Icelandic phonology

Icelandic phonology

Icelandic phonology is the study of the phonology of the Icelandic language. Unlike many languages, Icelandic has only very minor dialectal differences in sounds, due to the relatively small number of speakers and the concentration of these speakers in mostly one area. The language has both monophthongs and diphthongs, and many consonants can be voiced or unvoiced.

Icelandic has an aspiration contrast between plosives, rather than a voicing contrast. Preaspirated voiceless stops are also common. However fricative and sonorant consonant phonemes exhibit regular contrasts in voice, including in nasals (rare in the world's languages). Additionally, length is contrastive for consonants, but not vowels. In Icelandic, the main stress is always on the first syllable.

Consonants

The chart below is based on Scholten (2000, p. 22); refer to the IPA article for information on the sounds of the following symbols:Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right of the dot represents a rounded vowel.

Vowel length is predictable in Icelandic (Orešnik and Pétursson 1977). Stressed vowels (both monophthongs and diphthongs) are long:
*In one-syllable words where the vowel is word-final:
**"fá" IPA| [fauː] "get"
**"nei" IPA| [neiː] "no"
**"þú" IPA| [θuː] "you (singular)"
*Before a single consonant:
**"fara" IPA| [ˈfaːra] "go"
**"hás" IPA| [hauːs] "hoarse"
**"vekja" IPA| [ˈvɛːca] "wake (someone) up
**"ég" IPA| [jɛːɣ] "I"
**"spyr" IPA| [spɪːr] "ask (1 person, singular)"
*Before any of the consonant clusters IPA| [pr tr kr sr] , IPA| [pj tj sj] , or IPA| [tv kv] . (This is often shortened to the rule: If the first of the consonants is one of p, t, k, s and the second is one of j, v, r, then the vowel is long. This is known as the "ptks+jvr-rule". An exception occurs, if there is a t before the infix k. Examples are e. g. notkun and litka. There are also additional exceptions like um and fram where the vowel is short in spite of rules and en, where the vowel length depends on the context.)
**"lipra" IPA| [ˈlɪːpra] "agile (accusative, feminine)"
**"sætra" IPA| [ˈsaiːtra] "sweet (genitive, plural)"
**"akra" IPA| [ˈaːkra] "fields (accusative, plural)"
**"hásra" IPA| [ˈhauːsra] "hoarse (genitive, plural)"
**"vepja" IPA| [ˈvɛːpja] "lapwing"
**"letja" IPA| [ˈlɛːtja] "dissuade"
**"Esja" IPA| [ˈɛːsja] proper noun, a mountain
**"götva" IPA| [ˈkœːtva] as in "uppgötva" "discover"
**"vökva" IPA| [ˈvœːkva] "water (verb)"

Before other consonant clusters (including the preaspirated stops IPA| [hp ht hk] and geminate consonants), stressed vowels are short. Unstressed vowels are always short.
*"Karl" IPA| [kʰartl̥] proper noun
*"standa" IPA| [ˈstanta] "stand"
*"sjálfur" IPA| [ˈsjaulvʏr] "self"
*"kenna" IPA| [ˈcʰɛnːa] "teach"
*"fínt" IPA| [fin̥t] "fine"
*"loft" IPA| [lɔft] "air"
*"upp" IPA| [ʏʰp] "up"
*"yrði" IPA| [ˈɪrðɪ] as in "nýyrði" "neologism"
*"ætla" IPA| [ˈaiʰtla] "will (verb)"
*"laust" IPA| [løyst] "lightly, loose"

Bibliography

*cite journal | author=Orešnik, Janez, and Magnús Pétursson | title=Quantity in Modern Icelandic | journal=Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi | year=1977 | volume=92 | pages=155–71
*cite book | first=Daniel | last=Scholten | year=2000 | title=Einführung in die isländische Grammatik | location=Munich | publisher=Philyra Verlag | id=ISBN 3-935267-00-2

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