A lesson in the Icelandic language

1,000 years, 350,000 speakers, and 50 words for snow. The Icelandic language is something else.

Only 350,000 people speak Icelandic, which is among the world’s least-changed languages. Listening to it is like traveling through time—due to the nation’s geographic isolation and conscious preservation, it has hardly changed for a thousand years. With a little bit of training and a handy dictionary, modern Icelanders can read medieval manuscripts with relatively little difficulty—a remarkable fact, given that most modern English speakers struggle with Shakespeare, a 'modern' writer in comparison.

To preserve the language, neologisms are often used over loanwords. This means that creating new words for technological innovation is something of a national pastime. However, a unique feature of Icelandic is not just the use of neologisms, but also the repurposing of ancient words that have dropped out of common usage. Some prime examples include:

• The word for telephone is sími, from an ancient word for 'long thread.'
• The word for computer is tölva—a fusion of tala (number) and völva (prophetess).
• The word for helicopter is þyrla, from a verb meaning 'twirl.'

And in case you were wondering: the most beautiful word in the Icelandic language is officially ljósmóðir, or midwife. Literally meaning 'light-mother,' it was chosen in a nationwide poll conducted by the University of Iceland and the national broadcaster, RÚV.

Icelandic is an Indo-European language of the North Germanic family, meaning that it’s most closely related to modern languages such as English, German, Dutch, Frisian, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. Within the Nordic languages, it's considered to belong to the Western Scandinavian branch, tying it more closely to Norwegian than to Swedish.

The very earliest records of the Old Norse language, the language that eventually became modern Icelandic, would have been carved in runes onto wood and stone in the areas that are now Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Many of these earliest inscriptions are quite basic, either simply naming the owner of an object such as a comb or a knife, or brief funeral epitaphs on runestones. Although many associate the Vikings with runes, it’s worth noting that there is essentially no runic writing in any language that could be called Icelandic. As Iceland was settled in the Christian period and the sagas, the bible, and legal texts were all written with Latin characters, the link between runes and Icelandic is an anachronistic one. In other words: Icelandic has always been written in Latin characters (in case this influences your choice of vacation tattoo).

Iceland was settled around the year 870 (plus or minus a couple years) by people mostly from Norway, but also Sweden and Denmark. Among the independent landholders and minor chieftains from Scandinavia was also a significant underclass of Celtic slaves, and to this day the influence of Celtic languages can be seen in Icelandic. For example, some very common personal names such as Kjartan and Njáll are Celtic in origin, and a wide assortment of words in modern Icelandic still have Celtic roots, from birds to agricultural implements and even edible types of seaweed.

The language spoken by the settlers in the first decades and centuries of Icelandic history was likely intelligible across the British Isles all the way to the Baltic. Back then, however, it was not known as 'Icelandic,' but either called simply dönsk tunga (the Danish tongue) or norrœna tunga (the Nordic tongue). In fact, even as late as the mid-12th century, an Icelandic scribe wrote that the English and the Icelanders were “of one language.”

Over time, the 'Danish tongue' began to change, and one of the most significant ways it changed was to severely simplify its grammatical forms. As the period we call the Viking Age faded into history, the people living in Scandinavia began to speak more and more distinctly from one another. Where many other language groups underwent change, however, the Icelandic language remained remarkably stable throughout the Middle Ages. A major reason for this was manuscript production in Iceland—a strong literary culture based around the Icelandic sagas and other important texts such as law codes and mythic poetry likely 'froze' the language in place.

While the nature of language change is gradual, the moment that Icelandic truly became Icelandic is often identified with the arrival of the Black Plague in Europe. Prior to this period, Icelandic manuscripts were highly sought-after in the courts of Scandinavian kings as historical documents and art objects, but the Black Plague caused a near-total collapse in trade across the Medieval North. The subsequent loss of contact with continental Europe meant that as the 'Danish tongue' slowly changed into what we now call Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, the Icelanders quietly kept telling their stories and speaking in their language, more or less unaffected by the outside world.

To skip nearly half a millennium of Icelandic history, one could say that the language was 'rediscovered' in the early 19th century by a young Danish scholar named Rasmus Rask. Rask was fascinated by the then-emerging field of historical linguistics. Pioneered by Sir William Jones, who only decades earlier had hypothesized that Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit shared a common ancestor, the field of historical linguistics was cutting-edge science in the early 19th century. From an early age, Rask was an eager reader of ancient Icelandic literature and history, and through his scholarship and even travels to Iceland, he demonstrated how the Icelandic language uniquely preserved many of the most archaic features of the Germanic languages, culminating in the 1809 publication of Introduction to the Icelandic or Old Norse Language, the first modern, systematic grammar of Icelandic.

If you’re anything like us, you’ll find this all fascinating—but keep in mind that Iceland is still a very modern society, and you’re just as likely to hear Icelanders say “skrolla á Facebook” as anyone else in the world. And although Icelandic is indeed a conservative language, that isn’t to say that it’s simply unchanged since the Viking Age. Still, knowing about the unique features of the Icelandic language adds depth to your travels by better appreciating the culture of this beautiful island!

In addition to these unique letters, here are three more important aspects of Icelandic pronunciation:

• Aspiration: Icelandic uses aspiration to distinguish certain sounds (e.g., between /b/ and /p/, /g/ and /k/), which is different from how English distinguishes them (voicing). In a non-technical sense, aspiration is often used to create an 'h' sound with your breath.
• Stress: Stress is almost always on the first syllable of words, which can be different from English and affect the rhythm of speech. Icelandic can also have rather long words, making it hard for some to know where exactly to place the stress.
• Colloquial speech: In casual conversation, words can merge, shorten, or contract in ways that can be challenging for learners to discern. For example, a common question such as “what are you doing” (Hvað ert þú að gera?) is most often heard quickly as something like “hva’rtu a’ gera?”

Although Icelandic grammar and pronunciation can be difficult to learn, you certainly don’t need to learn it all to get by. While it’s true that nearly all restaurants, tourist attractions, travel agencies, and transport options will have English-speaking staff, simply learning a couple of phrases can go a long way toward deepening your travel experience. Below are some basic Icelandic travel phrases you should try out—we especially recommend practicing your Icelandic when you order the famous pylsa, or Icelandic hotdog!

A guide to pronunciation is given in parenthesis.

One of the most unique features of the Icelandic language is the naming convention. Traditionally, Icelandic uses patronymics, meaning that individuals are named after their father. So a child with a father named Jón would have the last name Jónsson or Jónsdóttir, depending on gender.

Although this is the convention, there are always exceptions. Some Icelanders have chosen to be named after their mother, for example, and some older families with roots abroad have kept their family names, such as Zoëga. Other Icelanders may still legally retain their patronymic but instead use their first and middle names as a day-to-day alias.

Because of the patronymic system, Icelandic can seem like a more casual language to foreigners because there is no equivalent usage of forms like 'Mr Smith' for a man named John Smith. In a patronymic system, your last name is simply your father’s (or sometimes mother’s) name, so it doesn’t make much sense to call someone 'Mr Jónsson.' This extends to even the most famous Icelanders, including the President and Prime Minister—you can see this especially often in the foreign press, referring to politicians as 'Mr Benediktsson,' for example. To Icelandic ears, the first name is simply the correct name to use—it has nothing to do with being more or less formal! In fact, given how Icelandic names work, the phone book, library collections, and other registries are all organized by first name.

Due to the way that Icelandic grammar works, personal names also need to be able to change like other words in the language. This both means that a personal name can change given its context (a woman might be named Anna, but you speak to Önnu), and that new names have to be approved. There is even a government-run committee that decides which names are appropriate for newborns. There has been much discussion around this practice in recent years, as Icelandic demographics change and the country becomes more diverse. Some worry that this practice is overly conservative, while others feel strongly that it’s an important part of Icelandic culture. Nevertheless, included in the official list are also names recognizable to speakers of many other languages, including Frank, Jenny, John, Henry, Emma, and more.

Because Icelandic can be such a tricky language, it's not always easy to tell what's true and what's not. To help clear things up, here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Icelandic from visitors.

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By Erik Pomrenke

About the author: Born into a multilingual family, Erik has always had an interest in language. After having worked as both an English and German teacher, he moved to Iceland to pursue studies in historical linguistics. He’s since worked as both a journalist and marketer for many publications in the Icelandic travel industry. When not immersed in spreadsheets, you can find him hiking in the mountains, or else reading about the culture and history of Iceland.