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Icelandic language - Sounds

Icelandic language - Sounds: Encyclopedia II - Icelandic language - Sounds

Icelandic has an aspiration contrast between plosives, rather than a voicing contrast, something relatively rare among European languages. Preaspirated voiceless stops are also common. However fricative and sonorant consonant phonemes exhibit regular contrasts in voice, including in nasals (rare in the world's languages). Additionally, length is contrastive for many phonemes; voiceless sonorant consonants seem to be the only exception. The chart below is based on Scholten (2000, p. 22); refer to the IPA article for information on the sounds of the following symbols: See also:

Icelandic language, Icelandic language - Sounds, Icelandic language - Consonants, Icelandic language - Vowels, Icelandic language - Morphology, Icelandic language - Syntax, Icelandic language - Icelandic sign language

Icelandic language, Icelandic language - Consonants, Icelandic language - Icelandic sign language, Icelandic language - Morphology, Icelandic language - Sounds, Icelandic language - Syntax, Icelandic language - Vowels, Icelandic alphabet, High Icelandic

Icelandic language: Encyclopedia II - Icelandic language - Sounds

Icelandic language - Sounds

Icelandic language - Consonants

The voiced fricatives [v], [ð], [j] and [ɣ] are not completely constrictive and are often closer to approximants than fricatives.

The status of [c] and [cʰ] as phonemes or as allophones of /k/ and /kʰ/ is the topic of some debate. On the one hand, the presence of minimal pairs like gjóla [couːla] "light wind" vs. góla [kouːla] "howl" and kjóla [cʰouːla] "dresses" vs. kóla [kʰouːla] "cola" suggests that the palatal stops are separate phonemes. On the other hand, only the palatal stops, not the velars, may appear before front vowels, and some linguists (e.g. Rögnvaldsson 1993) have held out for an underlying phonemic representation of [couːla] and [cʰouːla] as /kjoula/ and /kʰjoula/ respectively, with a phonological process merging /k(ʰ)j/ into [c(ʰ)]. Whether this approach, which is consistent with the orthography and historical processes, represents a synchronic reality is disputed.

The dental fricatives [θ] and [ð] are allophones of a single phoneme. [θ] is used word-initially, as in þak [θaːk] "roof", and before a voiceless consonant, as in maðkur [maθkʏr] "worm". [ð] is used intervocalically, as in iða [ɪːða] "vortex" and word-finally, as in bað [paːð] "bath", although it can be devoiced to [θ] before pause.

Of the voiceless nasals, only [n̥] occurs in word-initial position, for example in hné [n̥jɛː] "knee". Recently, there has been an increasing tendency, especially among children, to pronounce this as voiced, for example pronouncing hnífur [nivʏr] "knife" rather than standard [n̥ivʏr]. The palatal nasal appears before palatal stops and the velar nasals before velar stops. [ŋ] appears also before [l] and [s] through the deletion of [k] in the consonant clusters [ŋkl] and [ŋks].

The preaspirates [hp ht hc hk] (e.g. löpp [lœhp] "foot") do not occur in initial position. The geminates [pp tt cc kk] are not necessarily longer than simple [p t c k] but do cause shortening of a preceding vowel. Still, they may be pronounced long in certain styles of speech, such as when talking to children.

Icelandic language - Vowels

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel.

Vowel length is predictable in Icelandic (Orešnik and Pétursson 1977). Stressed vowels (both monophthongs and diphthongs) are long:

In one-syllable words where the vowel is word-final:
- fá [fauː] "get"
- nei [neiː] "no"
- þú [θuː] "you"
Before a single consonant:
- fara [ˈfaːra] "go"
- hás [hauːs] "hoarse"
- vekja [ˈvɛːca] "wake up"
- ég [jɛːɣ] "I"
- spyr [spɪːr] "ask (1 person, singular)"
Before any of the consonant clusters [pr tr kr sr], [pj tj sj], or [tv kv]:
- lipra [ˈlɪːpra] "agile (accusative, feminine)"
- sætra [ˈsaiːtra] "sweet (genitive, plural)"
- akra [ˈaːkra] "fields (accusative, plural)"
- hásra [ˈhauːsra] "hoarse (genitive, plural)"
- vepja [ˈvɛːpja] "lapwing"
- letja [ˈlɛːtja] "dissuade"
- Esja [ˈɛːsja] proper noun, a mountain
- götva [ˈkœːtva] as in uppgötva "discover"
- vökva [ˈvœːkva] "water (verb)"

Before other consonant clusters (including the preaspirated stops [hp ht hk] and geminate consonants), stressed vowels are short. Unstressed vowels are always short.