Icelandic alphabet

Icelandic alphabet

Notes

Listen
filename=Icelandic alphabet.ogg
title=Icelandic alphabet
description=An Icelandic speaker reciting the alphabet in Icelandic
format=Ogg

The letters "a", "á", "e", "é", "i", "í", "o", "ó", "u", "ú", "y", "ý", "æ" and "ö" are considered vowels, and the remainder are consonants.

The letters C ("sé", IPA| [sjɛ] ), Q ("kú", IPA| [kʰu] ) and W ("tvöfalt vaff", IPA| [ˈtʰvœfal̥t ˌvafː] ) are only used in Icelandic in words of foreign origin and some proper names that are also of foreign origin. Otherwise, "c, qu," and "w" are substituted with "k/s/ts, hv," and "v" respectively. (And in fact, "hv" is a direct cognate of Latin "qu" and English "wh": Icelandic "hvað", Latin "quod", English "what".)

The letter Z ("seta", IPA| [ˈsɛta] ) was used until 1974, when it was abolished, as it was only an etymological detail. However, one of the most important newspapers in Iceland, the Morgunblaðið, still uses it sometimes (although very rarely), and a secondary school, Verzlunarskóli Íslands has it in its name. It is also found in some proper names of people. Older people, who were educated before the abolition of the "z" sometimes also use it.


Letter frequencies

The most common letters in Icelandic are "n" and "a" [ [http://www.cryptogram.org/cdb/words/frequency.html www.cryptogram.org/cdb/words/frequency.html] - Letter frequencies. Retrieved 23 April 2007.] .

The list above shows the letter frequencies for more letters in order of descending frequency.

ee also

References

* http://www.ielanguages.com/icelandic.html used as source for pronunciation descriptions

External links

* [http://bella.mrn.stjr.is/utgafur/islenska.pdf "„Íslenska, í senn forn og ný“."]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Icelandic language — Icelandic íslenska Pronunciation [is(t)lɛnska] Spoken in Iceland, Denmark,[citation need …   Wikipedia

  • Icelandic — refers to anything of or related to Iceland and may refer to the following articles: *The Icelandic language *The Icelandic alphabet *Icelanders, the Icelandic people *Icelandic horse, a breed of domestic horse *Icelandic sheep, a breed of… …   Wikipedia

  • Icelandic name — A simple family tree showing the Icelandic patronymic naming system. Icelandic names differ from most current Western family name systems by being patronymic (occasionally matronymic) in that they reflect the immediate father (or mother) of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Icelandic Naming Committee — The Icelandic Naming Committee (Icelandic: Mannanafnanefnd)[1] is a body established in 1991[1] that governs the introduction of new given names to the culture of Iceland: it determines whether a name that has not been used in the country before… …   Wikipedia

  • Icelandic orthography — is the way in which Icelandic words are spelt and how their spelling corresponds with their pronunciation.Function of symbolsThis section lists Icelandic letters and letter combinations, and how to pronounce them using a narrow International… …   Wikipedia

  • Alphabet — [ William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia .] An alphabet is a standardized set of letters mdash basic written symbolsmdash each of which roughly represents a phoneme, a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in… …   Wikipedia

  • Icelandic literature — Introduction       body of writings in Icelandic, including those from Old Icelandic (also called Old Norse) through Modern Icelandic.       Icelandic literature is best known for the richness of its classical period, which is equivalent in time… …   Universalium

  • History of Icelandic — A page from the Landnámabók The history of the Icelandic language began in the 9th century with the settlement of Iceland, mostly by Norwegians, brought a dialect of Old Norse to the island. The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written… …   Wikipedia

  • History of the Icelandic language — The history of the Icelandic language began in the 9th century with the settlement of Iceland when settlers, who mostly came from Norway, brought a dialect of Old Norse to the island.The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around… …   Wikipedia

  • Coptic alphabet — Type Alphabet Languages Coptic language Time period c. 300 AD to 14th century AD (Still used today in Coptic churches in Egypt and …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”