{"id":2031,"date":"2013-01-31T00:01:22","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T00:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2013-01-31T00:01:22","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T00:01:22","slug":"a-naked-tourist-on-the-prime-ministers-lawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2013\/01\/31\/a-naked-tourist-on-the-prime-ministers-lawn\/","title":{"rendered":"A naked tourist on the Prime Minister’s lawn."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of our current classes is now focusing on what makes written text difficult to read. The most obvious causes are very topic specific vocabulary (that can make the text hard even for the locals), proverbs and idioms that are impossible to understand unless you already know what they mean etc. Then there’s the word order. Icelandic is one of those languages where you can change the order of words almost any way you please without actually changing the meaning of the sentence, for example:<\/p>\n

\u00c9g heilsa\u00f0i henni<\/em>. (= I greeted her.)
\nHenni heilsa\u00f0i \u00e9g<\/em>. (= I greeted her\/her I greeted.)<\/p>\n

The English-speaking are already at a slight advantage here since English as a language is wonderfully flexible, but Icelandic still comes with the additional hurdle of cases. Those are what makes the meaning stay the same. They may be hard to spot from the text and even at best they make reading somewhat slow, because text where the words are in an “unusual” order often requires you to double check your own understanding of it while you read. Besides this the sentences in Icelandic are often amazingly long and have very few commas to break them into thought-size chunks. A great example of this in a police report from the Facebook page of the Reykjav\u00edk police<\/a> that describes an exceptional night in 14th December, right in the middle of the Capital City. A naked man was caught running around the Prime Minister’s Office!<\/p>\n

After watching him jog a couple of rounds they managed to get \u201ctheir hands in his hair since there were few other parts to grip in sight\u201d* to ask him what anyone would have wanted to know the most; what on earth was going on? The story began to unravel and perhaps unsurprisingly\u00a0there was a woman, or in fact two, behind it.<\/p>\n

\u00dearna var \u00e1 fer\u00f0inni\u00a0ungur fer\u00f0ama\u00f0ur og var hann \u00e1 sokkunum einum fata.<\/em><\/p>\n

(= There, on his way, was a young tourist dressed in nothing but socks.)<\/p>\n

Let’s now break this sentence down a little, and translate it as word to word as possible without completely losing the meaning:<\/p>\n

\u00dearna var \u00e1 fer\u00f0inni<\/em><\/strong>: there was travelling\/on a travel\/on his way
\nungur fer\u00f0ama\u00f0ur<\/em><\/strong>: a young tourist man
\nog var hann<\/em><\/strong>: and he was
\n\u00e1 sokkunum einum fata<\/em><\/strong>: in socks as the only clothing.<\/p>\n

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

Winter in Iceland: when it’s snowy, it’s very snowy. When it’s not snowy it’s still rather cold!<\/em><\/p>\n

With the police involved, the young man became very sorry for what he had just done and explained what had happened. He had met two Icelandic girls in a bar somewhere about the town.<\/p>\n

Ma\u00f0urinn sag\u00f0i a\u00f0 st\u00falkurnar hef\u00f0u mana\u00f0 hann til a\u00f0 fara \u00far f\u00f6tunum og hlaupa um \u00e1 umr\u00e6ddu grasi, en \u00fe\u00e6r sta\u00f0h\u00e6ft a\u00f0 sl\u00edkt v\u00e6ri algeng hef\u00f0 \u00e1 \u00cdslandi og \u00ed einsk\u00e6rri hj\u00e1lpsemi hafi \u00fe\u00e6r bo\u00f0ist til a\u00f0 halda \u00e1 f\u00f6tum hans \u00e1 me\u00f0an hann \u00fereytti hlaupi\u00f0.<\/em><\/p>\n

(= The man said that the girls had dared him to shed clothes and run on the aforementioned grass, and they assured him that that was normal behaviour in Iceland. And in sincere wish to help him they had offered to hold his clothes until he’d get enough of running.)<\/p>\n

Ma\u00f0urinn sag\u00f0i at st\u00falkurnar hef\u00f0u mana\u00f0 hann<\/em><\/strong>: the man said that the girls had dared him
\na\u00f0 fara \u00far f\u00f6tunum<\/em><\/strong>: to get out of clothes
\nog hlaupa um \u00e1 umr\u00e6ddu grasi<\/em><\/strong>: and run about the in question grass
\nen \u00fe\u00e6r sta\u00f0h\u00e6ft a\u00f0 sl\u00edkt v\u00e6ri algeng hef\u00f0 \u00e1 \u00cdslandi<\/em><\/strong>: and they assured that such would be normal behaviour in Iceland (“en”<\/em> can translate as f.ex. but, than, and etc.)
\nog \u00ed einsk\u00e6rri hj\u00e1lpsemi<\/em><\/strong>: and in pure helpfulness
\nhafi \u00fe\u00e6r bo\u00f0ist til ad halda \u00e1 f\u00f6tum hans<\/em><\/strong>: had they offered to hold his clothes
\n\u00e1 me\u00f0an hann \u00fereytti hlaupi\u00f0<\/em><\/strong>: while he tired of running.<\/p>\n

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

What happened next was that the girls cheered him on happily and then legged it as fast as their feet could carry. With his clothes still under arm, of course.<\/p>\n

Var honum komi\u00f0 \u00e1 l\u00f6greglust\u00f6\u00f0ina vafinn teppi en hann \u00e1tti \u00ed erfi\u00f0leikum me\u00f0 a\u00f0 framv\u00edsa skilr\u00edkjum enda veski\u00f0 \u00ed buxunum, sem voru \u00ed h\u00f6ndum st\u00falknanna.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(= He was taken to the police station wrapped in a blanket and he had trouble to present his ID as the wallet was in (the pocket of) his trousers, that were in the hands of the girls.)<\/p>\n

Var honum komi\u00f0 \u00e1 l\u00f6greglust\u00f6\u00f0ina<\/em><\/strong>: he was taken to the police station**
\nvafinn teppi<\/em><\/strong>: wrapped in a blanket
\nen hann \u00e1tti \u00ed erfi\u00f0leikum me\u00f0<\/em><\/strong>: but he had trouble to
\na\u00f0 framv\u00edsa skilr\u00edkjum<\/em><\/strong>: to present an ID
\nenda veski\u00f0 \u00ed buxunum<\/em><\/strong>: since the wallet in the trousers
\nsem voru \u00ed h\u00f6ndum st\u00falknanna<\/em><\/strong>: that were in the hands of the girls.<\/p>\n

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

Indeed, things did not look very bright for him, but in the end they still took at least a turn for the better. Icelandic girls may pull your leg as many ways as you let them, but it would seem that they’re not thieves.<\/p>\n

Sagan enda\u00f0i samt betur \u00e1 horf\u00f0ist \u00ed fyrstu \u00fev\u00ed a\u00f0 er honum var skila\u00f0 \u00e1 h\u00f3tel sitt, bi\u00f0u f\u00f6tin hans \u00ed m\u00f3tt\u00f6kunni en st\u00falkurnar horfnar \u00e1 braut.<\/em><\/p>\n

(= The story still ended better than it at first seemed like when as he was dropped off at his hotel, were his clothes were waiting for him at the reception, the girls had, however, disappeared.)<\/p>\n

Sagan enda\u00f0i samt betur \u00e1 horfist \u00ed fyrstu<\/em><\/strong>: the story yet ended better than looked like at first
\n\u00fev\u00ed a\u00f0 er honum var skila\u00f0 \u00e1 h\u00f3tel sitt<\/em><\/strong>: because\/when he was delivered to his hotel
\nbi\u00f0u f\u00f6tin hans \u00ed m\u00f3tt\u00f6kunni<\/em><\/strong>: waited his clothes at the reception
\nen st\u00falkurnar horfnar \u00e1 braut<\/em><\/strong>: but the girls disappeared on their course.<\/p>\n

Let this be a lesson: if anyone, in any country, is trying to make you do something that sounds a bit outrageous and insists that this is toooooootally normal, be very, very suspicious!<\/p>\n

By the way, this young man very nearly made it as the Tourist of the Year in Reykjav\u00edk Grapevine’s annual election<\/a>.***<\/p>\n

The news article for this story is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*This is exactly how the police put it.<\/p>\n

**Here’s a great example of the word order shift that I mentioned in the beginning.<\/p>\n

***He was bested by an Asian lady who lost and found herself in Iceland without ever noticing anything special going on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

One of our current classes is now focusing on what makes written text difficult to read. The most obvious causes are very topic specific vocabulary (that can make the text hard even for the locals), proverbs and idioms that are impossible to understand unless you already know what they mean etc. Then there’s the word…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":2037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[90791,91379,91175],"tags":[6,91389,91386,27676,91387,91396,91397],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-culture","category-icelandic-customs","category-icelandic-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-icelandic-government","tag-icelandic-lessons","tag-outdoors","tag-sample-of-icelandic","tag-so-icelandic","tag-traveling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}