: tonight (during night)

The ending -na is popular for some of these these days, as one can see. In simple sentences, their placement corresponds pretty well to English, so I will give no specific rules for now.

-----------------------

Exercise #2

It works like the last time. Some new verbs will be introduced to work with.

:isl: þekk-j-a - :eng: to know (by acquaintance) [inflected like hitta - the -j- is dropped before suffixes containing -i-]
:isl: vak-a - :eng: to wake (stay awake) [inflected like hitta]
Spoiler:
1. Do I know thee yet?
2. We wake tonight (night).
3. Art thou here now?
4. Art THOU there today?
5. Are they (f.) never here now?
6. They (n.) know us.
7. Is it him?
8. Ye know them (m.).
Last edited by Prinsessa on 16 May 2013 00:45, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

6. Adjectives

The adjectives in Icelandic inflect for a fair amount of things; all four cases, all three genders, all two numbers and for definiteness. Adjectives have comparatives and superlatives and some of them also have special adverbial forms. Some irregular adjectives have suppletion in compared forms. Some adjectives may lack one compared form or two, or might only be used in one of the numbers.

Let us look at the singular and plural nominative, indefinite forms of a regular adjective in each gender. As the adjectives are not inflected for person, only third person pronouns will be used, but as they do inflect for gender, all third person nominatives will be used. The copula will also be used for these examples, to form proper sentences.

Adjectives are usually cited in the masculine singular indefinite positive nominative form, which tends to, but must not always, end in -ur. Note that this -u- does not cause umlaut, for the suffix was simply -r in Old Norse. The corresponding feminine singular form, however, is suffixless, but inherently has the umlaut, and the accusative and nominative forms of the corresponding neuter plural is always the same as the corresponding feminine nominative, thus also exhibiting this feature.

Examples of that will be given, but let us first look at gul-ur, meaning 'yellow', that is regular and has no -a- that can be umlauted. Only the adjective will be glossed.

Nominative, indefinite, positive singular and plural of all genders:

:isl: hann er gul-ur - :eng: he is yellow (yellow-SG.M.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: hún er gul-Ø - :eng: she is yellow (yellow-SG.F.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: það er gul-t - :eng: it is yellow (yellow-SG.N.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: þeir eru gul-ir - :eng: they are yellow (yellow-PL.M.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: þær eru gul-ar - :eng: they are yellow (yellow-PL.F.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: þau eru gul-Ø - :eng: they are yellow (yellow-PL.N.NOM.POS.INDEF)

The forms marked in green thus always correspond to each other, and will umlaut if the final root vowel is -a-. Let us look at an example of that; the word lang-ur means long.

Nominative, indefinite, positive singular and plural of all genders:

:isl: hann er lang-ur - :eng: he is long (long-SG.M.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: hún er löng-Ø - :eng: she is long (long-SG.F.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: það er lang-t - :eng: it is long (long-SG.N.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: þeir eru lang-ir - :eng: they are long (long-PL.M.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: þær eru lang-ar - :eng: they are long (long-PL.F.NOM.POS.INDEF)
:isl: þau eru löng-Ø - :eng: they are long (long-PL.N.NOM.POS.INDEF)

Talking to and about people and oneself, the gender will correspond to that of the referent. A male would refer to himself as langur, while a female would call herself löng, and the opposite would be true if they were to address each other; she would call him langur and he would call her löng, despite the fact that they use the same pronouns to refer to themselves and one another (ég and þú); the first and second person pronouns are genderless, but the adjectives are not.

When it comes to using the indeed gendered third person pronouns, the same thing applies. If he was to talk about his sister, he would once again refer to her as löng, and he would use the feminine pronoun hún. She, referring back to him, would again call him langur, and use the masculine pronoun hann. In the singular, the neuter forms are also considered inanimate (with the exception of referring back to neuter nouns denoting people or creatures, such as the neuter noun :isl: barn, meaning :eng: 'child') and would not be used about people.

In the plural, groups of masculine entities would be referred to as langir, feminine ones as langar and groups of mixed gender or neuter entities as löng (without the connotation of inanimacy from the singular), respectively. In the third person, for the masculines, the pronoun þeir would be used, and for the feminines þær, and for the neuters þau.

The singular neuter suffix -t may be a little trickier than the other ones, for depending on the final sound if the root, it may do something with the root. Roots ending in , -dd, -t or -tt after a vowel will drop this and replace it with -tt. If it is any of these, or -d after a consonant (-dd and -tt do not occur after consonants, though), they (but not the preceding consonant) will be dropped in favour of a simple -t after that consonant.

:isl: rauð-ur > rautt - :eng: red
:isl: hrædd-ur > hrætt - :eng: afraid
:isl: hvít-ur > hvítt - :eng: white
:isl: breytt-ur > breytt - :eng: modified
:isl: harð-ur > hart - :eng: hard
:isl: kald-ur > kalt - :eng: cold
:isl: svart-ur > svart - :eng: black

Adjectives generally precede nouns, and there is no difference between attributive usage and usage with the copula to connect things.

-----------------------

7. Nouns

The nouns in Icelandic inherently have any of the three genders. Aside from the fact that naturally masculine or feminine entities such as men and women do tend to belong to their corresponding grammatical genders, there is really nothing to predict the gender of any given noun, and it has to be learned along with the word in question.

However, words ending in -ur tend to (but do not have to) be masculine, as do words ending in -ll and -nn (especially if they are not monosyllabic) and more than bisyllabic words ending in -ari and a lot of words ending in -I, -s and -r, but there is no guarantee that any words ending in these must necessarily be masculine. Note also that this only holds true for the indefinite singular nominative forms of the nouns, which is the citation form.

Feminines often end in -a but often also in anything, really, as is also the case for neuters. Feminines ending in nothing will generally have the inherent umlaut of the corresponding adjectives, if their underlying form is really with -a- in the root, and so a feminine word such as :isl: höfn-Ø ( :eng: 'haven'; 'harbour') will actually reveal it's true root hafn- in some of its inflected forms. The correspondence to neuter plurals holds true, and the nominative plural of barn is thus regularly and according to expectation börn-Ø.

For now, we will learn only the nominative forms of the singular, but we will learn both the indefinite and the definite forms. While English uses the definite article the as a separate word in front of its nouns, Icelandic uses a suffix that is simply tacked to the already inflected form (it does not replace the indefinite case suffix; it just adds on to it, and for some forms that may indeed cause some reduplication in the suffixation of a definite noun).

To begin with, the common classes of masculines ending with nominative -ur (causes no umlaut, for the same reason as the corresponding adjective suffix) and feminines (tends to have inherent umlaut, for the same reason as the corresponding adjective ending) and neuters ending in nothing will be demonstrated. The corresponding definite articles are masculine -inn, feminine -in and neuter -ið, respectively.

7.1. Masculine nouns

For now, we will stick to one declension for each gender, and the masculine one that we will look at first will be the only one with a nominative suffix to begin with. This suffix is -ur and is very common for masculine nouns. It does not cause umlaut, as it used to be simply -r in Old Norse.

:isl: hest-ur - :eng: horse (horse-NOM.SG.M1)

As Icelandic has no indefinite article, this translates to 'a horse' as well. Let us apply the definite article, which is just slapped on after the case ending.

:isl: hest-ur-inn - :eng: the horse (horse-NOM.SG.M1-DEF.NOM.SG.M)

Easy as that.

7.2. Feminine nouns

Feminine nouns of the first declension with no ending can be interesting. They like being a little irregular or contain umlauting a lot of the time, and one may want to be a little extra cautious about them. Let us start with a regular one with no umlaut, though.

:isl: rós-Ø - :eng: rose (rose-NOM.SG.F1)
:isl: rós-Ø-in - :eng: the rose (rose-NOM.SG.F1-DEF.NOM.SG.F)

For an umlaut, let us again look at höfn. We may consider this word to really be hafn, with the nominative form *hafn-Ø actually coming out as höfn-Ø due to the umlaut that is mirrored in the adjectives, which explains why the word reverts back to the -a- in some of the inflected forms (none of those will be shown right now, though).

:isl: *hafn-Ø > höfn-Ø - :eng: haven (haven-NOM.SG.F1)
:isl: *hafn-Ø-in > höfn-Ø-in - :eng: the haven (haven-NOM.SG.F1-DEF.NOM.SG.F)

7.3. Neuter nouns

Null nominative suffix here too, but a different definite ending. The umlaut only happens in the plural, which we will not look at right now.

:isl: hús-Ø - :eng: house (house-NOM.SG.N1)
:isl: hús-Ø-ið - :eng: the house (house-NOM.SG.N1-DEF.NOM.SG.N)

As the following example will show, there is thus no umlaut in the singular of a neuter.

:isl: barn-Ø - :eng: child (child-NOM.SG.N1)
:isl: barn-Ø-ið - :eng: the child (child-NOM.SG.N1-DEF.NOM.SG.N)

-----------------------

8. Conjunctions

Three new useful words that work more or less like in English.

:isl: og - :eng: and
:isl: en - :eng: but (common usage) / and (rare/poetic)
:isl: eða - :eng: or

-----------------------

Exercise #3

Here we go again. Try to translate the sentences.

:isl: ekki - :eng: not (usage details will be given another time)
:isl: glað-ur - :eng: happy; glad [adj.]
:isl: strák-ur - :eng: boy [masc.]
:isl: frú-Ø - :eng: lady; missus [fem.]
Spoiler:
1. Is it modified or not?
2. No. It is not modified. It is always red!
3. The horse is black and the rose is white, but the house is yellow.
4. The horse jumps.
5. A horse jumps.
6. A black horse jumps.
7. Is the house white or not? Is it red?
8. He is a happy boy, she is a happy lady and it is a happy child.

BONUS:
This has not been explained yet, but from the clues given, can you guess the correct way to say the following?

9. Houses.
10. Children.
11. The houses.
12. The children.
13. Yellow houses.
14. Happy children.
Last edited by Prinsessa on 17 Sep 2013 10:38, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by dh3537 »

YES!!! ICELANDIC!!!
My attempt at exercise one:
Spoiler:
1. He hates me. Hann elskar mig
2. She jumps. Hún hoppar.
3. I meet her. Ég hitti hana (?)
4. She touches thee. Hún snertar þig
5. Good day. Dost thou love me? Góðan daginn. Elskarðu mig? (??)
6. I love him. Bye. Ég elska hann.
7. Does he hate me? Hatar hann mig?
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

dh3537 wrote:YES!!! ICELANDIC!!!
My attempt at exercise one:
Can not be more YES!!! than Icelandic!

Corrections:
Spoiler:
1. He hates me. Hann elskar hatar mig (this could cause problems, as elska means 'to love'!)
2. She jumps. Hún hoppar.
3. I meet her. Ég hitti hana
4. She touches thee. Hún snertar snertir þig (as hitti was correct and snerta has the same conjugation)
5. Good day. Dost thou love me? Góðan daginn. Elskarðu mig?
6. I love him. Bye. Ég elska hann. Bless. (you forgot a word!)
7. Does he hate me? Hatar hann mig? (you used the correct word for 'to hate' here, so what happened up there anyway?)

Not too bad, but the lexical miss could be dangerous!
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Eschatologist »

My answers for exercises 2 and 3:
Spoiler:
Exercise 2:

1. Þekki ég þig enn?
2. Við vökum í nótt.
3. Ertu hérna núna?
4. Ert þú þarna í dag?
5. Eru þær aldrei hérna núna?
6. Þau þekkja okkur.
7. Er það hann?
8. Þið þekkið þá.
Spoiler:
Exercise 3:

1. Er það breytt eg ekki?
2. Nei. Það er ekki breytt. Það er alltaf rautt!
3. Hesturinn er svartur og rósin er hvit, en húsið er gult.
4. Hesturinn hoppa.
5. Hestur hoppa.
6. Svartur hestur hoppa.
7. Er húsið hvitt eða ekki? Er það rautt?
8. Hann er glaður strákur, hún er glöð frú og það er glatt barn.
And the bonus:
Spoiler:
1. Hús.
2. Börn.
3. Húsið.
4. Börnið.
5. Gul hús.
6. Glöð börn.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Valosken »

I think I found my new favourite language.
First, I learned English.
Dann lernte ich Deutsch.
Y ahora aprendo Español.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

Eschatologist wrote:My answers for exercises 2 and 3:
With corrections:

Exercise 2:
Spoiler:
1. Þekki ég þig enn?
2. Við vökum í nótt.
3. Ertu hérna núna?
4. Ert þú þarna í dag?
5. Eru þær aldrei hérna núna?
6. Þau þekkja okkur.
7. Er það hann?
8. Þið þekkið þá.

100 % correct!
Exercise 3:
Spoiler:
1. Er það breytt eg eða ekki?
2. Nei. Það er ekki breytt. Það er alltaf rautt!
3. Hesturinn er svartur og rósin er hvit hvít, en húsið er gult.
4. Hesturinn hoppar.
5. Hestur hoppar.
6. Svartur hestur hoppar.
7. Er húsið hvitt hvítt eða ekki? Er það rautt?
8. Hann er glaður strákur, hún er glöð frú og það er glatt barn.

'ég hoppa', but 'hann hoppar' (and 'þú hoppar' as well).
The bonus:
Spoiler:
1. Hús.
2. Börn.
3. Húsið Húsin.
4. Börnið Börnin.
5. Gul hús.
6. Glöð börn.

Once again, there is a nice, full correspondence with the feminine singular nominative, and that goes for the definite articles as well.
Valosken wrote:I think I found my new favourite language.
:D I shall have to write more! I had completely forgotten about this thread.
Last edited by Prinsessa on 08 Jan 2013 13:35, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by conlangconstructor »

Lol I totally came here expecting a conlang, but Icelandic is even better! I love this language, but I'm still learning to read and speak...and that's a little [O.O] .
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Testyal »

That's funny. I was thinking about this thread earlier today and how I'd like more. Suddenly, attention.
:deu: :fra: :zho: :epo:
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

conlangconstructor wrote:Lol I totally came here expecting a conlang, but Icelandic is even better! I love this language, but I'm still learning to read and speak...and that's a little [O.O] .
I'll have to add some pronunciation soon enough too.
testyal1 wrote:That's funny. I was thinking about this thread earlier today and how I'd like more. Suddenly, attention.
When I find the time, I shall continue.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

9. Noun plurals

There are many declensions, but let us look at the most common ones first. In the nominative, masculines and feminines may both pluralise into -ar or -ir. I dare say that the former is more common for masculines and the latter for feminines, but both endings are indeed used for both genders, so one should preferably make sure to learn this along with the words either way.

Neuters generally do not change at all in the nominative and accusative plural, in accordance with the suffixless feminine singular, which these, once again, mimic. This means, however, that a, as usual, will turn into ö if that's the vowel of the singular root. To clarify, the plural of a neuter is suffixless in the nominative and accusative.

Let us reuse some words, and pluralise them.

MASC. :isl: hest-ur :eng: horse > :isl: hest-ar :eng: horses
MASC. :isl: strák-ur :eng: boy > :isl: strák-ar :eng: boys

FEM. :isl: rós-Ø :eng: rose > :isl: rós-ir :eng: roses

NEUT. :isl: hús-Ø :eng: house > :isl: hús-Ø :eng: houses
NEUT. :isl: barn-Ø :eng: child > :isl: *barn-Ø > börn-Ø :eng: children

Note well how barn pluralises into börn. This is regular for neuter words of this structure.

Examples of masculines and feminines with these endings reversed are MASC. :isl: dal-ur :eng: valley > :isl: dal-ir :eng: valleys and FEM. :isl: drottning-Ø :eng: queen > :isl: drottning-ar :eng: queens.

9.1. Definite noun plurals

We will stick to the nominatives for these as well. The endings are, just like the singular ones, tacked on after the indefinite case endings. The masculine one is -nir, the feminine one is -nar, and the neuter is, not surprisingly, once again in correspondence with the feminine singular, -in.

MASC. :isl: strák-ar-nir :eng: the boys
FEM. :isl: rós-ir-nar :eng: the roses
NEUT. :isl: hús-Ø-in :eng: the houses

The suffixes do not change lexically, like the indefinite ones.

7.2. Verbal agreement

Changing the nouns into the plural obviously forces different agreement on the verbs as well. We have already looked at these, and since any nominal will be considered a third person, the form to use is, with the exception of the copula, as seen before, always identical to the infinitive. There is no gender agreement, as seen before. Neither is there any definiteness agreement.

:isl: hest-ar hopp-a :eng: horses jump
:isl: hest-ar-nir hopp-a :eng: the horses jump

10. The continuous aspect

By now you may have noticed that all translations of sentences with verbs in them have been translated into the habitual aspect (the horses jump rather than the horses are jumping). If you are acquainted with the mainland Scandinavian languages, you may expect Icelandic to work like they do in this regard, making no difference between the two, unlike English. This is not the case. Icelandic makes a difference, just like English, and the continuous aspect is in fact much easier to form, as it uses the copula as an auxilary verb, followed by the infinitive of the verb in question, which means that the only conjugation required to learn is that of the copula.

The form is inflected copula + að + infinitive. The word itself may here be considered an infinitive mark. Let us compare the two aspects.

HAB. :isl: hesturinn hoppar :eng: the horse jumps
CONT. :isl: hesturinn er að hoppa :eng: the horse is jumping

HAB. :isl: hestarnir hoppa :eng: the horses jump
CONT. :isl: hestarnir eru að hoppa :eng: the horses are jumping

HAB. :isl: við hoppum :eng: we jump
CONT. :isl: við erum að hoppa :eng: we are jumping

11. The preterite tense of the copula

We will not be looking properly at how to form the preterite (simple past) tense of the verbs until later, but since the copula can be used both to say simple things like the horse was black and for the continuous aspect, for things like the horse was jumping, at least this word deserves an early peek.

:isl: ég var :eng: I was
:isl: þú varst :eng: thou wast
:isl: hann var :eng: he was
:isl: við vorum :eng: we were
:isl: þið voruð :eng: ye were
:isl: þeir voru :eng: they were

With this amazing correspondence to the English forms, these should not be too hard to remember. Let us put them to use.

:isl: rósin var svört :eng: the rose was black
:isl: rósirnar voru svartar :eng: the roses were black

Exercise #4

Some new words to use:

:isl: dag-ur - :eng: day [masc., pl. -ar]
:isl: kvöld-Ø - :eng: evening [neut.]
:isl: nótt-Ø - :eng: night [fem., irregular pl. nætur]
:isl: vakn-a - to wake up (like hoppa)
:isl: sofn-a - to fall asleep (like hoppa)
:isl: þegar - when (conjunction, not interrogation)
:isl: þá - then

Important note:
In certain subclauses, such as those that may begin with then (even if the word is omitted), the word order changes from SVO to VSO.
Spoiler:
1. When the day falls asleep, then the night awakes.
2. Black nights. The nights. They are black.
3. The night is black and the horse is white and it (the horse) is falling asleep.
4. [Back ]then the boys were happy, but now they are cold and afraid.
5. We are falling asleep.
6. I was falling asleep.
Last edited by Prinsessa on 03 Dec 2012 13:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

Any wishes for the next part?
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Iron »

If it's not too late, then
Spoiler:
Image
Also, my answers for 4:
Spoiler:
1. Þegar dagurinn sofnar, vaknar þá nóttin.
2. Svartar nætir. Nætirnar. Þær eru svartar.
3. Nóttin er svört og hesturinn er hvítt og það er sofna.
4. Eru þá strákarnir glattir, en núna þeir kaldir og hræddir.
5. Við erum sofna.
6. Ég var sofna.

I marked in italics the ones I corrected myself, but I'm still not quite sure on the svartar.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

Iron wrote:If it's not too late, then
Spoiler:
Image
Never too late. I recognise that picture. Where is it from?

Corrections:
Spoiler:
1. Þegar dagurinn sofnar, vaknar þá nóttin. I was thinking 'þá vaknar', but this is perfectly fine in poetic language. Very pretty. :D
2. Svartar nætirnætur. NætirNæturnar. Þær eru svartar.
3. Nóttin er svört og hesturinn er hvítthvítur og þaðhann (hestur is masculine) er sofna.
4. Eru þáÞá voru (eru is present) strákarnir glattirglaðir (glatt is the neuter form, not the root), en núna eru þeir kaldir og hræddir.
5. Við erum sofna.
6. Ég var sofna.

Don't forget the 'að' in the continuous aspect.

I marked in italics the ones I corrected myself, but I'm still not quite sure on the svartar.

-ar is indeed the correct feminine adjective nominative/accusative plural.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by sangi39 »

Skógvur wrote:
Iron wrote:If it's not too late, then
Spoiler:
Image
Never too late. I recognise that picture. Where is it from?
It's from Oliver!, the 1968 musical film version of Charles Dickens' Oliver. It's the "Please, sir, I want some more" bit just after Food, Glorious Food.
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by Prinsessa »

sangi39 wrote:
Skógvur wrote:
Iron wrote:If it's not too late, then
Spoiler:
Image
Never too late. I recognise that picture. Where is it from?
It's from Oliver!, the 1968 musical film version of Charles Dickens' Oliver. It's the "Please, sir, I want some more" bit just after Food, Glorious Food.
Hm, no, I think it's the fact that he looks like the kid from Jurassic Park (after having been grilled by the electric fence) that makes me recognise him. I did understand his point with the picture, though!
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Re: Íslenzka

Post by sangi39 »

Skógvur wrote:
sangi39 wrote: It's from Oliver!, the 1968 musical film version of Charles Dickens' Oliver. It's the "Please, sir, I want some more" bit just after Food, Glorious Food.
Hm, no, I think it's the fact that he looks like the kid from Jurassic Park (after having been grilled by the electric fence) that makes me recognise him. I did understand his point with the picture, though!
Hmmm, they do look similar, now that you mention it [:)]
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
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