🇮🇸 How to speak Icelandic - The Icelandic language Basics 🇮🇸 | Travel Better in Iceland!

[@nordlandskaka]

As a Western Norwegian, Icelandic is insane to me in the sense that there'll be two or three sentences of what sounds like complete mumbo-jumbo followed by a sentence that sounds more like what I'd say than what someone from another part of Norway would say. The historic connection really comes out.

[@ibizamaria]

Isländisch (isländisch íslenska) ist eine Sprache aus dem germanischen Zweig der indogermanischen Sprachfamilie. Sie ist die Amtssprache in Island. Linguistische; Klassifikation: Indogermanisch Germanisch Nordgermanisch Isländisch Gesprochen in: Island

[@Brotato_Potato]

I'm born in the very north of Norway and live in Sweden and speak Swedish, Norwegian, English and a little French. As I see the nordic languages I understand most of it, for example Icelandic sounds very similar to Norwegian and Norwegian sound very similar to Swedish. Thus, for some random reason that I don't know, Swedish people seem to not understand other languages than Swedish. When I began school (Only speaking Norwegian) all of the Swedish people didn't understand a single word I said even tho I understood everything they said. The same thing is with Danish, I understand it but most Swedish people seem to not. And for the worst part is that A LOT of Swedish people here in Sweden tend to make fun of Arabic, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic and all people who's not Swedish, just because they think there's some sort of "language barrier". I've got a Danish teacher which my classmates bullies because "They don't understand what he's saying". I find that pretty weird because he has been living in Sweden for about 15 years working as a teacher, and in addition there's no record off a so called "language barrier" in the past 15 years that has ever happened. I believe most of the Swedish people are just dumb or hella narcissistic because of the fact that they can't accept the slightest fault in a single word of 10 sentences without starting to talk shit about that persons nationality. Btw I am "Swedish" so all of the Swedish people here who's in denial, just frick off, ok?

[@chouchoumuse2729]

@@ibizamaria Funny you can say "indogermanischen" Sprachfamilie in German while in most languages it is "indo-europäisch" Sprachfamilie.

[@Zapp4rn]

@@Brotato_Potato dude, i live in northern Sweden, and i have no struggle understanding norwegian, it's almost the same language, but danish pronounciation can be a bit tricky... i'm currently learning icelandic... I was speaking to some people from stockholm and they got like angry or something cuz i had an accent and they like pretended like they didn't understand me or something... I guess that's just some people, especially Fjållträskare.

[@SvenDzahov]

I’m from Minnesota as a third generation immigrant, my grandparents migrated from Trondheim in the 70s. It’s kind of cute in some areas with high Scandinavian population to hear remnants of the accents here in america. especially the vocal inflections and vowels. In American English for instance the world “bag” is pronounce bay-guh. But minnesotan accents say it almost like the word “beg” and the Os in the US are usually like a soft “oh”. So like “okay” is oh-kay But Minnesotans pronounce “O”s like a U. So instead it’s almost u-key. I’ve been told this phrase is Scandinavian but I’ve only heard it said in Minnesota but “uffda” is another example. Edit: while looking up norwegian pronunciations I found, we say “o” similar to the “ø” pronunciation. Softer though, less of an uh more of an “ou”

[@irmak5481]

Wow i didnt know the number six was that way

[@groundzer0356]

It's the same in swedish

[@chrisscarbrough7430]

@@groundzer0356 And German, though spelled differently

[@TheDarkSaplings]

Sweden also writes the number six like that.

[@nirock2550]

Norway Also have seks

[@anvion1161]

It’s the same in German

[@Elligons]

Sounds like ancient Viking talk.

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

That's why it sounds so COOL! 😄

[@tylerthevamp2218]

I mean the Vikings did discover Iceland so...

[@avzarathustra6164]

They didn’t speak *exactly* like this. Phonology has shifted over time, as well as subtle nuances. But yes, it’s very conservative and very close to Viking speak.

[@ulfurkarlsson5885]

A lot of people think Iceland and old Norse are the same language, to be clear, they are not, Icelandic and Faroese are the closest to the old norse language yes, but if old viking would come to Reykjavik in 2019, i can promise you that he would not understand a lot, dialect is simular, but modern Icelandic is a lot faster than the old norse, and some words have gone from the language, and some new words have appeard with industrial technique. But yes we have kept the old Language the best, but still Modern Icelandic is a diffrent language, and we need translaition foe some words when we read old books.

[@daplug3528]

It is that's how they talked in battle

[@ThePrinceOfDelmarva]

In my adoptive family we have a cousin who speaks this beautiful language. I hope it stays for many more generations.

[@mystica_viventem]

After I lived in Iceland for 3 years (now moving to Denmark), I can say that I love how Icelandic sounds. Such an honor to hear one of the closest languages to the Old Norse - in fact, modern Icelandic changed very little from Old Norse.

[@kujowreckords6502]

Would you mind sharing what living there is like? I'm very interested in Iceland and would love to learn more

[@kitiowa]

It took me a long time to figure out she was speaking English!

[@robertvondarth1730]

That cockney accent slurs her speech, she mumbles

[@nakatakafka]

Same here! if it wasn´t for the subtitles...

[@danielfranklin3773]

I don't know why, but when I hear Nordic languages, I " miss them "

[@Kinobambino]

Past life as a viking.

[@conniea.474]

duuuude same

[@lilymbae386]

There is something mythical or almost magical about them. I do not know why. Even gaelic which the Nordic vikings influenced in Scotland sounds equally magical

[@ChantelStays]

Same. I get it. It's like a soul calling

[@ifjchsiwocjcjs4378]

@@lilymbae386 they didnt influence the gaels in Scotland. The gaels most likely influenced the viking as they (from both Scotland and Ireland) were taken as slaves to Iceland

[@kizpaws]

I love to hear Icelandic spoken, because my grandparents only spoke it, and I miss them dearly.... Gotta get to Iceland one of these days...♥

[@HonneTheFinnicHeathen]

To a Finnish person this sounds like a Saami, Swedish and Viking languages mixed with little bit of Finnish accent.

[@webefab]

my Finnish husband has said that before :D

[@AllezerBrahmaneFraneiss]

0:54 such an interesting pronunciation, really loving this word

[@historybuff66]

What a difficult language this would be for me to learn, especially at my age now. I can really appreciate what Bernard Scudder achieved (who died rather untimely), once serving as an English translator for the novels of my favorite foreign contemporary author, Icelander Arnaldur Indridason.

[@kadejohnson7866]

I’ve been learning for under a year now. But over time and consistency you can learn. I’m still no pro and babies are probably better than me but it is possible. There’s an app I use called drops that makes it fun to learn

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

Icelandic and Old Norse are actually very easy category 2 languages and are the easiest category 2 languages, with a super easy pronunciation that is as easy as the pronunciation of the easiest category 1 languages (English / Dutch / Norwegian) and, most words are super easy to memorize / remember, so only the spelling is that of a category 2 language because they have many words with accents and umlauts - the reason why Icelandic looks very difficult at first is, because Icelandic uses these letters ð and þ which only a few Nordic languages use, which give it a very unique and different aspect that most ppl aren’t used to, but those sounds also exist in English and are basically the TH sounds, so ð is the eth letter (approximant of d) and it sounds like the TH in the English words this / the / that, while þ is the thorn letter (approximant of t) and it sounds like the TH in the English words think / thing / thick, plus almost all the other sounds used in Icelandic are also used in English, except for the ö which is an EO sound like the œ in the French word cœur!

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

I highly recommend learning Icelandic & Old Norse as well as Dutch / Gothic / Norwegian / Danish / Faroese etc, these languages are just as pretty / refined / poetic as English, so they are just too pretty not to know, and learning them all at the same time saves a lot of years and is a lot more fun than only learning one language or one language at a time - I am close to intermediate level in Icelandic & Old Norse, advanced level in Dutch, writer level in English, close to advanced level in Norwegian, intermediate level in Swedish & German, and beginner level in Faroese / Danish / Gothic and the other Germanic languages, plus I am also learning a lot of other pretty languages as well, including Welsh and Breton and the other 4 modern Celtic languages and Hungarian and Gallo / Latin / Galician etc and Slovene and many others, and I only started learning languages on my own about one year ago, most of them can be learnt super fast, especially if one uses the best learning techniques, such as spaced repetition (watching as many vocab videos and videos on grammar / verbs / prepositions / adverbs / conjunctions etc multiple times over a period of time, until each word can be instantly processed and remembered automatically) and memorizing lots of lyrics and watching all videos / movies with subs in the target languages etc!

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

In truth, learners that are 15+ can learn languages way faster than babies / children, and children only become fluent in the first language that they are made to learn after they finish school, so they only know a few thousand words as really small children, and it takes a few years for kids to learn the first words, and then they learn a few new words every day, which is a very slow learning process, so I don’t know where this idea that ‘kids can learn languages faster’ is coming from, because it isn’t true at all - by the way, focusing on vocab videos and grammar videos is the best way to get to an advanced level fast!

[@historybuff66]

@@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038 Thank you so much for your voluble exposition-you sound like you have an untapped potential to be a great instructor of foreign languages! I truly am envious of your polyglot achievement. I very much appreciate all the insight you have imparted-thank you for taking the time!

[@jorascorpse]

I'm here all these years later because nobody has any guides on Old Norse pronunciation!! So I'm trying to find the next best thing lol, very helpful actually thank you! Currently trying to figure out frjór, if the single person that still understands this language sees this comment.

[@adrien437]

Icelandic is for Germanic languages what latin is for romance languages

[@xbaker_x]

Wait a second... isn't german a romance language as well?

[@NyrVindr]

@@xbaker_x NOT AT ALL 💀 It's a complete different thing. I'm a Spanish speaker.

[@NyrVindr]

@@xbaker_x NOT AT ALL 💀. DEFINITELY NOT, It's a complete different thing. I'm a Spanish speaker.

[@NyrVindr]

@@xbaker_x NOT AT ALL 💀. DEFINITELY NOT, It's a complete different thing. I'm a Spanish speaker.

[@why-cooking]

No, that would be Common Germanic.

[@mcoo5584]

This was nice and too the point. I can only suggest / request that you guys lower the music a bit for these language videos? A little hard to hear the speaker and their nuances.

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

Hi Minseok! We're glad you liked it, and we'll keep that in mind! If you still need more Iceland inspiration check out this - kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6KYlpqAidF8pac&lc=z12zshyx1oils3mul23tsldqopb5ftb0n :D

[@chrisdelgado3530]

Awesome video. I want to visit Iceland one day, so beautiful. Greetings from Miami, FL.

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

It's certainly a place we would recommend, it's such a stunning country! Have you got any travelling planned for this year?! ✈️

[@tresvecesno7071]

Is always a pleasure to see and hear a happy woman. Takk!

[@Lilbebee07]

Going to Iceland on Wednesday. Can’t wait! Hoping this helps

[@katovangrimbergen]

I love the chemistry

[@dennisgreene5055]

Is that Keldur!? My great great Grandfather built the church! Thanks from Eugene Oregon!!!

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

Wow that’s amazing!!!! And yes it is! Well we also filmed this travel guide to Iceland too, so have a look and let us know what you think! kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6KYlpqAidF8pac :)

[@onemillionpercent]

whoaaa thats so cool

[@craigcamp8989]

Fun watching people amazed by these and they are actually quite simple haha cool

[@gris186]

I learned some conversational Icelandic for fun as I have a good Icelandic friend but I actually got to use it on two other occasions with people I didn't know and they were quite surprised that I even could speak some

[@aroundtheworldgirl4431]

Wow, I was searching for a language to learn and I believe I have found it! Before he would speak the Icelandic phrases I would try to pronounce them and when he would tell they are pronounced I realized I got it right! I am so excited to learn this language and finally know what Kaleo is talking about in Vor í Vaglaskógi.

[@mehdielhsnaoui5628]

Its hard language!

[@myk1137]

@@Shahab161Ebr All the languages are.

[@lyrs88]

Are you still learning? Can anybody link me some resources to learn icelandic from?

[@kadejohnson7866]

@@lyrs88there is an app called drops and I’ve been using it for just under a year but a few of the phrases here I was able to understand

[@Bakotcha]

Damn.. this will take longer to study than any other languages that I've studied before. But it seems fun

[@irmak5481]

I love icelandic music and the music taste of those people

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

It is a country full of beautiful things! Where's your favourite place in Iceland? 🇮🇸

[@brythonicman3267]

I originate from Yorkshire, and much of it is similar to the old Yorkshire accent and even the tone.

[@BangBokirKecut]

I like how you guys interact in this video, big smile, big enthusiasm, and all of it... Wish I can visit 🇮🇸 someday and make a journey like Ben Stiller Walter Mitty to eyjafjallajokull...

[@GiovanniChristensen]

Pretty interesting that Icelandic comes very close to Swedish and my language, Dutch. I could understand almost everything.

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

That'll definitely come in handy if you visit Iceland! Have you ever been before? 🇮🇸

[@justinloomis1245]

I mean makes sense considering those are all Norse rooted languages. You can thank the Vikings haha

[@gavinrolls1054]

@@justinloomis1245 Dutch is not a Norse rooted language. closely related though

[@kraken-sx2ys]

Thanks for the video!! :)

[@thewho186]

I love that word that makes me tries of joy

[@iliatchaplinski]

Now I can understand what my Age of Mythology units are saying

[@Revolutionary491]

!!! I was just thinking that when he said " ja" been playing since release and finally know my unit has been saying "yes" this whole time 😅

[@saeedchach4192]

Same

[@edram4051]

Don't you just love videos where they teach you how to speak but the music is louder and you can't hear well what they are saying? My favourite!

[@palmeidaidiomas]

Ed Ram you go

[@patootie3529]

I don't know about you, but I can hear him well

[@aurora.7798]

turn yo sound up

[@rer33]

Oh I fall in love of Icelandic 😍

[@risitasfrance9020]

Beautiful language 🙏

[@vegardthedude3754]

Beautiful language!

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

We agree!

[@fadthetic]

Always reminded me of scenes when Walter Mitty said that Big Volcano also the Eruption scene.

[@erlandandersen5782]

Thanks for uploading lots of useful Icelandic related info and links. Including this video. I think the persons in your video do a good job, focusing on useful words and phrases. But if you'd like an advice from a listener: don't put on any annoying background sounds at all in a video like this. Let nothing disturb the sound of the speakers.

[@Ceerads]

I’ve never heard Icelandic spoken. It’s very interesting and, to my ears as a native English speaker, very odd (but very pleasant). I’d never be able to pronounce more than a tiny bit of it.

[@CHRB-nn6qp]

Imo, icelandic is what english would look like if it was spelt correctly. Goes to show how bad english spelling is lol

[@SouthPark333Gaming]

I'm from Denmark, and I could understand that!

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

Nice! There must be some language similarities 😊have you visited Iceland before?

[@antonioadielma2584]

😂 That's funny cause that's what I wanted to say. But I don't speak Danish. Lived there for almost a year though.

[@lightningwight4154]

Studying Danish. Recognized a lot too

[@brazilbeyondtheheadlines]

Great video, thanks for doing it. It'd be nice to see his mouth as he pronounces words, that would be golden.

[@slimshadylady83]

I know its just a short video but I think he was totally into her and same with her aswell!

[@claudiag.2055]

Beautiful place, impossible language (imo), wish i'd seen the vid before my trip two weeks ago. Thankfully, everybody speaks English over there!

[@ILikeChefBoyardee]

I actually find it pretty easy. I’m so lucky to have a knack in learning new languages, it helps me understand different cultures more in depth.

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

That is an amazing skill to have and we couldn't agree more! What's your favourite language you've learnt?

[@streetjudas]

It's similar to swedish so i understand:)

[@youngdisciple8072]

hi. where is his chanel? which call is: 23 frames.is

[@Mmmmchimkin]

My country ❤ 🇮🇸

[@nebulousfar]

It's really similar to Swedish that I also study,, so I guess I have a good base to learn Icelandic

[@daniellewilliams8213]

Who came here after watching the movie “Euro Vision” on Netflix???

[@stephaniepinto9390]

Yes!!! Lol

[@alisinaahmadi1344]

😅🤦🏻‍♂️

[@wgp3806]

YESS!!!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Weeb1367]

And this is the very origins of English, Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm proud there's still a place where the language is almost identical to Proto-germanic.

[@itasanbkuri9746]

Sure... Volcano and six got attention...🌋6️⃣

[@kingakdiscipl]

Eyjafjallajokull. Fjall is a mountain so it kind of makes the language easier if you know what the word is made up of and you learn the suffixes.

[@EbayUserGreen]

Was curious as to how complicated and hard people said the Icelandic language is and thought maybe I can learn it...

[@sazzy6264]

As far as the numbers go, I think I could keep track of the correlation!

[@afenigrace6712]

They are so cute in this video

[@alekseilutov7215]

Woow!))) It is very easy!)

[@Fiction_Beast]

made me laugh! i am reading independent people by haldor laxness--hence i am here.

[@renassalahudden9520]

I have a crush on a guy who is from Iceland, and I miss him since he went back(even though we only studied together) so I came here to listen to ppl speaking his accent , I don’t think he likes me that way but lemme tell you he is the gentlest person, even if we don’t end up together, I really feel lucky to know him and I truly want him to be happy (btw he has the most beautiful smile and a very gentle voice and his eyes is just like an ocean waving on the graygreenish shores of Iceland, he is just like human version of moomin and I am his snufkin ,Hope he never sees this cause this is so embarrassing:,)

[@darraghregan]

I'm from Ireland stupid

[@renassalahudden9520]

.

[@Pidalin]

When I am trying to say name of that vulcan - Ejaf....what?

[@coachman64506]

Well I'm American. I heard a song i really like by Sigur Ros...Svefn-g-englar. And until recently i thought it was Swedish or a form of German. Then I find out it's Icelandic. I did however find the English translation. Interesting language. Too bad at 66 I'm a little late to the new language learning party

[@ellenslater]

Really useful takk fyrir!!!

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

You're most welcome! We're glad you found it useful 😀

[@roseybud2821]

Im here to learn how to speak like Bjork. She's great.

[@developerninja619]

So you can say, "do you want to have 6?" Lol

[@tearsintheraincantfeelthep475]

I doesn't seem that hard actually

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

Good! Practice makes perfect :D

[@EmilM-pb2hn]

@Ambrose Burnside It's closest to Old West Norse, almost perfectly preserved throughout history. Some changes here and there.

[@BANVA-io4bf]

Ms. Keisha! *I thought you were dead!*

[@blackbeastboy11k92]

Right. I only got here because i was drinking Icelandic water and was like tf is that?! And boom. I wanna learn now.

[@Cronclers]

Trust me ITS hard

[@tyfoparalax8894]

Im a Norwegian and I understand the most parts

[@GamerRadahn-g2u]

Am trying to learn it I can write their ABC (elder futhark)

[@TheDarkSaplings]

Norwegians have a small advantage, there are some Icelandic words that are similar to Norwegian. Only that they are spoken lor gran different.

[@tenko8519]

One reason why I am learning Norsk.

[@haruaru9695]

i think there are similar words in all of the Nordic languages

[@TobiasBlefors-js2rx]

Wonder if they netflixed and chilled after that intervjue??😂

[@debi.nemo82]

como te miraaaa hay AMOORRRR AHI 😂❤

[@mustafamehdi5956]

Reminds me of Age for mythology norse language

[@SuperSMT]

Why doesn't duolingo have it yet!

[@popcat1086]

Iknow to speak icelandic

[@GS-wc2uh]

Love it

[@baroquer]

TAKBIR! :D

[@hadarridwanto3550]

The portuguese literally has been influenced by scandinavian language in particularly its accent but they still use roman language grammar than scandinavian language. It makes sense why portuguese sound is closer to scandinavian language. Because, I found an answer and reason on here.

[@elsakristina2689]

I can't do the accent regardless of whether I'm speaking Icelandic or English. If I ever get to see my boyfriend in person and live with him and meet his friends and our mutual heroes hopefully that changes lol

[@STARKILLER15100]

All i learned from this is the Raider from for honor says thak you

[@_sparrowhawk]

Fucking adorable. after the hot summer I'm moving to Iceland asap

[@nabrokice]

drink 2 big glasses brennivín, it helps a lot^^

[@AishaRashid-bh5sy]

❤❤❤❤ ilove you eclanad

[@yamchathewolf7714]

Very close to swedish

[@hunterice896]

About vulcano,🤣

[@kingakdiscipl]

In German you can also say Jo if you agree with something.

[@nosubscribe6233]

aww

[@quranreader7616]

nice😇😇

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

So nice

[@manskken]

very cute segment with the the numbers. now let's learn how 1 through 4 declinate depending on the following noun's gender 💀

[@Ahmad-lc1ln]

The grammar is similar to German.

[@dablusukla7194]

I. ...am...Indian. ..nice. ..video. I. ..miss you. .really .

[@haroldishoy2113]

Is High German spoken in Iceland?

[@viiperbiite]

I really want to live in Iceland one day but I'm scared of the language barrier so I'm trying to learn some basics! I can already speak German, (although it is not my first language so it's not 100% perfect.) So I can already pick out some similar sounding words!

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

There's no harm in being prepared but we're sure you'll get by just fine! 👌

[@hrafnhildur3063]

if you speak english you really don’t have to worry about language barrier:)

[@billmurray7721]

Saying "Takk Fyrir" in an Arab country would get you into a serious problem as it sounds just like "Takfeer" which means to call someone a disbeliever or apostate lol.

[@myk1137]

The background lives up to the name "Ice"land.

[@HolidayExtrasTravelGuides]

It was a cold day!

[@spasespasevski9175]

I melt on this laung.

[@nukeloser]

YAY I WANNA BE ABLE TO SPEAK ICE CREAM

[@acarna6669]

Kind of can see where Scotland got some of its slang from.

[@dronedruid153]

Takk

[@TheSwedishDude95]

This is so close to Swedish but some words are pretty strange.

[@athiraraveendran7551]

Hi any Icelandic translator here please share your CV

[@DavidGurau]

dwight. iykyk.

[@pamyreplicant]

😆😆🤣🤣 funny. It's not that Easy, but it's a beautiful language 🥰🥰

[@seeme5641]

How Can i visit iceland once ??plz

[@ibizamaria]

With a pocket full of money🤣

[@myk1137]

@@ibizamaria Not if you're in Britain.

[@ibizamaria]

@@myk1137 no money no travelling

[@myk1137]

@@ibizamaria Iceland is in Britain tho,so you don't need as much money if you live in Britain.

[@ibizamaria]

@@myk1137 okay

[@Reun1ty]

Bloodhunder?