word of the issue
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Word Of The Issue: Mikligarður
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time For a thousand years Icelandic has had its own Icelandic names for various places and geographic locations visited by Icelanders or discussed in the numerous sagas and other literature written in Iceland in…
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Word Of The Issue: A Fish With A Reversed Fin Bombs Iran
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time Some international political commentators have voiced the opinion that the strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel are a case of “wag the dog.” The “wag the dog” idiom…
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Word Of The Issue: Flying Ice
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time It is the height of the Icelandic winter, which means that if you are planning to drive anywhere, you will do well to look up the road conditions on umferdin.is. And…
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Word Of The Issue: A Sip Of Elephant, A Puff Of Camel
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time Elephant is a brand of strong Danish beer, named after said strong animal. Camel is of course a brand of cigarettes, named after said ship of the desert. The usage of…
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Word Of The Issue: Big-Fire-Christmas
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time For this issue, because it is the season of Christmas, Yule, Santas and various Icelandic children-eating mythical yule creatures, we will attempt to explain a word whose exact meaning and etymology…
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Word Of The Issue: Tone-Play-Travel-Song
Iceland Airwaves is just behind us, so you either caught a weekend of great music or you missed out (in which case, read about everything you missed here). While one of the festival’s main purposes has historically been to platform the local…
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Word Of The Issue: Stranded Idiot
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time On the last Monday of September, many a traveller found themself either stuck in Iceland or stuck trying to get to Iceland because Icelandic low-fare airline PLAY announced they were bust.…
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Word Of The Issue: Glowing Fruit
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time People often say that the sun is orange. That is not because the sun is actually orange, but because it appears so to us, standing on earth. This is due to…
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Word Of The Issue: Málþóf
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time The Icelandic word málþóf has been on everybody’s lips these past months. Why? Because last spring, the parliamentary opposition in Alþingi engaged in a filibuster in an attempt to block a…
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Word Of The Issue: Breathing Arrows
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time I’ll be with you in just a minute! Hey, can you wait a moment? Oooone second, I’m on my way! Are you chronically late? Work in customer service? Or sometimes just…
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Word Of The Issue: Ægisif
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time For 1,000 years, Iceland has given its own names to various places and geographic locations. Some of these names have stuck. In most cases, they are Icelandic renditions of place names…
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Respect People’s Pronouns!
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time In the 2023 Áramótaskaupið, national comedy icon Villi Neto says to the camera, “Hér er hán, um hán, frá háni, til háns — það skiptir ekkert máli.” Okay, hang on a…
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Here’s A New Word For You, Dummy!
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time As you’ve gathered from our beautiful cover photo by Timothée Lambrecq (and our Editorial and On The Cover, which we’re sure you’ve diligently read), we’re talking about travelling the Ring Road this…
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Word Of The Issue: Another Trip Around The Sun
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time If you’re reading this hot off the press, then we’re about to reach the summer solstice on June 21. In our last issue, we tackled what makes the Icelandic summer uniquely…
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Word Of The Issue: Bunk Drunk
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time Making the rounds every so often is a list of 37 Icelandic terms for different levels of drunk you can be. There’s góðglaður (a good-happy level of drunk), hestfær (horse able,…
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Word Of The Issue: Endless Anglicisms
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time The Icelandic you learn in language courses is one thing, but once you hit the streets, join a dating app, or eavesdrop at a local pool, reality hits — Icelandic might…
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Word Of The Issue: Pope’s Garden
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time On May 8, white smoke emerged from the chimney of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, signalling the election of a new Pope. Icelandic has its own spelling of the word Pope, páfi,…
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Word Of The Issue: Bakarameistarinn
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time One of the plights of tourists and foreign-born Icelanders alike is ordering food with a daunting Icelandic name. Maybe you’ve found yourself in a bakery looking at a delicious-looking treat —…
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Word Of The Issue: Grýlukerti
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time It’s been a fickle few weeks, weather-wise. Is it spring? Is it still winter? This often-changing weather keeps us on our toes (or desperately checking vedur.is and cursing when reality does…
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Word Of The Issue: Duglegur
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time The certain type of grit that keeps an Icelander on their two feet, walking (trudging) forward against unrelenting wind has always impressed me, and intrigued me. Undoubtedly, growing up in this…
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Word(s) Of The Issue: A Menagerie
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time Despite the fact that the word “menagerie” is often used to describe an accumulation of all sorts of things, it is first and foremost a word that describes a collection of…
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Word Of The Issue: Welcome to Our Reputation Era
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time It’s been an interesting month. With the holiday season upon us and elections just last week, reflections on a personal and national level are occurring all around (just as holiday spirit,…
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Word Of The Issue: Djammviskubit
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time As we dive headfirst into this Airwaves season (happy 25th, you guys), I’ve decided to share a word that I hope you don’t have to end up using. Buuuuuuuuut you might…