#28: Hreindýr

To build upon yesterday's entry on Christmas, today I want to talk about reindeer. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the English word is simply a compound of "rein" and "deer;" after all, they are a type of deer and you can strap reins to them a la Santa Claus. But it turns out that this isn't the case at all. Instead, the word reindeer has Nordic roots, just like its Icelandic cognate hreindýr.

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#27: Jól

I thought it might be nice to follow up yesterday's somber post with a happier one, so today I'm going to talk about the Icelandic word jól. It's a seasonal word that is absolutely everywhere in Iceland at the moment, and that's because it means "Christmas." With only 10 days left to buy all of the gifts, cook all of the food, and mentally prepare to deal with your extended family, now seems like a good time to talk about all things jól.

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#26: Ártíð

What is the opposite of a birthday? Not all cultures celebrate birthdays to the same extent that we do in America, but most languages at least have a word or phrase that means "the anniversary of one's birth." However, it is a curious phenomenon that many of those languages do not have a corresponding word to denote the anniversary of one's death. Icelandic, though, does have such a word-- ártíð.

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#25: Að Poppa

Today's entry is going to be a quick one, because I'm in the process of finishing up some of my graduate school applications! The word that I've chosen is fun to say, and useful if you're a habitual snacker, but I don't have very many insightful remarks to make about it. It's að poppa, and it's a verb that specifically means "to make popcorn."

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#24: Rafmagn

Today's word describes something that people use all the time-- not just in Iceland, but in most parts of the world. It's rafmagn, which literally means "amber power." But you may know it better as electricty.

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#23: Þáttur

Often, learning new vocabulary is a simple matter of memorization and retention: all you really need to know is hundur means "dog," köttur means "cat," et cetera. But when you encounter a word that has numerous different meanings, things can get a little tricky. Today's word is one of those-- it's þáttur, and it basically means "part," but it also has a large handful of situation-specific uses which I'll touch on here (skip to the end if you want a quick summary of them).

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#22: Peysa

Today's word is one that should come in handy now that winter is on the horizon... even if, so far, this month has been underwhelmingly warm. It's peysa, and it means "sweater" (or "jumper" for those of you overseas).

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#21: Dýragarður

One of my favorite places to go when I was younger was Dýragarðurinn í Bronx. Of course, I knew nothing of Icelandic back then, so I called it by its English name-- the Bronx Zoo. Now that I am living in New York City again, I've been meaning to have another fun-filled day at the zoo, as I'm long overdue for a visit. But until then, I'll just talk about zoos on the internet, starting with the Icelandic word for them (which, as you have probably guessed, is dýragarður).

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#20: Að Gúgla

I've pointed out in several previous posts that Icelandic is generally resistant to foreign loanwords. That's definitely true-- there's a strong linguistic purism movement in Iceland, which means that whenever a new word is needed, it is typically constructed from pre-existing Icelandic roots. The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and several other organizations involved in regulating the language are very supportive of this, which is how we get a word like sporðdreki ("tail dragon") instead of something boring like "skorpió." Sometimes, these sorts of things are even crowd-sourced, with competitions being held in schools or via milk cartons. The carton to the left, for instance, asks consumers to come up with a word for reality television shows. The word that the carton puts forth is raunveruleikaþáttur (which does literally mean "reality program"), but people with better ideas are encouraged to submit them on the company's website. You can find six pages of word contests there, and vote for your favorite suggestions if you're so inclined!

Of course, a few loanwords occasionally slip through the cracks and enter the language anyway. Some are very old borrowings from Danish, vestiges of a bygone time when Iceland was under Denemark's dominion. But some are very new, having snuck in through the back door that is slang. Today's word is one of those recent neologisms-- að gúgla. It means "to google."

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#19: Batavegur

Whenever something bad happens, whether it's an illness or a natural disaster or any other kind of crisis, we always hope for a speedy recovery. But the unfortunate truth is that sometimes recovery takes a while, because most things just can't be fixed with the flip of a switch or the push of a button. Instead, recovery is usually a slow and continuous process, which is exactly what is reflected in the Icelandic word batavegur.

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#18: Lundi

Today's word doesn't have much of an interesting history behind it, nor is it a particularly useful word for most people. But, it's one that's worth mentioning because I chose it as a mascot for this little project of mine. It's lundi, and it means "puffin."

Surely you've noticed my little puffin up at the top of the page there, right?

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#17: Útlenska

If you encounter an Icelandic noun that ends in -(n)ska, it's a decently safe bet that it refers to some kind of language. In addition to popping up in íslenska and enska, it also appears in words like danska, spænska, hebreska, finnska, kínverska (Chinese), þyska (German), and even klingonska. That's because it's a suffix much like the -ese in "Japanese" or the -ish in "Swedish." Of course, there are exceptions (such as latína, úrdú, and norræna [Old Norse]), but they are relatively rare. And, floating in this sea of -(n)ska words there is also útlenska, the Icelandic term for "foreign language." But perhaps a more accurate translation would be something like "Foreignese."

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#16: Að Nenna

We've all had those moments when we just don't feel like doing anything-- rainy days and lazy Sundays when the only thing that sounds appealing is lounging around on the couch and eating our favorite comfort foods. Today's word is perfect for times like this, or days when you're seriously procrastinating on something important, or even when you're just feeling indifferent. It's að nenna, a verb with no precise English equivalent.

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#15: Appelsínugulur

Today's word can be used to describe many things that I really like-- pumpkins, tigers, autumn, and a surprisingly large portion of my wardrobe. It's appelsínugulur, and it's the word for my favorite color: orange.

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#14: Öndvegi

Today's word is one that, at first glance, may not seem all that useful to know. It's öndvegi, and it means "seat of honor." Sure, you may use it at an awards banquet or a big celebratory dinner, but how often do you go to those? And how often do you go to those in Iceland? It seems like öndvegi might be one of those dusty words that hardly ever gets taken off the shelf, but it turns out that that's not true at all. That's because the genitive form of the word-- öndvegis-- is actually a very handy and adaptable prefix in compound words.

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#13: Feðgar

I've already touched on untranslatable words in a previous post, but the truth is that "translatability" as a general concept doesn't really exist at all. At best, translation is merely a form of approximation. It's all about finding the "closest match" to a word in a different language, and when you do that, chances are that some subtle aspect of the original word-- perhaps its connotation, or maybe an extra layer of meaning, or something encoded in the actual sound of the word-- will be lost. This is perhaps best seen in words that describe family relations, like the Icelandic word feðgar.

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#12: Skemmtilegur

I'm always amused by autological words, or words that possess the very quality implied in their definitions. For instance, the word "short" is short, "polysyllabic" has several syllables, and "word" is a word. There are actually quite a few of these in English, and trying to list as many as you can is a fun activity. Of course, Icelandic has several self-referential words of its own, and today's choice is one of them: skemmtilegur.

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#11: Dægurlag

One of the biggest travesties in modern civilization is when a pop song lives on well after its natural expiration date. Most scholars agree (probably; I haven't asked them yet) that we'd be slightly closer to world peace if only Ice, Ice Baby had been pulled from the radio a little sooner. And often, the only thing that makes hearing Gangnam Style or Call Me Maybe being blasted throughout the mall bearable is the comforting thought that it will all be over soon. And, fortunately, that's usually how it goes... one hardly ever hears something like Who Let the Dogs Out? or Dragostea din Tei anymore. Apparently, Icelanders seem to have shared this sentiment when they came up with their own word for "pop song," dægurlag.

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#10: Matvandur

Today's word is one that I think a lot of my former housemates would use to describe me, if any of them spoke or even had a passing interest in Icelandic! It's matvandur, which means "fussy" or "picky" when it comes to food. And that's definitely me!

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#9: Veitingahús

I posted the link to this blog on Facebook a few days ago, just in case anyone in my online social circle was interested in Icelandic. I didn't expect anyone to actually click the link, but apparently at least one person did and his impression was, "cool... but why don't you post words people will actually use?" Perhaps he has a point. Words like máltaka, þrákálfur, and þórðargleði probably aren't used all that often, and I'm probably one of only a few people who talks about sporðdrekar on a regular basis.

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#8: Að Gleyma

Thus far, most of the words that I have featured have been nouns. That's no coincidence-- in our own language, over 50% of all words are nouns. Adjectives account for only about 25% of the total, and  verbs make up just 14% or so; other parts of speech are even rarer. Although the data is hard to come by, my experiences with other European languages leads me to believe that this general trend extends far beyond English. I suppose that we humans just really like things. Icelandic is no expection; in fact, its heavy reliance on idioms to describe actions means that it may have an even more skewed noun:verb ratio. But, I want to learn all the words-- this isn't Daglegt Nafnorð (the "Daily Noun")-- so today I have chosen a nice sagnorð (verb) to talk about: að gleyma.

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#7: Þórðargleði

English is a strange language. Even the most restrictive estimates put our lexicon at over a quarter of a million words, and if one were to add scientific jargon, slang, and dialectal words, that number would skyrocket even further.  Although it's hard to quantify, most experts agree that English has one of the largest sets of vocabulary (and, in all likelihood, the largest) of any language currently spoken. And yet, there are so many things that we don't have a word for, and for these things we are forced to either make use of clumsy phrases or steal outright from other languages. The German Schadenfreude is the most well-known of these stolen "untranslatable" words; it describes pleasure derived from someone else's misery. And while it's a perfectly fine word, German is not the only language to have put a name to this phenomenon. Icelandic has a word for it too, and it's þórðargleði.

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#6: Ís

I realize that my previous entries to this blog may give the impression  that Icelandic is a language of monstrously large, unwieldy compound words. And that is true, to some extent-- there's no shortage of "how am I supposed to even say that?" moments whenever you open an Icelandic book. But, that doesn't mean that every word is a mouthful and a half. Take today's word, for example-- it's short and sweet: ís.

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#5: Sérvitur

I fancy myself to be a pretty unique and quirky person, and quirkiness loves company. I suppose that's why I met a lot of very interesting, very special people when I was in college (it's a personality trait that seems to go hand-in-hand with entomology, I've found). That's why today's word is one that I have a lot of use for-- it's sérvitur, which means "odd" or "eccentric."

Some of the most special people I know.

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#4: Þrákálfur

If you can get past the guilt associated with celebrating a holiday that romanticizes the ethnic genocide perpetrated by our country's forefathers, Thanksgiving actually has a lot going for it-- yummy food, a big flashy parade, and the chance to spend quality time with your loved ones. But, like all good things, there's a catch, and that catch is that you have to invite that guy. He could be your annoying uncle, the weird out-of-state cousin, your newest someone-in-law, or that "family friend" who had nowhere else to go. One thing is certain, though: the that guy will inevitably bring his/her unique brand of backwards politics and controversial opinions to the table and, try as you might, you won't be able to avoid it. Fortunately, Icelandic has a word for the that guy, and it's þrákálfur.

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#3: Kalkún

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, and so everyone who isn't vegetarian or vegan is either defrosting their turkeys in anticipation or dueling to the death for the last one at the local grocery store. As such, it seems like a good time to talk about the Icelandic word for "turkey," kalkún.

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#2: Sporðdreki

And now it's time for one of my favorite things ever-- today's word is sporðdreki, the Icelandic word for scorpion. I've been fascinated with scorpions for a long time now, and have been keeping select species in captivity since my freshman year of college. If everything goes as planned, one day I will conduct independent research on their behavior/evolution and eventually become the scorpion guy. But enough about that. It's interesting that there is a native Icelandic word for "scorpion" to begin with, as scorpions are not found in Iceland or anywhere remotely near the Arctic Circle for that matter.

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#1: Máltaka

I suppose that it's only natural that I use my first "real" post to explain the title I gave to my new project: Dagleg Máltaka. Dagleg isn't a very exciting word; it's just the feminine form of daglegur, which means "daily."  The masculine suffix -legur (which becomes -leg in the feminine and -legt in the neuter) is a very common means of forming adjectives out of nouns in Icelandic; here, it was appended to the root of the word dagur, which means "day." The more interesting word, and the one that I really want to talk about, is máltaka.

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Aðferðirnar mínar ("My Methods")

Before I actually begin, I suppose I should describe in some more detail my aðferðir, or methods, just in case I actually have readers out there. The plan is simple: every day (more or less-- I might miss some) I will select one Icelandic word that I think is interesting and perhaps even useful. Then I will write a short little blurb about that word, highlighting all of the cool things about it in order to make it more memorable for myself (and maybe for you too)!

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Handa mér (og ef til vill handa þér líka)

I have been trying to teach myself Icelandic for a little while now. My first attempt was as a sophomore in college, and was a short-lived, wildly unsuccessful endeavor that only started after I impulse-bought a language textbook that I had no real need for. Frustrated by the steep learning curve, I put the book aside and didn't seriously try my hand at Icelandic again until I noticed it sitting on the bookshelf early last year. Now I've been at it again for over a year, and while I'm determined not to give up this time, I will readily acknowledge one thing: Icelandic is still hard! So hard, in fact, that I'd call it "bloody difficult" if I could pull off a decent British accent (which I can't).

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