# Errr.. does anyone speak Icelandic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016 "2009-04-22T20:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/41 "2009-04-25T03:26:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s the 21st century. Nobody uses wooden elves anymore. Modern elves are made out of aluminum or plastics. In fact, Iceland is currently researching the use of composite carbonfibers in the next generation of elves. Don’t let **chowder** know. He’s had enough problems with [garden gnomes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=494522). ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/42 "2009-04-25T03:27:13Z")
OMG. I just hurt myself laughing so hard. You must send the internet-translated letter. It’s too perfect not to mail. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/43 "2009-04-25T05:05:41Z")
More proof that a person can click on a random thread on the Dope, and end up with tears running down the face. Well done! \ ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/44 "2009-04-25T05:07:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Modern elves are made out of aluminum or plastics. In fact, Iceland is currently researching the use of composite carbonfibers in the next generation of elves. [Makin elvs, ur doin it rite.](http://www.grapevine.is/media/w490/246ef2925fc293d4.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![goodie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@goodie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goodie)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/45 "2009-04-25T14:23:08Z")
“I am a fish fillet with shame and a guilty conscience” OK, who’s gonna get the t-shirts made? I’ll order 2. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/46 "2009-04-25T18:33:22Z")
So where’s the freakin’ _translation_? Grrr! I hate this coitus interruptus shit! :mad: Peace, mangeorge Grrr! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/47 "2009-04-25T18:52:28Z")
I have never laughed as loud at _anything_ as I did at “fish filet with shame and guilty conscience”. Not videos of men getting hit in the nads with baseballs/bats, not dramatic chipmunk, not Monty Python sketches, not even Eddie Izzard. Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/48 "2009-04-25T19:07:50Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > That’s a thorn: þ. It’s the hard th sound in “thin”. The other is eth: ð. That’s the soft th sound in “this”. The a-e ligature can be transcribed as (you guessed it) ae. I’m still pissed at those middle english scribes who thought they could get rid of eth and thorn. Assholes. Don’t you mean “Aþoles” ? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/49 "2009-04-25T20:48:10Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > That’s a thorn: þ. It’s the hard th sound in “thin”. The other is eth: ð. That’s the soft th sound in “this”. The a-e ligature can be transcribed as (you guessed it) ae. I’m still pissed at those middle english scribes who thought they could get rid of eth and thorn. Assholes. Don’t you mean the other way around–hard (voiced fricative) sound in “this” and soft (voiceless fricative) sound in “thin”? Isn’t Icelandic nearly impossible for other Scandinavians to understand with just their native language knowledge? IIRC the Continental Nordic languages, especially Danish, have lost nearly all the morphological complexity that they once shared with Icelandic, which imposes syntactic requirements that an inflected language does not have. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/50 "2009-04-25T20:52:08Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Don’t you mean the other way around–hard (voiced fricative) sound in “this” and soft (voiceless fricative) sound in “thin”? > > Isn’t Icelandic nearly impossible for other Scandinavians to understand with just their native language knowledge? IIRC the Continental Nordic languages, especially Danish, have lost nearly all the morphological complexity that they once shared with Icelandic, which imposes syntactic requirements that an inflected language does not have. I can only speak with regards to my Swedish friends. Those that know me and my family (and have hence heard us speak Icelandic) can after 20+ years pick up bits and pieces of sentences and guesstimate what’s said. But then again, we speak rather quickly. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/51 "2009-04-25T21:27:36Z")
But what does the original letter say? Is the letter an Icelandic equivalent of Who Shot JR? Inquiring minds want to know. Plus, with a trip to Iceland planned soon, I want to know how to avoid my own fish fillet o’shame… Aluminum elves I can handle. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/52 "2009-04-26T01:04:31Z")
Worm the Red sent it to me. Probably much less interesting than you think (aside from the Icelandic government apparently not understanding the difference between someone brought over to consult and a native Icelandic citizen employee). Thanks, Mate! ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/53 "2009-04-26T01:36:11Z")
Just glad I could help. Now I’m waiting for a question regarding a unicycle, which \*\*Sunspace \*\*mentioned 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/54 "2009-04-26T02:17:01Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > the Icelandic government apparently not understanding the difference between someone brought over to consult and a native Icelandic citizen employee At this point… it doesn’t care. The small-city-that-thinks-it’s-a-country is facing a staggering 10% GDP contraction this year… and another the next. Its economy has been obliterated by the financial crisis, being a tax and law haven for international bankers. But with a per-capita GDP that is fourth-highest in the world, it is hard to feel sorry for them. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/55 "2009-04-26T02:26:19Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > At this point… it doesn’t care. > > The small-city-that-thinks-it’s-a-country is facing a staggering 10% GDP contraction this year… and another the next. Its economy has been obliterated by the financial crisis, being a tax and law haven for international bankers. But with a per-capita GDP that is fourth-highest in the world, it is hard to feel sorry for them. When I see a stat like that, I always wonder who gets that GDP. ---
**Author:** ![Hadrian\_s\_Wall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hadrian\_s\_Wall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hadrian_s_Wall)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/56 "2009-04-27T00:23:26Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > When I see a stat like that, I always wonder who gets that GDP. The aluminum elves 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/57 "2009-04-27T00:52:14Z")
> [@McLuhan's Thunder](#): > > The aluminum elves 😉 Probably. And we all know what _they_ spend it on. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/58 "2009-04-27T01:03:10Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Probably. And we all know what _they_ spend it on. 😉 Glögg and lutefisk. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/59 "2009-04-27T01:09:33Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Glögg and lutefisk. Sounds . . . . , well, it sounds Icelandic, I guess. Or Swedish. What do I know? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016/60 "2009-04-27T01:20:37Z")
I wiki’d both. So now I know. I love wikipedia, with all it’s faults. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errr-does-anyone-speak-icelandic/494016.md?page=4)