Icelandic Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: nature

A 5 step guide to rhythm. Posted by on Feb 6, 2013

Like I promised last month, here’s the entry on the length of vowels and what determines whether a vowel is long or short. For example, why is the name Vala pronounced with a long first “a” but the name Valla with a short one? Why do the words gata (= street) and hús (= house)…

Continue Reading

Getting understood in Iceland, part 1. Posted by on Jan 9, 2013

A typical problem, when trying to use Icelandic to speak with the locals, is that for some reason they look at you quizzically and go “ha”* and you end up repeating yourself over and over again. Yet in the classroom or when talking with your teachers you never run into this same problem. Why is…

Continue Reading

Snæfellsness, Iceland in miniature. Posted by on Nov 30, 2012

If you look over Faxaflói (= Horse mane bay) on a clear day you can see the white peak of Snæfellsjökull (= Snow mountain glacier) on Snæfellsnes (= Snow mountain cape) over a hundred kilometres away. It’s the tallest mountain of the peninsula, rising over 1400 m from the sea, and considered the most beautiful glacier…

Continue Reading

A hundred names for snow Posted by on Nov 21, 2012

The days are getting shorter but at least it’s no longer as dark as it was only about a week ago. The first snow is here to help light up the streets a little. A local saying claims that Icelandic has over a hundred words for snow, and although this may be exaggerating the amount…

Continue Reading

Survive a storm in Iceland. Posted by on Nov 4, 2012

Hello dear readers, I hope that everyone around the areas that Sandy hit are safe! Over here we had some stormy weather over the weekend as well, although it really couldn’t compare to Sandy. Storms are typical autumn weather for Iceland and with winds over 25m/s they can, however, still cause a lot of damage…

Continue Reading

Don’t let them see you. Posted by on Oct 18, 2012

By now you may have noticed that the October posts follow a certain… theme. Let’s now continue with more scary creatures fit for the season – Icelandic cat-fox monsters skuggabaldur (= shadowbaldur: the origin of the name seems to be a mystery) and skoffín. Of these the skoffín had a fox as its father and…

Continue Reading

A landslide, aurora borealis and more! Posted by on Sep 22, 2012

My, what an interesting week it has been for Iceland. After the storm we’ve had earthquakes, the colour of leaves has changed almost overnight and the first aurora of the year was seen over Reykjavík on the 19. September. Topping it off today’s haustjafndægur (= equinox) which means that Ásatrúarfélagið (= Asatru Association) will be…

Continue Reading

Older posts
Newer posts