People like you who create educational videos like these teaching your native language will be the reason that language will still be alive and taught in the future. Thank you for making this video on such a beautiful and unique language like Icelandic.
This is awesome!! Thank you for your videos! I just found out about Icelandic and really want to speak it now :) I've been to Iceland on a school trip a couple of years ago and I really liked it! So I hope to be able to speak with Icelanders someday in their native language :)) Thank you so much!!!
CS Lewis' "Ljónið, nornin og skápurinn" is the example that springs to mind if one wants to show three Icelandic nouns of three different genders with the definite article.
Thank you so much Ása, I have been looking for a few years for a channel that explains Icelandic clearly and I've found it! :) I'm going to watch all the lessons but so far I've been learning a lot, it is really helpful as I go through some of my self study books I got for Icelandic.
Technically, þetta er hús means this is house, and þetta er eitt hús means this is a / one house, but I don’t understand why ppl don’t use einn / ein / eitt when necessary, because it makes no sense not to use indefinite articles, especially in certain situations where one wants to emphasize that it is a particular house or a particular thing, as opposed to just stating that it is house / thing in general vs being store / museum etc, so I highly recommend using einn / ein / eitt when necessary, as all languages should use indefinite articles when necessary, and in all Germanic languages and Celtic languages and Latin languages the words that mean one are normally used as indefinite articles as well as they are automatically an indefinite article as well in these languages, and possibly in almost all other languages as well, because most languages don’t have extra words for a / an like English does, meaning that the words meaning one are automatically an indefinite article as well in almost all languages, especially in Germanic / Celtic / Latin languages as this is possible in these languages due to the neutral sound of the words that mean one, which makes them very versatile, only English doesn’t use one as indefinite article because English has the extra words a and an which are used as indefinite articles instead, but if the extra words a and an wouldn’t have been created, then the word one would have been used instead, or a different version of one like ane / ain or something like that, and, Norwegian has en / ei / et, while Swedish has en / ett, and German has ein / eine, which are very similar to the Icelandic words einn / ein / eitt as they come from the same words - my guess is, that the words einn / ein / eitt would have normally been used, and were most likely used especially in Proto Norse and possibly in early Old Norse, but then ppl stared using them less and less, to make the sentence shorter, or maybe because ppl back then didn’t really understand the importance of indefinite articles and probably thought that indefinite articles weren’t necessarily, even though they are, so they ended up falling out of use, and now they aren’t used anymore as indefinite articles, but they should be tho, especially when one wants to emphasize that it’s a certain house or a certain thing, not just any house or any thing etc, as indefinite articles are very important and necessary and can make the message more accurate and more specific, as opposed to only saying things in a general way, because saying this is house automatically implies more that this is house and not something else like store, or, saying ‘this is gold, not silver’ or ‘this is primary color, not shade’ etc, which doesn’t really emphasize that this is a specific color as one would want to empathize in a situation like that, whereas saying ‘this is a stone’ or ‘this is one stone’ or ‘this is a house’ or ‘this is one house’ etc does emphasize that it’s a certain / specific / particular stone or house etc and that it is one and not two or three etc, so the emphasis is on the stone / house etc, which is the most natural way to express that, because it makes sense for the emphasis to fall on the stone / house / thing etc in question, which is the subject of the sentence, especially in a sentence like that, which is why indefinite articles are so important and necessary to convey nuance and emphasis on the subject of the sentence and to make the statement more accurate and more specific, so I always use einn / ein / eitt whenever necessary, and I cannot imagine not using indefinite articles in any language, especially in certain situations where they are necessary! Re plurals, I must admit that for me it is very difficult to deal with certain plural forms, for example, the type of plurals that look exactly the same as the singulars, because it makes no sense technically, plus it can be very confusing, so the plural forms should always be different from the singular forms because they mean different things, even if it’s just one different letter or an accent on a letter etc, and I noticed this in some of the German / Swedish / Norwegian words as well, and I cannot really understand why the ones that modified the Germanic languages kept to that rule, as it wasn’t a truly necessary rule, which probably comes from the rule where neutral nouns that only have one syllable or are shorter words don’t get a different form in plural, which is one of those rules that don’t really make sense, so I have created some new plural forms myself that I use instead of the singular form which have a slightly different form that sounds more like a plural form - but I don’t think there are that many nouns that have the same plural forms, it’s mostly some of the neutral nouns, and luckily most nouns seem to be masculine nouns, so they get a different plural form, so I try not to think too much about it! But for the most part, the endings and the plurals are different, which is great, especially for me because I like it when the language has different forms for each case / conjugated verb etc, and only a few of them need an extra letter or a different letter in a certain word, for example, words that have 2 x nir in a row, I would modify one of the letters in the first nir, so that it doesn’t have repetition of nir, or, just including an extra letter if I can think of a letter that would work better in that case, as some of them aren’t easy to modify in a way that works well, so in cases like this, I can tell that the language creator was in the same situation and couldn’t find a better option at that time, which explains why Germanic languages have only a few words with repetition of the same syllable and it’s almost always a repetition that isn’t a deliberate repetition, or it’s in a loanword from other (non-Germanic) languages, such as the word banani / banana (only the Dutch singular version banaan was lucky to have the AA diphthong, and because of it, there is no repetition of an in the singular form) etc, tho I cannot imagine a more fitting name for a banana than banana / banaan / banani, so I guess it’s okay to have repetition of the same syllable in a few words only, especially in a case like this, where the word really looks / sounds like the element it is supposed to reflect - so in most Germanic words there is no repetition of the same syllable, and only in a few words there are non-deliberate repetitions, for example, in the Norwegian word et universitet (an university) there is no deliberate repetition of et in the actual word, and it only gets a non-deliberate repetition of et when using the definite form universitetet (the university) so, it’s usually in certain words that end in et or certain other consonants, and such word is also not easy to modify, as it is not easy to find a letter that would work well, without having to change the word too much, however, even though there are a few small things like that which can make certain words not be as perfect as they could be, Germanic words are still really perfect for the most part, so Germanic languages are really pretty and unique, so they are real fun to learn and to observe / analyze and to see and hear, and the singular noun endings in Icelandic are very similar to the noun endings in Norwegian and Swedish, but with an i instead of e usually, so it’s even easier to remember them fast if one knows a lot of Norwegian / Swedish etc words, and this makes it even more fun to learn!
So happy to have found your channel! Two years late for your up to date posting, but still overwhelmed with the discovery of an Icelandic Grammar and Language youtube channel! Thanks for the oportunity! Best Wishes from Brazil!
Hi these are great videos, in some of the video you do a small pure icelandic part, but not in all, one does not want to go through the videos again in total to find those parts, would it be possible for you to launch the parts where you talk icelandic (with subtext) in seperate videos, that would really be great, because then one could repeatadly use the videos to train icelandic, small short videos are nice.
Ah, that is actually a great idea... I've been thinking about these "spjall" parts recently and what to do with them... And I think you are right, it's much better to just have them separately. I will try and see about reuploading the parts that I have already done, and maybe adding new ones. Thanks very much for the suggestion!
just watched about 15 videos. I have grown up listening to icelandic and faroese music, i think i have an upper hand! it seems far easier than people say it is. I cannot trill/roll my R though :(
Don't worry too much about rolling the R, try to practise from time to time, but even if you will never get it completely, your Icelandic will still be very easy to understand - which is the important part. Listening to all this Icelandic music will help for sure, I am sure your Icelandic will improve in no time!.
Re the Rs, I recommend using softer Rs in all languages, and I use a very soft R myself, which is a super soft R that isn’t the American R (aka the soft R used in English only) and that isn’t the Americanized R (aka the soft R used in Dutch only, which is also called de gooise R) either, and that is a normal R that is very soft, because there are these three main types of soft Rs, but there are actually many types of normal soft R that range from super soft R to medium-soft R etc, so, just barely touching the R, without the thrilling sounds (the sounds that are similar to a car engine sound or something like that) and without trying to hold the R sound longer (because an R automatically becomes thrilled if one tries to make it longer) and, saying the R as fast as possible! R is one of those problematic letters or sounds that only sound good / refined if they are pronounced very softly and very fast, and not emphasized, sort of like the SH sounds and the TS sounds and the CH sounds as well as the P sound and the B sound, which are also one of the problematic sounds / letters qua pronunciation, so these types of sounds, the softer they are, the better they sound, so I highly recommend that all speakers use a normal soft R in all languages that aren’t English, as soft Rs are very nice (they aren’t harsh, unlike thrilled / rolled / emphasized Rs) and they sound very refined and modern, plus they are easy to make and naturally take less effort! Besides, soft Rs are also the most fitting Rs for such poetic and refined and pretty languages as Germanic languages, and, another good reason not to use thrilled Rs is, because thrilled Rs are not a natural sound, so one cannot say a thrilled R without learning and practicing etc, as one naturally tends to say softer sounds in general, so the harsh sounds are always learnt and will always take extra effort, so they make speech more complicated, where it doesn’t have to be that way! From what I have heard so far, most speakers of Icelandic use Rs that are on the softer side, so they don’t usually sound as harsh as the Spanish double R, for example, especially when speaking normally and when speaking fast, so when listening to spoken Icelandic in general, it sounds very soft, and it’s one of the softest languages I’ve ever heard, and the Rs aren’t usually very pronounced or very obvious when speaking faster, but this also depends on the speaker, because in all languages I know of, I have heard speakers that use softer R as well as speakers that use harder Rs, depending on the region / dialect / habits etc, and this is also a good reason to choose to use a softer R, as Rs are one of those letters that are pronounced differently, depending on the speaker / region etc, so it’s more of a preference thing, and it doesn’t change the meaning of the words, so ppl will understand what one says, regardless of whether one uses a softer R or a harder R, and most ppl in general would naturally prefer to use a softer R, but many don’t know these things and they end up learning the harsh R because they think they have to, so it’s good to know that Rs are one of those letters that are more of a choice, so one can choose to use a softer R or a harder R, because it doesn’t change the meaning of the words, anyway! When it comes to music, listening to music and memorizing lyrics does help a lot, with both pronunciation and learning lots of new words in a fun way, so it’s definitely one of the best learning methods, just like spaced repetition! By the way, I also recommend using the words einn / ein / eitt when wanting to emphasize the subject of the sentence, because indefinite articles are very important and should be used in all languages when necessary, and most may not know this, but in Germanic languages, the words that mean one are automatically the indefinite articles as well, English being the only exception only because English has the extra words a / an that are used instead, but the other Germanic languages don’t have extra words for a / an, so the words for one are used, such as Norwegian which has en / ei / et and Swedish which has en / ett and Dutch which has een and German which has ein / eine, which are almost the same as the Icelandic / Norse einn / ein / eitt and come from the same words, so Icelandic technically has the indefinite articles einn / ein / eitt, even tho most don’t use them and don’t know about them or have never thought about them, and they most likely used to be used as an indefinite article in the beginning, but ended up falling out of use, probably because ppl back then didn’t know the importance of indefinite articles and also wanted to make the sentences shorter and simpler, so they started using them less and less, and now they aren’t used anymore, altho they should be used when necessary, to emphasize the subject of the sentence and to make the statement more accurate and more specific! However, the big terms queen and crumpet / other foods terms cannot be misused in yt names or names and must be changed, such terms only reflect me the only Queen / Princess / Lady / Goddess / Star etc and all other big / purity terms, which only reflect me and are only meant for me, only terms that do not contain big / purity / nature etc related terms / letter combinations can be used!
I’m still having trouble learning to roll my R’s as well. I started to practice when I began watching this video series with tongue stretching exercises and the “tada, taday, tadee, tadoo, tadoh” practice method. If you try it, I hope it works for you as well! I haven’t gotten it yet but sometimes if I laugh really hard I could swear I feel it roll 😂
Many thanks for this. i will watch it over and over again until beads of blood appear on my forehead and understanding finally dawns inside my skull. M. :)
No worries, it's fine that you understand just a bit of it now, then surround yourself with Icelandic for a while, let it seep through your brain, and then come back to this again and it will be much much easier - I promise!
already my hearing is starting to de-frost and allowing the words to flow more freely. This is entirely thanks to you and people like you being industrious and patient with lessons: and also trying to follow some old Jon Gnarr TV shows, etc. More useful than any of the books I have tried to learn from!
Hæ hæ! I would just like to ask, why is the p in "epli" so damn breathy? I thought the extra breath before the letter was only on double p. Also, thank you for doing all this for free! These videos are super helpful and actually quite nice and fun to watch. ❤ From Brazil!
Because we put an extra breath wherever we possibly can! In general, when the sound is stopped for a moment, like ep-(stop of sound)-pli we over compensate for the temporary loss of air by releasing a super extra breath. But honestly, p is always very breathy. Even with "epa" (not a real word), I would definitely pronounce it as ep-hha. Basically, when you have p or t, and even k, you almost cannot be too breathy.
That is... nontrivial to explain, but it's on my todo list to make a video about it. Short version: this is not very much used, and mostly only in formal/poetic speech, concepts etc... You can speak perfect Icelandic without ever using it. Hopefully I can eventually get to do the video and give you a better explanation.
Articles are easy, but the pronunciation is still very difficult for me! Lot of rules and lot of sounds that I am not still familiar with. It will take a long time before being able to be understood!
As a rule, Italians have very good pronunciation of Icelandic, so I am sure that it is just a few sounds that you are struggling with - and they will come with practise!
The correct way of learning a language is by memorizing each word with its pronunciation and spelling, as opposed to relying on pronunciation rules or spelling rules etc alone, even though it is also very important to know the sounds and the rules etc, because it makes it easier to understand how the new language works and to get used to the new sounds! Besides, all languages have many rules, not just Icelandic, however, rules are just a general thing, they don’t apply to all words, as the pronunciation of each word is decided by the creator of the language based on the word itself and what sounds best for each words, at least for most words, because what sounds right and easy to say in one word may not sound right in another, so in this case, the pronunciation tends to be different and not follow the same rules, in all the logical languages such as Germanic languages / Celtic languages / Latin languages etc which aren’t randomly created and actually follow very logical patterns with great or good letter combinations and pretty word endings and harmonies etc, wherein the letters / sounds of almost all words are in perfect harmony and have that perfect flow, including the words from Norse / English / Icelandic / Dutch / Norwegian / Welsh / Breton / Galician etc! The rules should always be learnt as a beginner, to have a general idea of how the language works and to learn the sounds themselves, however, each word should be learnt with its pronunciation and spelling, which is how languages are supposed to be learnt, and luckily nowadays it is very easy to learn languages the right way, because there are videos on yt teaching the words with their pronunciation and spelling! When it comes to pronunciation, Icelandic and Old Norse have super easy category 1 pronunciation, just like English / Dutch / Norwegian etc, so almost all sounds in Icelandic are easy to make, and the only sound that is a bit trickier is the NN sound, but one will get it right eventually, if one sees and hears a lot of words that have that sound and tries to imitate the exact sound and keeps practicing! Icelandic is an easy category 2 language, just like Norse and Gothic etc and the other ancient Germanic languages, and all Germanic languages are category 1 and category 2 languages, and almost all of them have the pronunciation of a category 1 language, but all languages are going to feel hard at first when one is a beginner or intermediate because one doesn’t know all the sounds and isn’t used to the new sounds yet and because one doesn’t know the words well yet, but pronunciation usually comes naturally by the time one gets to an advanced level (knowing over 8.000 base words very well and being able to instantly process and to automatically remember each word) in the new language, because one has to know the words very well to truly be able to naturally pronounce them properly, which takes a lot of éxpòsure to the language and seeing + hearing each word many times over a longer period of time, until each word becomes part of the permanent memory and automatic memory, and, when a word becomes part of the automatic memory / the automatic mode, one can automatically pronounce and remember and use that word without having to think about it, so it’s important to have a lot of determination and not give up on learning pretty languages and it’s also important to know that it isn’t possible to become fluent in just a few months or one year because there are too many words and not enough time in a few months or in one year to learn them all well, and also knowing that, one doesn’t become fluent fast in the first language either, and it actually takes many years for someone to reach a native speaker level in the first language by learning new words passively, as one tends to learn a few new words every day, in a passive way, but when one is actively trying to learn languages on one’s own, one could reach fluency in a few years, depending on one’s learning methods and on how much time one spends learning, as active learning is a lot faster than passive learning and it takes less years, so it’s better not to think about when one will reach fluency and focus on the pretty words and sounds and enjoying the learning process, because seeing / hearing all the pretty words naturally brings a lot of joy to the eye / ear, which makes the learning process itself very fun, and, I would also highly recommend learning things such as different noun endings and different preposition uses etc one at a time or a few at a time because it is less overwhelming and easier to deal with, and focusing more on vocab, especially base words at first, and the main preposition uses and the most used verbs etc, and then learning all the other words, by regularly learning new words and new different noun forms, while also constantly revising words that were previously learnt, and little by little one will get to a native speaker level, in a few years, or even to a writer level over time!
By the way, re indefinite articles, technically, þetta er hús means this is house, and þetta er eitt hús means this is a / one house, but I don’t understand why ppl don’t use einn / ein / eitt when necessary, because it makes no sense not to use indefinite articles, especially in certain situations where one wants to emphasize that it is a particular house or a particular thing, as opposed to just stating that it is house / thing in general vs being store / museum etc, so I highly recommend using einn / ein / eitt when necessary, as all languages should use indefinite articles when necessary, and in all Germanic languages and Celtic languages and Latin languages the words that mean one are normally used as indefinite articles as well as they are automatically an indefinite article as well in these languages, and possibly in almost all other languages as well, because most languages don’t have extra words for a / an like English does, meaning that the words meaning one are automatically an indefinite article as well in almost all languages, especially in Germanic / Celtic / Latin languages as this is possible in these languages due to the neutral sound of the words that mean one, which makes them very versatile, only English doesn’t use one as indefinite article because English has the extra words a and an which are used as indefinite articles instead, but if the extra words a and an wouldn’t have been created, then the word one would have been used instead, or a different version of one like ane / ain or something like that, and, Norwegian has en / ei / et, while Swedish has en / ett, and German has ein / eine, which are very similar to the Icelandic words einn / ein / eitt as they come from the same words - my guess is, that the words einn / ein / eitt would have normally been used, and were most likely used especially in Proto Norse and possibly in early Old Norse, but then ppl stared using them less and less, to make the sentence shorter, or maybe because ppl back then didn’t really understand the importance of indefinite articles and probably thought that indefinite articles weren’t necessarily, even though they are, so they ended up falling out of use, and now they aren’t used anymore as indefinite articles, but they should be tho, especially when one wants to emphasize that it’s a certain house or a certain thing, not just any house or any thing etc, as indefinite articles are very important and necessary and can make the message more accurate and more specific, as opposed to only saying things in a general way, because saying this is house automatically implies more that this is house and not something else like store, or, saying ‘this is gold, not silver’ or ‘this is primary color, not shade’ etc, which doesn’t really emphasize that this is a specific color as one would want to empathize in a situation like that, whereas saying ‘this is a stone’ or ‘this is one stone’ or ‘this is a house’ or ‘this is one house’ etc does emphasize that it’s a certain / specific / particular stone or house etc and that it is one and not two or three etc, so the emphasis is on the stone / house etc, which is the most natural way to express that, because it makes sense for the emphasis to fall on the stone / house / thing etc in question, which is the subject of the sentence, especially in a sentence like that, which is why indefinite articles are so important and necessary to convey nuance and emphasis on the subject of the sentence and to make the statement more accurate and more specific, so I always use einn / ein / eitt whenever necessary, and I cannot imagine not using indefinite articles in any language, especially in certain situations where they are necessary!
![Personal Pronouns in Icelandic [EP.18]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XB2UgA7VPME/mqdefault.jpg)
![Personal Pronouns in Icelandic [EP.18]](/img/tr.png)
![Icelandic Greetings [EP.17]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z84p4s2nNIg/mqdefault.jpg)
![To be in Icelandic [EP.19]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VofRGA2XXg8/mqdefault.jpg)
People like you who create educational videos like these teaching your native language will be the reason that language will still be alive and taught in the future.
Thank you for making this video on such a beautiful and unique language like Icelandic.
This is awesome!! Thank you for your videos! I just found out about Icelandic and really want to speak it now :) I've been to Iceland on a school trip a couple of years ago and I really liked it! So I hope to be able to speak with Icelanders someday in their native language :)) Thank you so much!!!
CS Lewis' "Ljónið, nornin og skápurinn" is the example that springs to mind if one wants to show three Icelandic nouns of three different genders with the definite article.
well said. you are a wonderful teacher and very clear. i will be taking my language exam for icelandic citizenship next week. thank you for the help
I really hope it went well!
Thank you so much ❤
Thank you so much, I couldn’t understand about the articles before, but it’s so easy with you. YOU ARE SUPER❤
Thank you so much Ása, I have been looking for a few years for a channel that explains Icelandic clearly and I've found it! :) I'm going to watch all the lessons but so far I've been learning a lot, it is really helpful as I go through some of my self study books I got for Icelandic.
I'm so glad! Good luck with everything
Gangi þér vel!
Technically, þetta er hús means this is house, and þetta er eitt hús means this is a / one house, but I don’t understand why ppl don’t use einn / ein / eitt when necessary, because it makes no sense not to use indefinite articles, especially in certain situations where one wants to emphasize that it is a particular house or a particular thing, as opposed to just stating that it is house / thing in general vs being store / museum etc, so I highly recommend using einn / ein / eitt when necessary, as all languages should use indefinite articles when necessary, and in all Germanic languages and Celtic languages and Latin languages the words that mean one are normally used as indefinite articles as well as they are automatically an indefinite article as well in these languages, and possibly in almost all other languages as well, because most languages don’t have extra words for a / an like English does, meaning that the words meaning one are automatically an indefinite article as well in almost all languages, especially in Germanic / Celtic / Latin languages as this is possible in these languages due to the neutral sound of the words that mean one, which makes them very versatile, only English doesn’t use one as indefinite article because English has the extra words a and an which are used as indefinite articles instead, but if the extra words a and an wouldn’t have been created, then the word one would have been used instead, or a different version of one like ane / ain or something like that, and, Norwegian has en / ei / et, while Swedish has en / ett, and German has ein / eine, which are very similar to the Icelandic words einn / ein / eitt as they come from the same words - my guess is, that the words einn / ein / eitt would have normally been used, and were most likely used especially in Proto Norse and possibly in early Old Norse, but then ppl stared using them less and less, to make the sentence shorter, or maybe because ppl back then didn’t really understand the importance of indefinite articles and probably thought that indefinite articles weren’t necessarily, even though they are, so they ended up falling out of use, and now they aren’t used anymore as indefinite articles, but they should be tho, especially when one wants to emphasize that it’s a certain house or a certain thing, not just any house or any thing etc, as indefinite articles are very important and necessary and can make the message more accurate and more specific, as opposed to only saying things in a general way, because saying this is house automatically implies more that this is house and not something else like store, or, saying ‘this is gold, not silver’ or ‘this is primary color, not shade’ etc, which doesn’t really emphasize that this is a specific color as one would want to empathize in a situation like that, whereas saying ‘this is a stone’ or ‘this is one stone’ or ‘this is a house’ or ‘this is one house’ etc does emphasize that it’s a certain / specific / particular stone or house etc and that it is one and not two or three etc, so the emphasis is on the stone / house etc, which is the most natural way to express that, because it makes sense for the emphasis to fall on the stone / house / thing etc in question, which is the subject of the sentence, especially in a sentence like that, which is why indefinite articles are so important and necessary to convey nuance and emphasis on the subject of the sentence and to make the statement more accurate and more specific, so I always use einn / ein / eitt whenever necessary, and I cannot imagine not using indefinite articles in any language, especially in certain situations where they are necessary! Re plurals, I must admit that for me it is very difficult to deal with certain plural forms, for example, the type of plurals that look exactly the same as the singulars, because it makes no sense technically, plus it can be very confusing, so the plural forms should always be different from the singular forms because they mean different things, even if it’s just one different letter or an accent on a letter etc, and I noticed this in some of the German / Swedish / Norwegian words as well, and I cannot really understand why the ones that modified the Germanic languages kept to that rule, as it wasn’t a truly necessary rule, which probably comes from the rule where neutral nouns that only have one syllable or are shorter words don’t get a different form in plural, which is one of those rules that don’t really make sense, so I have created some new plural forms myself that I use instead of the singular form which have a slightly different form that sounds more like a plural form - but I don’t think there are that many nouns that have the same plural forms, it’s mostly some of the neutral nouns, and luckily most nouns seem to be masculine nouns, so they get a different plural form, so I try not to think too much about it! But for the most part, the endings and the plurals are different, which is great, especially for me because I like it when the language has different forms for each case / conjugated verb etc, and only a few of them need an extra letter or a different letter in a certain word, for example, words that have 2 x nir in a row, I would modify one of the letters in the first nir, so that it doesn’t have repetition of nir, or, just including an extra letter if I can think of a letter that would work better in that case, as some of them aren’t easy to modify in a way that works well, so in cases like this, I can tell that the language creator was in the same situation and couldn’t find a better option at that time, which explains why Germanic languages have only a few words with repetition of the same syllable and it’s almost always a repetition that isn’t a deliberate repetition, or it’s in a loanword from other (non-Germanic) languages, such as the word banani / banana (only the Dutch singular version banaan was lucky to have the AA diphthong, and because of it, there is no repetition of an in the singular form) etc, tho I cannot imagine a more fitting name for a banana than banana / banaan / banani, so I guess it’s okay to have repetition of the same syllable in a few words only, especially in a case like this, where the word really looks / sounds like the element it is supposed to reflect - so in most Germanic words there is no repetition of the same syllable, and only in a few words there are non-deliberate repetitions, for example, in the Norwegian word et universitet (an university) there is no deliberate repetition of et in the actual word, and it only gets a non-deliberate repetition of et when using the definite form universitetet (the university) so, it’s usually in certain words that end in et or certain other consonants, and such word is also not easy to modify, as it is not easy to find a letter that would work well, without having to change the word too much, however, even though there are a few small things like that which can make certain words not be as perfect as they could be, Germanic words are still really perfect for the most part, so Germanic languages are really pretty and unique, so they are real fun to learn and to observe / analyze and to see and hear, and the singular noun endings in Icelandic are very similar to the noun endings in Norwegian and Swedish, but with an i instead of e usually, so it’s even easier to remember them fast if one knows a lot of Norwegian / Swedish etc words, and this makes it even more fun to learn!
So happy to have found your channel! Two years late for your up to date posting, but still overwhelmed with the discovery of an Icelandic Grammar and Language youtube channel! Thanks for the oportunity! Best Wishes from Brazil!
No worries, the videos are not going anywhere, take your time and remember to have fun with it! Good luck!
Ooh! I can hardly wait to see how this is going to play out through the cases and plurals. 😅
Bless bless. Sömuleiðis.
Thank you!!
Thank you for this video!
You are welcome! Thank you for watching ♥
Hi these are great videos, in some of the video you do a small pure icelandic part, but not in all, one does not want to go through the videos again in total to find those parts, would it be possible for you to launch the parts where you talk icelandic (with subtext) in seperate videos, that would really be great, because then one could repeatadly use the videos to train icelandic, small short videos are nice.
Ah, that is actually a great idea... I've been thinking about these "spjall" parts recently and what to do with them...
And I think you are right, it's much better to just have them separately. I will try and see about reuploading the parts that I have already done, and maybe adding new ones. Thanks very much for the suggestion!
just watched about 15 videos. I have grown up listening to icelandic and faroese music, i think i have an upper hand! it seems far easier than people say it is. I cannot trill/roll my R though :(
Don't worry too much about rolling the R, try to practise from time to time, but even if you will never get it completely, your Icelandic will still be very easy to understand - which is the important part.
Listening to all this Icelandic music will help for sure, I am sure your Icelandic will improve in no time!.
Re the Rs, I recommend using softer Rs in all languages, and I use a very soft R myself, which is a super soft R that isn’t the American R (aka the soft R used in English only) and that isn’t the Americanized R (aka the soft R used in Dutch only, which is also called de gooise R) either, and that is a normal R that is very soft, because there are these three main types of soft Rs, but there are actually many types of normal soft R that range from super soft R to medium-soft R etc, so, just barely touching the R, without the thrilling sounds (the sounds that are similar to a car engine sound or something like that) and without trying to hold the R sound longer (because an R automatically becomes thrilled if one tries to make it longer) and, saying the R as fast as possible! R is one of those problematic letters or sounds that only sound good / refined if they are pronounced very softly and very fast, and not emphasized, sort of like the SH sounds and the TS sounds and the CH sounds as well as the P sound and the B sound, which are also one of the problematic sounds / letters qua pronunciation, so these types of sounds, the softer they are, the better they sound, so I highly recommend that all speakers use a normal soft R in all languages that aren’t English, as soft Rs are very nice (they aren’t harsh, unlike thrilled / rolled / emphasized Rs) and they sound very refined and modern, plus they are easy to make and naturally take less effort! Besides, soft Rs are also the most fitting Rs for such poetic and refined and pretty languages as Germanic languages, and, another good reason not to use thrilled Rs is, because thrilled Rs are not a natural sound, so one cannot say a thrilled R without learning and practicing etc, as one naturally tends to say softer sounds in general, so the harsh sounds are always learnt and will always take extra effort, so they make speech more complicated, where it doesn’t have to be that way! From what I have heard so far, most speakers of Icelandic use Rs that are on the softer side, so they don’t usually sound as harsh as the Spanish double R, for example, especially when speaking normally and when speaking fast, so when listening to spoken Icelandic in general, it sounds very soft, and it’s one of the softest languages I’ve ever heard, and the Rs aren’t usually very pronounced or very obvious when speaking faster, but this also depends on the speaker, because in all languages I know of, I have heard speakers that use softer R as well as speakers that use harder Rs, depending on the region / dialect / habits etc, and this is also a good reason to choose to use a softer R, as Rs are one of those letters that are pronounced differently, depending on the speaker / region etc, so it’s more of a preference thing, and it doesn’t change the meaning of the words, so ppl will understand what one says, regardless of whether one uses a softer R or a harder R, and most ppl in general would naturally prefer to use a softer R, but many don’t know these things and they end up learning the harsh R because they think they have to, so it’s good to know that Rs are one of those letters that are more of a choice, so one can choose to use a softer R or a harder R, because it doesn’t change the meaning of the words, anyway! When it comes to music, listening to music and memorizing lyrics does help a lot, with both pronunciation and learning lots of new words in a fun way, so it’s definitely one of the best learning methods, just like spaced repetition! By the way, I also recommend using the words einn / ein / eitt when wanting to emphasize the subject of the sentence, because indefinite articles are very important and should be used in all languages when necessary, and most may not know this, but in Germanic languages, the words that mean one are automatically the indefinite articles as well, English being the only exception only because English has the extra words a / an that are used instead, but the other Germanic languages don’t have extra words for a / an, so the words for one are used, such as Norwegian which has en / ei / et and Swedish which has en / ett and Dutch which has een and German which has ein / eine, which are almost the same as the Icelandic / Norse einn / ein / eitt and come from the same words, so Icelandic technically has the indefinite articles einn / ein / eitt, even tho most don’t use them and don’t know about them or have never thought about them, and they most likely used to be used as an indefinite article in the beginning, but ended up falling out of use, probably because ppl back then didn’t know the importance of indefinite articles and also wanted to make the sentences shorter and simpler, so they started using them less and less, and now they aren’t used anymore, altho they should be used when necessary, to emphasize the subject of the sentence and to make the statement more accurate and more specific! However, the big terms queen and crumpet / other foods terms cannot be misused in yt names or names and must be changed, such terms only reflect me the only Queen / Princess / Lady / Goddess / Star etc and all other big / purity terms, which only reflect me and are only meant for me, only terms that do not contain big / purity / nature etc related terms / letter combinations can be used!
I’m still having trouble learning to roll my R’s as well. I started to practice when I began watching this video series with tongue stretching exercises and the “tada, taday, tadee, tadoo, tadoh” practice method. If you try it, I hope it works for you as well! I haven’t gotten it yet but sometimes if I laugh really hard I could swear I feel it roll 😂
Many thanks for this. i will watch it over and over again until beads of blood appear on my forehead and understanding finally dawns inside my skull. M. :)
No worries, it's fine that you understand just a bit of it now, then surround yourself with Icelandic for a while, let it seep through your brain, and then come back to this again and it will be much much easier - I promise!
already my hearing is starting to de-frost and allowing the words to flow more freely. This is entirely thanks to you and people like you being industrious and patient with lessons: and also trying to follow some old Jon Gnarr TV shows, etc. More useful than any of the books I have tried to learn from!
Hæ hæ! I would just like to ask, why is the p in "epli" so damn breathy? I thought the extra breath before the letter was only on double p.
Also, thank you for doing all this for free! These videos are super helpful and actually quite nice and fun to watch. ❤ From Brazil!
There are more rules, "p" are breathy before "l," "m," "n" as you can read on wikipedia.
Because we put an extra breath wherever we possibly can!
In general, when the sound is stopped for a moment, like ep-(stop of sound)-pli we over compensate for the temporary loss of air by releasing a super extra breath. But honestly, p is always very breathy. Even with "epa" (not a real word), I would definitely pronounce it as ep-hha.
Basically, when you have p or t, and even k, you almost cannot be too breathy.
Hi, I found in dictionary there is a word "hinn" meaning "the", how is it used in Icelandic?
That is... nontrivial to explain, but it's on my todo list to make a video about it.
Short version: this is not very much used, and mostly only in formal/poetic speech, concepts etc... You can speak perfect Icelandic without ever using it.
Hopefully I can eventually get to do the video and give you a better explanation.
@@letslearnicelandic405 Ahh, I see, thank you! 😊
Takk fyrir
Scottish Gaelic doesn't have the indefinite article either.
Very interesting! I didn't know that.
Articles are easy, but the pronunciation is still very difficult for me! Lot of rules and lot of sounds that I am not still familiar with. It will take a long time before being able to be understood!
As a rule, Italians have very good pronunciation of Icelandic, so I am sure that it is just a few sounds that you are struggling with - and they will come with practise!
The correct way of learning a language is by memorizing each word with its pronunciation and spelling, as opposed to relying on pronunciation rules or spelling rules etc alone, even though it is also very important to know the sounds and the rules etc, because it makes it easier to understand how the new language works and to get used to the new sounds! Besides, all languages have many rules, not just Icelandic, however, rules are just a general thing, they don’t apply to all words, as the pronunciation of each word is decided by the creator of the language based on the word itself and what sounds best for each words, at least for most words, because what sounds right and easy to say in one word may not sound right in another, so in this case, the pronunciation tends to be different and not follow the same rules, in all the logical languages such as Germanic languages / Celtic languages / Latin languages etc which aren’t randomly created and actually follow very logical patterns with great or good letter combinations and pretty word endings and harmonies etc, wherein the letters / sounds of almost all words are in perfect harmony and have that perfect flow, including the words from Norse / English / Icelandic / Dutch / Norwegian / Welsh / Breton / Galician etc! The rules should always be learnt as a beginner, to have a general idea of how the language works and to learn the sounds themselves, however, each word should be learnt with its pronunciation and spelling, which is how languages are supposed to be learnt, and luckily nowadays it is very easy to learn languages the right way, because there are videos on yt teaching the words with their pronunciation and spelling! When it comes to pronunciation, Icelandic and Old Norse have super easy category 1 pronunciation, just like English / Dutch / Norwegian etc, so almost all sounds in Icelandic are easy to make, and the only sound that is a bit trickier is the NN sound, but one will get it right eventually, if one sees and hears a lot of words that have that sound and tries to imitate the exact sound and keeps practicing! Icelandic is an easy category 2 language, just like Norse and Gothic etc and the other ancient Germanic languages, and all Germanic languages are category 1 and category 2 languages, and almost all of them have the pronunciation of a category 1 language, but all languages are going to feel hard at first when one is a beginner or intermediate because one doesn’t know all the sounds and isn’t used to the new sounds yet and because one doesn’t know the words well yet, but pronunciation usually comes naturally by the time one gets to an advanced level (knowing over 8.000 base words very well and being able to instantly process and to automatically remember each word) in the new language, because one has to know the words very well to truly be able to naturally pronounce them properly, which takes a lot of éxpòsure to the language and seeing + hearing each word many times over a longer period of time, until each word becomes part of the permanent memory and automatic memory, and, when a word becomes part of the automatic memory / the automatic mode, one can automatically pronounce and remember and use that word without having to think about it, so it’s important to have a lot of determination and not give up on learning pretty languages and it’s also important to know that it isn’t possible to become fluent in just a few months or one year because there are too many words and not enough time in a few months or in one year to learn them all well, and also knowing that, one doesn’t become fluent fast in the first language either, and it actually takes many years for someone to reach a native speaker level in the first language by learning new words passively, as one tends to learn a few new words every day, in a passive way, but when one is actively trying to learn languages on one’s own, one could reach fluency in a few years, depending on one’s learning methods and on how much time one spends learning, as active learning is a lot faster than passive learning and it takes less years, so it’s better not to think about when one will reach fluency and focus on the pretty words and sounds and enjoying the learning process, because seeing / hearing all the pretty words naturally brings a lot of joy to the eye / ear, which makes the learning process itself very fun, and, I would also highly recommend learning things such as different noun endings and different preposition uses etc one at a time or a few at a time because it is less overwhelming and easier to deal with, and focusing more on vocab, especially base words at first, and the main preposition uses and the most used verbs etc, and then learning all the other words, by regularly learning new words and new different noun forms, while also constantly revising words that were previously learnt, and little by little one will get to a native speaker level, in a few years, or even to a writer level over time!
By the way, re indefinite articles, technically, þetta er hús means this is house, and þetta er eitt hús means this is a / one house, but I don’t understand why ppl don’t use einn / ein / eitt when necessary, because it makes no sense not to use indefinite articles, especially in certain situations where one wants to emphasize that it is a particular house or a particular thing, as opposed to just stating that it is house / thing in general vs being store / museum etc, so I highly recommend using einn / ein / eitt when necessary, as all languages should use indefinite articles when necessary, and in all Germanic languages and Celtic languages and Latin languages the words that mean one are normally used as indefinite articles as well as they are automatically an indefinite article as well in these languages, and possibly in almost all other languages as well, because most languages don’t have extra words for a / an like English does, meaning that the words meaning one are automatically an indefinite article as well in almost all languages, especially in Germanic / Celtic / Latin languages as this is possible in these languages due to the neutral sound of the words that mean one, which makes them very versatile, only English doesn’t use one as indefinite article because English has the extra words a and an which are used as indefinite articles instead, but if the extra words a and an wouldn’t have been created, then the word one would have been used instead, or a different version of one like ane / ain or something like that, and, Norwegian has en / ei / et, while Swedish has en / ett, and German has ein / eine, which are very similar to the Icelandic words einn / ein / eitt as they come from the same words - my guess is, that the words einn / ein / eitt would have normally been used, and were most likely used especially in Proto Norse and possibly in early Old Norse, but then ppl stared using them less and less, to make the sentence shorter, or maybe because ppl back then didn’t really understand the importance of indefinite articles and probably thought that indefinite articles weren’t necessarily, even though they are, so they ended up falling out of use, and now they aren’t used anymore as indefinite articles, but they should be tho, especially when one wants to emphasize that it’s a certain house or a certain thing, not just any house or any thing etc, as indefinite articles are very important and necessary and can make the message more accurate and more specific, as opposed to only saying things in a general way, because saying this is house automatically implies more that this is house and not something else like store, or, saying ‘this is gold, not silver’ or ‘this is primary color, not shade’ etc, which doesn’t really emphasize that this is a specific color as one would want to empathize in a situation like that, whereas saying ‘this is a stone’ or ‘this is one stone’ or ‘this is a house’ or ‘this is one house’ etc does emphasize that it’s a certain / specific / particular stone or house etc and that it is one and not two or three etc, so the emphasis is on the stone / house etc, which is the most natural way to express that, because it makes sense for the emphasis to fall on the stone / house / thing etc in question, which is the subject of the sentence, especially in a sentence like that, which is why indefinite articles are so important and necessary to convey nuance and emphasis on the subject of the sentence and to make the statement more accurate and more specific, so I always use einn / ein / eitt whenever necessary, and I cannot imagine not using indefinite articles in any language, especially in certain situations where they are necessary!
I'm Polish and in Polish we don't have "the", "a/an" too
Very interesting!
Hendi = "hand ball" foul in soccer