{"id":1858,"date":"2012-11-16T17:26:52","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T17:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2012-11-16T17:26:52","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T17:26:52","slug":"happy-anniversary-icelandic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2012\/11\/16\/happy-anniversary-icelandic\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy anniversary, Icelandic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today, on the 16th of November, Icelanders celebrate Dagur \u00edslenskrar tungu<\/em>, the Icelandic Language Day.<\/p>\n

Icelanders have celebrated their language since the year 1995. The date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of J\u00f3nas Hallgr\u00edmsson, an Icelandic poet often called “the most influential Icelandic poet of all times”. He was also a prominent figure during the Icelandic Independence Movement even though he lived most of his life in Denmark, died there in 1845 and was buried there, only to be moved back to Iceland in 1946. Every year on this day the Minister of Education gives an award named after him to someone who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Icelandic language.<\/p>\n

So let’s have some fun with the language today! Here are some amusing sites you can visit to begin with.<\/p>\n

Learn Useless Icelandic<\/a><\/p>\n

A Facebook group that is based on just that, Icelandic that you’ll probably never need. It’s one of the most hilarious Facebook groups on this theme that I’ve visited and strangely enough it actually does help with learning some things about the language. Sometimes I remember some funny sentence that I learned here and realize I now have the words and their gender groups accidentally memorized with no danger of ever forgetting them again.\u00a0L\u00ed\u00f0ur \u00fe\u00e9r einhvern t\u00edmann eins og plastpoka?<\/em> (= Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?)<\/p>\n

Your friend, Iceland<\/a><\/p>\n

Another Facebook group which is fun to follow – every important bit of news ends there very quickly. The link I’ve included takes you to a particular discussion thread that’s full of people’s favourite words in Icelandic. So far the collection includes timeless gems such as “ha?<\/em>” (= translates both as “huh?” and “excuse me would you mind repeating what you just said?”) and “Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull<\/em>” (= mountain islands glacier), cute words and phrases such as “k\u00f3k\u00f3mj\u00f3lk<\/em>” (= a milk chocolate drink), “elska<\/em>” (= darling) and “nammi<\/em>” (= candy) and of course a selection of utter randomness such as “\u00fe\u00fa ert skr\u00edmsli<\/em>” (= you are a monster), “Hvannadalshn\u00fakur<\/em>” (= the name of the highest point of Vatnaj\u00f6kull), “va\u00f0lahei\u00f0avegavinnusk\u00far<\/em>” (= working shoes of the Va\u00f0lahei\u00f0a road) and “a\u00f0\u00a0prumpa<\/em>” (= to fart). Have a look and add your own favourites if you like!<\/p>\n

Beygingarl\u00fdsing \u00edslensks n\u00fat\u00edmam\u00e1ls<\/a><\/p>\n

This one’s very likely been linked to a couple of times before but I wanted to add it to both balance out the silliness of the first two links and also as a really handy tool for learning all the possible forms of Icelandic words. Just write the word in and search, the program will give you every single inflection the word has. If you’re not certain whether you know the word’s basic form tick the little box below the search field. Remember though that you have to write the words correctly, accents in right places etc. or else you’re risking either getting the wrong word (a single accent can change the whole meaning of a word) or not getting a search result at all.<\/p>\n

For those of you who are located in Iceland, \u00cdslensku\u00feorpi\u00f0<\/a> opened today!<\/p>\n

I’d like to wish you all a very happy Icelandic Language Day with one of J\u00f3nas Hallgr\u00edmsson’s most beloved and well-known poems. You can find the English translation\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0as well as many other works by him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00c9g bi\u00f0 a\u00f0 heilsa!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

N\u00fa andar su\u00f0ri\u00f0 s\u00e6la vindum \u00fe\u00fd\u00f0um,<\/em>
\n \u00e1 sj\u00f3num allar b\u00e1rur sm\u00e1ar r\u00edsa<\/em>
\n og flykkjast heim a\u00f0 f\u00f6gru landi \u00cdsa,<\/em>
\n a\u00f0 f\u00f3sturjar\u00f0ar minnar str\u00f6nd og hl\u00ed\u00f0um.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00d3! heilsi\u00f0 \u00f6llum heima r\u00f3mi bl\u00ed\u00f0um<\/em>
\n um h\u00e6\u00f0 og sund \u00ed drottins \u00e1st og fri\u00f0i;<\/em>
\n kyssi \u00fei\u00f0, b\u00e1rur! b\u00e1t \u00e1 fiskimi\u00f0i,<\/em>
\n bl\u00e1si \u00fei\u00f0, vindar! hl\u00fdtt \u00e1 kinnum fr\u00ed\u00f0um.<\/em><\/p>\n

Vorbo\u00f0inn lj\u00fafi! fuglinn tr\u00far, sem fer<\/em>
\n me\u00f0 fja\u00f0rabliki h\u00e1a vegaleysu<\/em>
\n \u00ed sumardal a\u00f0 kve\u00f0a kv\u00e6\u00f0in \u00fe\u00edn!<\/em><\/p>\n

Heilsa\u00f0u einkum, ef a\u00f0 fyrir ber<\/em>
\n engil, me\u00f0 h\u00fafu og rau\u00f0an sk\u00faf, \u00ed peysu;<\/em>
\n \u00fer\u00f6stur minn g\u00f3\u00f0ur! \u00fea\u00f0 er st\u00falkan m\u00edn.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Today, on the 16th of November, Icelanders celebrate Dagur \u00edslenskrar tungu, the Icelandic Language Day. Icelanders have celebrated their language since the year 1995. The date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of J\u00f3nas Hallgr\u00edmsson, an Icelandic poet often called “the most influential Icelandic poet of all times”. He was also a prominent figure…<\/p>\n

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