{"id":4188,"date":"2015-05-07T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=4188"},"modified":"2015-05-21T18:54:54","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:54:54","slug":"from-hand-leg-to-leg-throat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2015\/05\/07\/from-hand-leg-to-leg-throat\/","title":{"rendered":"From hand-leg to leg-throat."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"16555239133_dafa5f081b_b\"<\/a>

Michaelangelo’s David by Joe Hunt at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Broadening your vocabulary is best started with themes, and I’m going to suggest body parts as a good first option! This is especially because you’ll find some dangers therein and some fairly interesting words as well, words that really make you wonder why and how do they even exist. Did the Icelanders of old just have a really wild imagination or a crazy sense of humor or… what?<\/p>\n

\"300082179_33b35ddd80_b\"<\/a>

Venus de Milo in the Musee de Louvre by edwin.11 at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Main parts<\/strong><\/p>\n

L\u00edkami<\/em> = body. Not to be confused with l\u00edk<\/em>, which also means a body… just not a living one.<\/p>\n

H\u00f6fu\u00f0<\/em> = head. When used in compound words it usually means main-something such as in h\u00f6fu\u00f0atri\u00f0i<\/em> (= main thing) or h\u00f6fu\u00f0sta\u00f0ur<\/em> (= capital city).<\/p>\n

\u00d6xl<\/em>\u00a0= shoulder, plural is axlir<\/em>.<\/p>\n

B\u00fakur<\/em> = torso.<\/p>\n

Handleggur<\/em> = arm. Also known as armur<\/em>, but handleggur<\/em> (lit. transl. “hand leg”) is my favourite!<\/p>\n

F\u00f3tleggur\/leggur<\/em> = leg. Yes, I keep imagining f\u00f3tleggur<\/em> as foot-leg to match the arm-leg. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

F\u00f3tur<\/em> = foot.<\/p>\n

H\u00f6nd<\/em> = hand. Icelanders don’t say “with open arms”, they say “tveimur h\u00f6ndum<\/em>“, “two\/both-handed”.<\/p>\n

Head<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moving on to smaller pieces, your h\u00f6fu\u00f0<\/em> has eyru<\/em> (= ears, singular “eyra<\/em>“), augu<\/em> (= eyes, singular “auga<\/em>“), nef<\/em> (= nose) and munnur<\/em> (= mouth). Occasionally someone might notify you that kjaftur<\/em>\u00a0is also a name for your mouth and probably that it should be shut (haltu kjafti<\/em> = shut up).<\/p>\n

Inside you’ll have a tunga<\/em> (= tongue – by the way, “language” is tungum\u00e1l<\/em> in Icelandic, lit. transl. “tongue language”) and possibly tennur\/tannir\/t\u00f6nnur<\/em> (= teeth), or hopefully at least a singular t\u00f6nn<\/em> (= a tooth).<\/p>\n

\"5382657601_67a00a43a3_o\"<\/a>

Andromeda by Eden, Janine and Jim at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Body<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below\u00a0is the\u00a0h\u00e1ls<\/em> (= throat). It connects the h\u00f6fu\u00f0<\/em> to the axlar<\/em> and bringa<\/em> (= chest), also to the bak<\/em> (= back). Handarkriki<\/em> (= armpit) may still be possible\u00a0to figure out, but do you know where you have geirv\u00f6rtur<\/em>, “spear warts”? Those would be your nipples and alas, I have no idea whose idea was to call them that. Singular form is geirvarta<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mitti<\/em> (= waist) lies across your magi<\/em> (= belly) and below it are your mja\u00f0mir<\/em> (= hips, singular mj\u00f6\u00f0m<\/em>). Kynf\u00e6ri<\/em> (= privates) depend a bit on the person they’re on: men have a\u00a0getna\u00f0arlimur<\/em> (= lit. transl. “begetting\u00a0organ”), re\u00f0ur<\/em> or typpi<\/em> for short.\u00a0Women have a legg\u00f6ng<\/em> (= lit. transl. “leg route”), commonly known as a p\u00edka<\/em>. On the backside both have rasskinn<\/em> (= buttocks, lit. transl. “butt cheeks”), or simply just rass<\/em> (= butt).<\/p>\n

The hips continue to the l\u00e6ri<\/em> (= thigh\/thighs), f\u00f3tleggir<\/em> (= legs) and f\u00e6tur\u00a0<\/em>(= feet). At the end of each f\u00f3tur<\/em> you have t\u00e6r<\/em> (= toes, singular t\u00e1<\/em>) and on the other end h\u00e6lar<\/em> (= heels, singular h\u00e6ll<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Toes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toes have names… sort of. There’s st\u00f3rat\u00e1\/langat\u00e1<\/em> (= big\/long toe), also known as \u00feumalt\u00e1<\/em> (lit. transl. “thumb toe”). It’s followed by \u00f6nnur t\u00e1<\/em>, \u00feri\u00f0ja t\u00e1<\/em>, fj\u00f3r\u00f0a t\u00e1<\/em>\u00a0and l\u00edtla t\u00e1<\/em> (= second, third, fourth and little toe), but if that’s too unimaginative for you you can also call them Dyrgja, Bauga, Geira, B\u00fadda <\/em>and Gr\u00fdta<\/em>, or St\u00f3ra-J\u00f3a<\/em> (= Big J\u00f3a), Nagla-\u00de\u00f3ra<\/em> (= Nail \u00de\u00f3ra), Langa-D\u00f3ra<\/em> (= Long D\u00f3ra), Stutta-J\u00f3ra<\/em> (= Short J\u00f3ra) and Litla-L\u00f3a<\/em> (= Little L\u00f3a).<\/p>\n

The complicated ones are not common though, they’re more of a dialect thing and only used in certain small\u00a0areas but they do exist and in my personal opinion they’re awesome!<\/p>\n

\"2853793833_f161474bcb_o\"<\/a>

Perseus by Cellini in the Loggia Dei Lanzi,Piazza della Signoria, photo by artorusrex at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Fingers<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Icelanders love to give toes specific names fingers are even more popular. There’s \u00feumall<\/em> (= thumb), also known as \u00feumalputti<\/em>. V\u00edsifingur<\/em> (= index finger, lit. transl. “pointing finger”) comes next, but you can also call it v\u00edsiputti, bendifingur<\/em> (= pointing finger) or sleikifingur<\/em> (= licking finger). Third one is the langat\u00f6ng<\/em>, originally known as langast\u00f6ng<\/em> (= long pole). Fourth one is baugfingur<\/em> (= ring finger), also hringfingur<\/em> (= ring finger), and the last one is litlifingur<\/em> (= little finger), also known by the names litliputti<\/em> and lilliputti<\/em>.\u00a0Might Gulliver have visited a country of “little fingers”? \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

But what in the world is the legh\u00e1ls<\/em>, or leg-throat as it was translated for\u00a0the title? Well – that would be a cervix. Again, I have no explanations why… but on another hand m\u00f3\u00f0url\u00edf<\/em> (= mother life), although equally surprising, is quite an impressive word for the womb!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EDIT<\/strong>: there’s a brilliant comment left by Jo that further delves into the matter – scroll down, don’t miss it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Broadening your vocabulary is best started with themes, and I’m going to suggest body parts as a good first option! This is especially because you’ll find some dangers therein and some fairly interesting words as well, words that really make you wonder why and how do they even exist. Did the Icelanders of old just…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":4197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[91175,1],"tags":[10208,91386,91390,10341,91396,13],"class_list":["post-4188","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-grammar","category-uncategorized","tag-beginner","tag-icelandic-lessons","tag-icelandic-versus-other-languages","tag-intermediate","tag-so-icelandic","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188","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=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4213,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions\/4213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}