Björn from Reykjavík, Iceland, has moved around in the Nordic countries quite a bit in his life. As a result, he speaks several languages fluently and is used to constantly switching back and forth between them. In contrast, his native language Icelandic managed to stay and evolve mainly in one place and without much contact to other languages for hundreds of years. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be a Scandinavian polyglot, endless days and nights, ingenious Icelandic genealogy, the first people on Iceland, very old texts, and the correct pronounciation of a certain vulcano.
Show notes
Iceland
History of Icelandic
- History of Icelandic
- Old Norse
- Rasmus Christian Rask
- Sagas of Icelanders
- Edda
- First Grammatical Treatise
- Kolbeinn Tumason (the article contains also the lyrics of Heyr, himna smiður)
Orthography
- Icelandic orthography
- Old English
- Characters thorn (Þ, þ), eth (Ð, ð) and ash (Æ, æ)
Pronounciation
- Icelandic phonology
- Gemination
- Pre-aspiration
- Pre-stopped consonant
- Eyjafjallajökull
- Eyjafjallajökull – You’re doing it wrong!
- Language Log: A little Icelandic phonetics