Icelandic orthography

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[edit] Grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences

This section lists Icelandic letters and letter combinations, and how to pronounce them using a narrow International Phonetic Alphabet transcription. [1] See Icelandic_language#Vowels to know when a vowel is long or short.

Grapheme Phonetic realization Examples
a long: [äː] open central unrounded vowel

short: [ɐ]

 taska "handbag, suitcase" listen (help·info)

kaka "cake" listen (help·info)
á [äu̯] fár "damage" listen (help·info)
au [œy̯] þau "they" listen (help·info)
b [p⁼] unaspirated voiceless bilabial plosive bær "town" listen (help·info)
d [t⁼] unaspirated voiceless alveolar plosive dalur "valley" listen (help·info)
ð between vowels or at end of word:
[ð̠] voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
 eða "or" listen (help·info)

bað "bath" listen (help·info)
before a voiceless consonant:
[θ̠] voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
 maðkur "maggot" listen (help·info)
e long: [eɛ̯] or [eə̯]??

short: [ɛ]

 drekka "drink" listen (help·info)
é [jɛ] ég [jɛːɣ] "I" listen (help·info)
ei, ey [ɛi̯] skeið "spoon" listen (help·info)
f normally:
[f]
around vowels:
[v]
 lofa "promise" listen (help·info)
between ó and a vowel:
Ø
 prófa [prou̯ɐ] "test" listen (help·info)

gulrófa "rutabaga" listen (help·info)
before l or n:
[p⁼]
 Keflavík listen (help·info)
fnd [mt] hefnd [hɛmt] listen (help·info)
fnt [m̥t] (voiceless) (is the t aspirated or not??) nefnt [nɛm̥t] listen (help·info)
g beginning of word, before a, á, é, j, o, ó, u, ú and ö; or between vowel and l or n:
[k⁼] unaspirated voiceless velar plosive
 glápa "have a look" listen (help·info)

logn "calm (weather)" listen (help·info)
beginning of word, before e, i, í, y, ý, æ, ei or ey:
[c⁼] unaspirated voiceless palatal plosive
 geta "can" listen (help·info)

gulrófa "rutabaga" listen (help·info)
after vowels; before a, u, ð or r; or at end of word:
[ɣ] voiced velar fricative
 fluga "fly" listen (help·info)

lag "song" listen (help·info)
hv [kʰv] (older speakers say [xv]) hvað "what" listen (help·info)
i [ɪ] sin "sinew" listen (help·info)
í [i] íslenska "Icelandic" listen (help·info)
k kynskiptingur "transsexual" listen (help·info)
kk [ʰk] þakka "thank" listen (help·info)
l in most cases:
[l]
 lás "lock" listen (help·info)
at end of word:
[l̥] voiceless alveolar lateral approximant??
 sól "sun" listen (help·info)
ll in most cases:
[tɬ]
 bolli "cup" listen (help·info)

milli "between" listen (help·info)
in loan words and pet names:
[ll]
 bolla listen (help·info)

mylla "mill" listen (help·info)
o long: [oɔ̯] or [ʊɔ̯]??

short: [ɔ]

 lofa "promise" listen (help·info)
ó [ou̯] rós "rose" listen (help·info)
p beginning of word:
[pʰ] aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive
 par "pair" listen (help·info)
after a voiceless sound:
[p⁼] unaspirated voiceless bilabial plosive
 spara "save" listen (help·info)
pp [ʰp] stoppa "stop" listen (help·info)
r some contexts:
[r] (voiced alveolar trill)
at end of syllable (or is it end of word?):
[r̥] (voiceless alveolar trill)
t beginning of word:
[tʰ] aspirated voiceless alveolar plosive
 taka "take" listen (help·info)
after voiceless sound:
[t⁼] unaspirated voiceless alveolar plosive
 stela "steal" listen (help·info)
u [ʏ] hundur "dog" listen (help·info)
ú [u] þú "you" listen (help·info)
þ [θ̠] voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative þú "you"

Aþena "Athens" listen (help·info)
æ [äi̯] læsa "lock" listen (help·info)
ö [œ] ör "scar" listen (help·info)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thráinsson, Höskuldur. Icelandic in The Germanic Languages, 2002, eds. König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan. pgs 142-52. Routledge Language Family Descriptions
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