Icelandic in America

[Alan314159]

Re: Icelandic in America

Ive been studying the language but by no means could I carry on a conversation

Ég er líka að læra, en ég tala ekki mjög góða íslensku. :(
I've been watching some episodes of LT in Icelandic, and so far I've picked up all the useful phrases like "Someone's in trouble!", "This is wonderful weather for flying", and the word for knitting...

I can count up to 10 or tiu i believe. I can say hello good day. nai or no. Im not sure if I even typed it correctly

It's "tíu" and "nei". I have a piece of paper in front of me, whenever I'm at the computer, with all the Alt codes for the Icelandic characters. Very useful, saves learning a new keyboard layout although I do occasionally switch that over to IS. It then takes me about 5 minutes to find where the heck it's moved the "?" to, lol
í is Alt+0237.

There's supposed to be a new Icelandic textbook coming out in the next couple of days, I've ordered it on Amazon so will see if it's as good as the others.

[angelbaby21]

Re: Icelandic in America

þessi var mjög góður örugglega. ÉG dont skilja the orð tala þó. fallegur tungumál örugglega ÉG von til bráðum heimsókn Ísland.

that was very good indeed. I dont understand the word tala though. beautiful language indeed I hope to soon visit Iceland.:) ;)

[Alan314159]

Re: Icelandic in America

þessi var mjög góður örugglega. ÉG dont skilja the orð tala þó. fallegur tungumál örugglega ÉG von til bráðum heimsókn Ísland.

that was very good indeed. I dont understand the word tala though. beautiful language indeed I hope to soon visit Iceland.:) ;)

If you're talking about Iceland but it's not the subject of the sentence, it will be "Íslandi" rather than "Ísland". Also, I think góður shouldn't be masculine in that case, but I could well be mistaken.

"Tungumál" is neutral so to describe it you use "falleg". Falleg is one of my favourite words so far; in the Icelandic dub of "Sportacus Who?", the English line "That's not very nice!" (after Robbie's just called Sportacus 'The Blue Elf') becomes "Það er ekki mjög falleg!". I find the way Magnús says it quite amusing. :)

The verb "að tala" means to talk/speak:
ég tala - I speak
þú talar - you (sing) speak
hann/hún/það talar - he/she/it speaks
við tölum - we speak
þið talið - you (pl) speak
þeir/þær/þau tala - they (m/f/n) speak

To the best of my ability, "I don't understand the word 'tala' " would be translated as "Ég skil ekki orðið 'tala' ", but I could well have made a mistake there somewhere. Probably in the definite article of orð, but I can only ever remember them in the nominative case!

[angelbaby21]

Re: Icelandic in America

So i speak with irrational numbers ye supposed. Tala is masculine and talar is feminine. So I figured that out. These terms are added to the word for gender purposes I beieve. sheesh. You guys are just so damn brilliant how about some more insulting riddles. I mean its only the most complicated language in the world. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration.
P.S. ÉG enn ást þú F$CKERS
BLESS BLESS


;) Guð Blessa Ísland
orð= word orðið-wordith Just a wild guess ;)
ps. if you dont return my words tala I wont be to upset :fap:

[Alan314159]

Re: Icelandic in America

I'm not quite sure what you meant there. "að tala" is a verb and therefore cannot be masculine or feminine. You use "tala" for both first person singular and third person plural (I and they) and "talar" for third (?) person singular (he, she, it).

"Orðið" means "the word" (I think; someone please let me know if that's wrong!). Icelandic doesn't use the definite article in quite the same way as English - instead of saying "the _____", they add a suffix onto the word, which depends on number (singular or plural), grammatical gender and case.

As for the insulting riddles, you've lost me... :?

[angelbaby21]

Re: Icelandic in America

Im sorry Alan I really overeacted [puts foot in mouth] please forgive me ;)

[Sportzilla]

Re: Icelandic in America

I would love to learn Icelandic. It's a beautiful language. If anyone can recommend a book/cd/etc. I'd be grateful.

[boredjedi]

Re: Icelandic in America

Are you kidding you'll be lucky if most Americans learn English :)

[Mr_Gazpacho]

Re: Icelandic in America

The only thing I'd ever recommend in language learning is the Rosetta Stone, and they haven't got a solution for Icelandic yet. :(

[Sportzilla]

Re: Icelandic in America

Are you kidding you'll be lucky if most Americans learn English :)

Haha you're probably right, but I have a dream dang it. To be a polyglot (or at least a cunning linguist).

[Lazycus]

Re: Icelandic in America

Haha you're probably right, but I have a dream dang it. To be a polyglot (or at least a cunnilinguist).

Funny, same thing has been said about Miss Mauriello.

[Alan314159]

Re: Icelandic in America

If anyone can recommend a book/cd/etc. I'd be grateful.

I have, amongst others, Teach Yourself Icelandic and Colloquial Icelandic, which I find quite useful and easy to read. They're aimed at the beginner level and both are available with accompanying CDs.

Dictionary-wise, I have the pocket one by Arnold Taylor, as anything bigger costs a bomb. It's not exhaustive, obviously, but it has most things.

I also have Learning Icelandic (I've only recently bought it so haven't really had a chance to use it yet, don't know how good it is). Again it comes with a CD, and the book itself has lots of fill-in-the-blanks bits between dialogue and other text. It has a glossary and a grammar section, although I've only thumbed through it so I can't really give a critique.

At the same time, I bought Icelandic: Grammar, texts and glossary by Stefán Einarsson. Read a few bits of that, it seems easy enough to follow but it's quite an old book (mine's a relatively new edition but I don't think the content's been updated since it was originally published in the forties). As such, it's got all the old Icelandic spellings from before they did their reform of the language (z -> s for example).
Additionally, my copy smells vaguely of Marmite, but I suspect that might be more to do with the habits of the previous owner than an attribute of the book itself.

I have the books to hand, if you want to know anything more detailed about any of them.

[xjocundxlilacx]

Re: Icelandic in America

I'd learn more of the language, but there are no phrasebooks ANYWHERE in my town. I've picked up a bit from the Wikibooks Icelandic book, as well as Latibaer, but all i really know is takk fyrir.

I DO wanna learn Icelandic though I actually want to LIVE in Iceland someday

[LazyTownWW]

Re: Icelandic in America

I DO wanna learn Icelandic though I actually want to LIVE in Iceland someday

Finally, someone with common sense...Iceland rocks! I forgot:
WELCOME!

[Alan314159]

Re: Icelandic in America

I'd learn more of the language, but there are no phrasebooks ANYWHERE in my town. I've picked up a bit from the Wikibooks Icelandic book, as well as Latibaer, but all i really know is takk fyrir.

Do you have any films on DVD that contain Icelandic subtitles? Quite a few do, as I should imagine that virtually no English-language film ever gets a separate release in Iceland. Combined with a dictionary it's not a bad resource to use.
It won't be that much use in teaching you grammar, of course, but it's useful for picking up the odd phrase or two.

For example, my copy of Die Hard has Icelandic subtitles. This might be a bad example though - most of Bruce Willis' dialogue would probably get me punched in the face if I used it in conversation with an Icelander...