Icelandic language
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The Price Of Icelandic: Defending A Language They Refuse To Fund
A draft bill from the Icelandic government would allow Icelandic universities to introduce tuition fees for students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), while public funding that presently covers their enrolment would be withdrawn. In practice, the change would not simply…
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National Hospital Makes Speaking Icelandic Mandatory, Hires Language Tutor
The National Hospital of Iceland (Landspítalinn) has confirmed a language policy making speaking Icelandic mandatory among staff. According to the new policy, every hospital employee should be able to speak Icelandic. To begin with, the demands apply to registered and licensed practical…
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The Grapevine’s Guide To Learning Icelandic
Langar þig að læra íslensku? Whether you’re a polyglot looking for a new fix, a scholar of medieval studies hoping to bolster your résumé, or (probably more likely than the former two) someone who lives in Iceland and just wants to take…
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Word Of The Issue: What The Fokk Are You Looking At?
The Grapevine’s Guide To Sounding Icelandic, One Word At A Time Unless you don’t go outside, you will hear tons of Icelanders generously using the word fokk. Icelanders, especially younger ones, are keen on using this at times that English speakers would…
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Ask An Expert: Why Do Icelanders Switch Their ‘W’s And ‘V’s In English?
If you’ve spent time speaking English with an Icelander, you may have noticed some of their letters get mixed up. Somehow ‘vikings’ become ‘wikings’ and ‘west’ becomes ‘vest.’ We were curious if there is a scientific–or better yet, linguistic–answer to this consonant…
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President Of Iceland And His Delegation Travel To USA
Last night the President of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, went to the US; specifically, California. There he will lead the Icelandic delegation to a meeting of large American companies in the technology industry. This information comes from a statement issued by the…
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Practical Icelandic: Greetings
How do you say hello in Icelandic? Turns out there’s way more than one way… in this episode of Practical Icelandic, editor-in-chief of Reykjavík Grapevine, Valur Grettisson, takes you through some of the many complicated ways to greet people in Icelandic –…
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Ask An Expert: What Is The Future Of Icelandic Language?
Relative to the global population, Icelandic is spoken by only a handful of people. As English continues to prop up its status as the lingua franca of the West, we at the Grapevine were wondering what the future of Icelandic looks like.…
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Practical Icelandic: “Merry Christmas”
Velkomin! Welcome to episode 2 of Practical Icelandic, the series where Reykjavík Grapevine teaches you simple and useful phrases for your trip to Iceland. Today we are learning to say “merry Christmas” in Icelandic, as well as ordering some hot chocolate. You…
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Pressure On Disney To Add Icelandic Voiceover To Disney+
Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, the Minister of Education and Culture, has sent a letter to Robert Chapek, the CEO of Walt Disney, to convince the company to make use of the Icelandic voiceover and translations on their streaming service, Disney+. The streaming service was…
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Ask A Linguist: What Do Icelanders Find Difficult About The Icelandic Language?
Icelandic is a notoriously difficult language that even native speakers often struggle with. But what exactly do they find difficult? We reached out to Jóhannes B. Sigtryggsson, assistant research professor at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, for answers. “Native speakers…
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Greynir Analyses Icelandic Linguistic Particles
A herculean task in the development of Icelandic language software is currently underway in an office building in the Grandi district by the Reykjavik seashore, Morgunblaðið reports. This area is home to Miðeind, a company which is working on software development for…
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Icelandic Setting For Outlook On iPhone Discontinued
Microsoft announced in May that it will cease to offer the Icelandic-language version of the Outlook app for Apple smartphones at the end of June, Morgunblaðið reports. Icelandic is one of 27 languages that the company plans to remove from its list…
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Word Of The Issue: Olnbogabarn
Anyone who has more than one child and says they love them all equally is lying, as anyone with siblings can attest. There is always a favourite child, just as there is always a least favourite. In Icelandic, the latter is the…
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Word Of The Issue: Skítseiði
Icelanders, like the rest of the world, have been following the news about former TV villain turned former White House staffer, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, and her new tell-all book about her time with the QAnon-superhero Donald Trump. Of course, Trump gracefully rejected Omarosa’s…
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Ask A Linguist: Why Is Icelandic Such A Difficult Language To Learn?
Whether you’ve already been to Iceland several times or whether it’s your first visit, you might encounter some struggles in deciphering or even speaking Icelandic. This is why we asked Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson, a Professor for Icelandic at the University of Iceland, what…
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Word Of The Issue: Ostaskeri
Travellers are often surprised by the peculiar ‘ostaskeri’ found in Icelandic Airbnb kitchens. Although it looks like a spatula, the horizontal blade at its base betrays its purpose: it’s a cheese (osta) cutter (skeri)! But why do Icelanders often talk about how…
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Word Of The Issue: Geirvarta
Voted ‘ugliest word’ by Icelanders in 2013, ‘geirvarta’ is the Icelandic word for nipple. This compound, however, is much funnier than its English counterpart. In fact, it literally means ‘wart with a dot’—which is neither accurate nor particularly appealing but surely amusing.…
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Word Of The Issue: Að Kynda
Have you ever heard Icelanders’ favourite story about the word ‘kynda’? Tour guides in particular love to explain how it roughly translates to ‘heat up’ and that it derives from the word ‘kind’ which means ‘sheep.’ In fact, they say, packing a…
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22% Of Icelandic Children Show Difficulties In Reading Their Own Language
The richness of Icelandic children’s lexicon, as well as their level of comprehension of their own language, has been dangerously decreasing during the past hundred years. In 2015, it was calculated through the so-called PISA test (Programme for International Student Assessment) that Iceland…
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Icelandic Facebook Groups: Ný Orð
Icelandic has an undeserved reputation for being a prescriptivist, gatekeeping language. While this is definitely true when it comes to given names, it’s not as true for the rest of the language’s vocabulary. Case in point: the Facebook group Ný Orð (New…
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Integrating In Iceland: Tackling The Icelandic Language
For newcomers, integrating into Iceland can be difficult. You don’t know your way around the country or are unfamiliar with social norms and customs. But what makes living here the most nerve-wracking is unable to speak or understand Icelandic. With tourism increasing,…
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Words Of Interest: Whale Tales
“Hvalreki” is the Icelandic word for a beached whale. It comes from the words “hvalur”, for whale, and “reki”, meaning something washed up on shore. In the olden days, it also referred to an unexpected surprise, though it seems rather outdated, given…