Icelandic alphabet

Icelandic alphabet

Notes

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The letters "a", "á", "e", "é", "i", "í", "o", "ó", "u", "ú", "y", "ý", "æ" and "ö" are considered vowels, and the remainder are consonants.

The letters C ("sé", IPA| [sjɛ] ), Q ("kú", IPA| [kʰu] ) and W ("tvöfalt vaff", IPA| [ˈtʰvœfal̥t ˌvafː] ) are only used in Icelandic in words of foreign origin and some proper names that are also of foreign origin. Otherwise, "c, qu," and "w" are substituted with "k/s/ts, hv," and "v" respectively. (And in fact, "hv" is a direct cognate of Latin "qu" and English "wh": Icelandic "hvað", Latin "quod", English "what".)

The letter Z ("seta", IPA| [ˈsɛta] ) was used until 1974, when it was abolished, as it was only an etymological detail. However, one of the most important newspapers in Iceland, the Morgunblaðið, still uses it sometimes (although very rarely), and a secondary school, Verzlunarskóli Íslands has it in its name. It is also found in some proper names of people. Older people, who were educated before the abolition of the "z" sometimes also use it.


Letter frequencies

The most common letters in Icelandic are "n" and "a" [ [http://www.cryptogram.org/cdb/words/frequency.html www.cryptogram.org/cdb/words/frequency.html] - Letter frequencies. Retrieved 23 April 2007.] .

The list above shows the letter frequencies for more letters in order of descending frequency.

ee also

References

* http://www.ielanguages.com/icelandic.html used as source for pronunciation descriptions

External links

* [http://bella.mrn.stjr.is/utgafur/islenska.pdf "„Íslenska, í senn forn og ný“."]


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