Parliamentary Elections in Iceland – who won? Posted by hulda on Apr 30, 2013
Icelanders fighting both on- and offline, faces of the politicians staring at you from all directions, our mayor Jón Gnarr dressed up as a Jedi knight – the Parliamentary Elections of Iceland just happened. By now you all know the end result as well: the right wing won, the same party that caused the economy…
Getting understood in Iceland: pre-aspiration. Posted by hulda on Apr 23, 2013
One way of describing spoken Icelandic is that Icelanders breathe it out. Take this literally: there are many “hidden” extra h-sounds in the language that aren’t written down but nevertheless are there, which give Icelandic its trademark whisper-like sound that’s unlike all the other Nordic languages. I already wrote about some of them in the…
The wisdom of the vikings – Hávamál Posted by hulda on Apr 16, 2013
What was life like in the Medieval times? How did people view the world they lived in, how did they value it and what were their moral codes? When it comes to Iceland we know much more than for most of the now known world because so many Icelandic texts have survived all through the…
Subjunctive mood; it can be easy to use! Posted by hulda on Apr 8, 2013
Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a way of telling when to use this form of verbs in Icelandic? Something that would always, or almost always work for you, and that the exceptions would be easy to tell apart? Here’s the good news – there are such rules! Here’s the bad news – it…
Gleðilega páska! Happy Easter! Posted by hulda on Mar 31, 2013
It’s not a bad deal at all to be in Iceland during the Easter, especially if judged by the chocolate eggs! Ranging from huge to gigantic to ridiculous in size and done in many flavours (my boyfriend’s egg is dark chocolate, mine’s milk chocolate with bits of licorice in it), they have been dominating most grocery stores…
Traveling by bus in Iceland. Posted by hulda on Mar 24, 2013
Remember how just two weeks ago we got so much snow we ended up stuck in our house? It’s all gone now. Spring seems to have arrived to Iceland all of a sudden. Days are growing longer, ravens are gathering in large groups (I hear it’s called “unkindness of ravens” in English) before they head…
Icelanders love books! Posted by hulda on Mar 15, 2013
Another eventful week just went by so quickly I hardly noticed the time passing. Some of it was spent in research, some in language study, and some – just by reading books I did not need to read. Fellow book lovers will understand: just because some books aren’t on your course list does not mean…