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Satu, do you know about Icelandic pronounciation?
in reply to a message by Satu
And if you do, can you help me with the following sounds:ll, rn - are these still the same as in Old Norse (e.g. something like ltl and rtn) or not?Sigur - is this a hard g? is g ever pronounced as y?
ey - pronounced ay?
æ - also pronounced ay?
á - ahhh like car or ow like cow?
au - oy?I am badly in love with Icelandic names and need to know.
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Yes, I do!Icelandic pronunciation
LL
1) Between two vowels and between a vowel and N or R it is pronounced like DL (e.g. in fullur or hellna or allra)
2) In loan words it is pronounced like LL (e.g. pilla or Kalli)RN
Behind a vowel it´s pronounced like RDN (e.g. örn, barn)G
1) In the beginning of a word in front of A, Á, O, Ó, U, Ú, Ö and consonants it is pronounced like a hard G (e.g. góð)
2) In the middle of words in front of A, Á, O, Ó, U, Ú, Ö, Ð, R, S, T and at the end of a word it sounds like the CH – sound of the Scottish word ’loch’, but very much softer, almost like a French or German R (e.g. aga)
3) In the middle of the word in front of all the other consonants it sounds like hard GG (e.g. nagl)
4) In the beginning of a word in front of E, I, Í, Y, Ý, Æ, EI, EY it sounds like GY (e.g. gefa)
5) In the middle of a word in front of E, I, Í, Y, Ý, Æ, EI, EY, J it sounds like Y or rather like EEY (e.g. segja or bogi
6) Between L and D, T, N or S as well as between R and Ð, T or N it’s silent (e.g. bólgna, mergð)If you’ll take the name Sigur you use the CH-sound (no. 2) – no G- or Y-sound here!EY
that’s pronounced like EY in the English word grey. (e.g. leyfa)Æ
that’s pronounced like I in the English word find (e.g. læknir)Á
that´s pronounced like OW in the English word cow (e.g. ást)AU
that´s pronounced like ÖJ in the Swedish word möjlig or a little bit like EUIL in the French word fauteuil (e.g. raust)Regards, Satu
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Satu - you are my hero...So not a huge lot of changes from Old Norse then...
that simplifies things. If I get it wrong I'll just claim to be very old.
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*blushes* Thank you!How come that you know how to pronounce Old Norse but not Icelandic? Are you studying old languages?
Icelandic is the most "old fashioned" Scandinavian language so it's much closer to Old Norse than the other ones. (But they are all soooo nice!)Regards, Satu
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Studied...Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at University - So I took papers on Old English, Medieval Latin, Old Norse, Old Irish, Middle Welsh, Middle Breton and Middle Cornish. Also did classical Latin and Greek till 18...But this is now 6 years ago - I want to go back. And do more work this time. And learn Hebrew. And Finnish. and Sanskrit. And so on and so on. I want, I want. Hey ho.
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Oooooh, one more language lover there! Isn't it a pitty we cannot learn to speak ALL languages?!Unfortunately I don't know anything about those old languages you studied because I never studied languages at University (and I didn't learn Latin and Greek at school either, just "modern" languages), but it sounds very interesting!!!Satu
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Yay! Language lovers! I'm more in'rested in living languages, but if you know tidbits of Latin etc., it makes it easier.Y :) Shalom, Goodbye, Adios, Adieu, *wave*(American Sign Language!), and I haven't started Japanese yet.
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Me too! Living languages are the most interesting thing! But I wish I had a little Old-Languages-Background, too!Good-bye
Dag
Tschüß
Hej då
Farvel
Näkemiin
Adios
Adieu
Auf Wiedersehen
Ciao
På gjensyn
Bless
Poka........Satu
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