Icelandic Vowel Shifts

Icelandic Flag


Changes in Icelandic pronunciation

In Icelandic vowels change, or “shift” for many reasons, the most common reasons being case endings or tense. The most common shift is the ö shift. This occurs in the plural neuter nominative and accusative and when a syllable proceeding the letter a is a u. For example, the feminine noun taska (case) will become tösku, not tasku, in the singular accusative, dative and genitive. There are however two rules: an accented á does not change and the combination au does not qualify (augu does not become öugu). In unstressed positions, the a changes to u rather than ö

Another vowel shift in Icelandic is the I shift. This shift has many uses, but these will be dealt with when they occur, although the most important use is the present tense of strong verbs. The I shift involves the following changes:

A = e
taka = tek

O = e
koma = kem

Á = æ
fá = fæ

Ú  = ý
búa = bý

Jú = ý
fljúga = flýg 

Jó  = ý
brjóta = brýt

Au = ey
auka = eyk

The I shift never occurs in the plural.

Taka – take
Koma – come
Fá – get
Búa – live
Fljúga – fly
Brjóta – break
Auka – increase

Other Pronunciation Changes

Fraction

This is purely to ease pronunciation and to lessen the effects of harsh sounds. Fraction is very common, and thankfully, very easy to do. Any nouns or adjectives that have two syllables in the stem lose the second stem vowel when a vowel ending is added. Gamall means old. Fraction would occur here when an ending beginning with a vowel is added. So, instead of becoming gamalan we get gamlan.

Fraction does not apply to nouns with the definite article when it is at the end of the noun. Furthermore, fraction does not occur in adjectives ending in legur. This means that fallegur (beautiful) would become fallegan.

J Insertion

J insertion is used to keep a consistent relationship between spelling and pronunciation. It occurs naturally in speech so you need not worry about pronouncing it too much. The rules for J insertion are simple. Whenever an ending beginning a or u is added to a stem ending ý, æ or ey, a j will be placed between stem and ending. For example, nýr will become nýjum.



Buy ielanguages.com language tutorials

If you enjoy the tutorials, then please consider buying French, Informal French, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, or Dutch Language Tutorials as a PDF e-book with free mp3s and free lifetime updates.

Buy French Tutorial

Buy Informal French

Both French e-books

Buy Italian Tutorial

Buy Spanish Tutorial

Buy German Tutorial

Buy Swedish Tutorial

Buy Dutch Tutorial





Please consider sending a donation of any amount to help support ielanguages.com. Thank you!

Donate




Return to top of page






Learn languages with videos and subtitles at FluentU

FluentU offers authentic videos in French, Spanish, German, English, Chinese and Japanese. Learn from captions and translations and enjoy access to ALL languages!

Learn languages with videos and subtitles at Yabla

Learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and English with authentic videos by Yabla that include subtitles and translations.



Learn languages by reading Interlinear Books

Learn to read languages with interlinear bilingual books that include the original language and an English translation below in a smaller font.

Udemy Language Learning Courses

Hundreds of free and paid online language learning video courses at Udemy. By native speakers and experts, from Arabic to Zulu.






© | About | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy