Vonlenska

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Vonlenska is a constructed language created by the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, in particular its lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson. The language is also commonly known by the English translation of its name, Hopelandic. It takes its name from “Von”, a song on Sigur Rós’s debut album Von where it was first used.

Vonlenska is not a real language as it lacks a consistent grammar structure, word meaning, or indeed discrete words themselves. Instead, it consists of meaningless syllables and resembles scat singing; the band’s website describes it as “a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music”.^[1] Most of the syllable strings sung by vocalist Jón Þór Birgisson are repeated many times throughout each song, and in the case of ( ), throughout the whole album. As the rest of Sigur Rós’s lyrics are sung in Icelandic, which most of their audience do not understand, an unknowing listener could easily take Vonlenska to be Icelandic and be unaware that a song’s lyrics do not have a direct literal translation. Rather it is a form of expression.

After the success of Ágætis byrjun, the band became aware of fans making up their own meanings to the Icelandic lyrics. Playing along, many of the “phrases” the band have consequently employed on ( ) resemble English words and phrases, for example, “you sigh”, “you sold”, “you sigh no more”, “you sigh so long”, “you sat alone”, etc.