@@letslearnicelandic405 Great Videos! Thank you so much. One thing is the video suggestion at the end blocks the chat at the end. I look forward to watching many more of your videos. I'm from Ireland originally and I love Iceland!!!
I'm very pleasantly surprised to see that all of the icelandic vowels have an equivalent sound in French. It will probably be a very different story with consonants however... Thank you so much for these videos, you make it very approachable and interesting!
I am not surprised! The pronunciation of French seems quite complex to me (even though I don't know any French), but I expect French has even more vowel sounds than we do! I did hear of a French girl that had difficulties distinguishing between the Icelandic E and I... Though that might be only that one girl... or because Icelanders sometimes pronounce things sloppily. But I am pretty sure that at least some of the consonant sounds will be new to you :) though maybe only a couple, lets see :)
@@letslearnicelandic405 I wouldn't be surprised if we have more vowel sounds yes, the tricky ones are similar though. For the difficulties between E and I that seems odd as we have both too. The E would be spelled É in french and our E would be more like your Ö. The I is the same but we don't have a distinction with the Í. In any case, all of that is fascinating. It's so interesting to see the differences and similarities of languages and the different paths taken by each. As for the consonants, definitely a lot of unheard sounds, I was taken aback the first time someone tried to teach me icelandic in person haha You make it look reasonably less jarring at least so thank you!
@@kettebece Yes I am sure the complexities of French pronunciation will help your Icelandic :) Yes I agree, I think it's very interesting to see similarities and differences between languages (and I have already learned so much in the few months that I have taught this course). For the Icelandic pronunciation - I think that it is important to see it as a marathon... not try to learn everything at once, just one step at the time :) Then even if you don't get something at the first try (which is normal) you will get better and better as you practice and listen to more Icelandic. Good luck with everything!
Yea, very similar to French vowels, and almost all the sounds in Icelandic also exist in English, while the Ö letter also exists in German and it is the same as the Œ in the French word cœur and the same as the Norwegian / Danish / Norse / Faroese letter Ø and it represents an EO sound (normaI E sound + normal O sound that are said in one sound) and, the AU diphthong is very similar to the EU / ÄU diphthongs in German and is an EOI / EOY sound, so it’s almost the same with an extra E sound! I must admit that it’s true that I couldn’t tell the difference between í and i at first, but then I realized that the i without accent is actually very similar to the i in the English word within which is an i that is more towards and e sound, which is used a lot in English words, while the í with accent is the normal / full i / y sound like a shorter version of the EE diphthong in the English word seen and like the i in the Spanish word mia! Pronouncing and learning Icelandic and Old Norse words is real fun!
@@letslearnicelandic405 In fact, French is the most Germanic of the Latin languages because France is essentially a Germanic kingdom although the Frankish monarchs claimed to be heirs to the Western Roman Empire (just as English is the most Latin one among Germanic languages because of French influence and Norman conquest in 1066; this also explains, in addition to the Danelaw, why there are so many Norse tropes in modern English). We have a lot of pretty frequently used verbs like « abandonner » or « briser » which are of Germanic origin. However, most of the diphthongs and triptongs that sound Germanic in French (as < eui > is) are in fact derived from latin words, so I can't really explain the similarity. It could be due to the influence of Frankish elites on what would become "La Langue d'Oïl", which is the ancestor of modern French, but given the evolution of French over time, I don't really think so. Another reason could be a synthesis between gallic and classical Latin phonetics but, that being said, the two were probably too close for this to be a credible explanation. I know, that's a very complicated way of saying "I don't know why". ^^
Your lectur is very helpful. You do not only explain the changing of lips, but also let me notice the forewards movement of your lower jaw . ( U ,Ö . AU )😢. Thank you.
In Québec French, the u in closed syllables are pronounced like the Icelandic u! Ex. lune (tungl í íslensku)! In European French, u's are always pointed. Takk aftur!
Yes, I noticed, my French speaking American friend pronounces U excellently in Icelandic, while this is a difficult vowel for many! (For me, all of French is difficult in pronunciation)
You really helped a lot with that and I figured out that for a native German the pronunciation of most of these are pretty easy. For example Á is the sound we German make when we are in pain. Aua or Au which is exactly the same pronunciation or the U its a Ü in German and sound pretty simliar so it's rather easy :) But I can't wrap my head around how you pronounce the R. It's so difficult
I'm so happy I could help! Yes! Á is also the sound we Icelanders say when we are in pain! Either Á or Ái 😊 The German R is also difficult for us! I don't know if you looked at my EP. 03, but hopefully it can help (with a lot of practise). Good luck! / Gangi þér vel!
Thank you so much for these videos. I'm planning on doing a video every day in the hope that I can say some things when I'll visit Iceland one day. You seem like a very nice person and you explain everything very well. It's a joy to follow your lessons!
Just started to follow your lessons, they are simply excellent, congrats!! Funny surprise: « au » is one of the easiest vowel to pronounce for a native French speaker since it sounds exactly like « œil » which means « eye » :) Ok let’s continue with lesson no 3 :)
Yes! I have heard a French speaker mention this before, not so many languages that have this sound, so you have an advantage :) Gangi þér vel / Good luck!
How’ve you progressed since typing this comment? I’m curious as I’ve started learning Icelandic 4 days ago with possibly the same goal in mind. If not at the very least to visit Iceland.
The way I get people to pronounce ö is to tell them to round their lips for O and then say “E” inside their mouth. The Icelandic pronunciation of both letters seems to involve a glide, so I guess it works from either side. :-)
Thank you so much for these videos! I hope more videos are on their way as I am really enjoying the style and lightheartedness. As many of others have said, keep up the great work!
For my scottish dialect, we dont have the Ú sound at all, all our o, oo and u's like in "wolf" "foot" and "sure" has been replaced with a vowel thats somewhere inbetween the icelandic u vowel and the icelandic ö vowel
That is interesting. Scottish is fascinating. Some years back I visited Edinburgh (which was very lovely). I had to ask some directions, and the person who was nice enough to help me had such a unique accent that I did not understand even one single word! That was a very funny experience that I did not expect, and I didn't have any problems understanding anyone else, just this one person.
Ciao Ása! I write in Italian 'cause I know you're learning it :) If you want to have another Italian friend for a language exchange, here I am! I'm starting to learn Icelandic with your videos, let me know if you want to chat sometimes :) I'm a born-and-raised Italian translator from Spanish and English and I'd like to add Icelandic to my combinations.
Ciao Paola!! Volevo sapere come va dopo un anno!? Anch'io sono traduttrice, dall'italiano e dall'inglese al francese principalmente, e voglio anch'io aggiungere l'islandese!! (Tra l'altro, se proponi ancora conversazioni per parlare italiano, sarei interessata, per non perderlo) E quindi.... Ce la fai con questa lingua? 🤗
Just discovered your channel and wanted to thank you for these fantastic videos. Your explanations on pronunciation are the best I've seen & very helpful!
Dear Asa, your lessons are very informative but quite time consuming when there is a lot of commentary. Would be good if you could make an abbreviated lesson on all the letters in icelandic alphabet, that excludes much of the commentary, advice, or encouragement for learners.
@@letslearnicelandic405 Right. Perhaps you can consider a lesson repeating the words you had pronounced from Ep00 to Ep13. Abbreviated lessons like that would cater for a bigger audience, as those valuing summary styles.
@@tantrigos108 This is not on my plan. You don't really need to watch all the pronunciation videos, they are mainly meant for reference and more detailed description. You can just pick up pronunciation through general learning of Icelandic (whatever method you choose), and if there is any letter you have problems with, you can look at that specific video.
Can Icelandic people still understand non-native Icelandic speakers who have a tough time with the trilled r? As an American English speaker who has studied some French and German, "aur" is the most challenging word for me to pronounce yet. The diphthong itself isn't too difficult (I liken it to the last syllable of the French word, "recueil"). However, combining that diphthong with a trilled "r" at the end of the word is tough! Guess I'll try to avoid talking about money in Icelandic XD! Thanks so much for making these vids!
Yes! In general we understand it quite easily if the r is "foreign", it is mainly a matter of having a stronger accent. Actually you will see later that Icelanders often soften the R at the end of words, and when speaking quickly and so on. I provide some tips on how to do the R in EP.03, so if you haven't I suggest that you look at the episode and do your best to try and practise. But if you still cannot, do not worry you will still be completely understandable with an American R, so don't let that stop you! Thanks for the kind words and good luck!
To make it easier, the letter ö is pronounced [ø] as in Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, German, and Turkish. It can also be pronounced [œ]. And U is pronounced like the I in “zip”, but with the lips rounded, which is [Y] in IPA. Likewise, Au is pronounced [œi] or [œy]
The Ö represents the OE sound and it is the same as the Œ / œ in French word cœur and the Ø / ø in Norwegian / Faroese / Norse etc, which is the same sound, but has different letters in certain languages, and it is a normal E sound + a normal O sound pronounced fast in one sound, so the two sounds are connected - the U in Icelandic is usually pronounced yu in most words, and it’s a normal i / y sound + a normal u sound pronounced fast in one word, and in certain words it is pronounced more towards an i sound with softer u sound that isn’t very obvious, while in other words it is pronounced like a normal u sound, and usually when there are two u letters in the same word, one will be pronounced like a normal u sound and one like an yu sound, depending on the word, in both Icelandic & Old Norse, most pronunciation rules are actually the same in both Icelandic & Old Norse, tho there are also some differences!
So, the u isn’t pronounced like the i in zip at all, the i in the English word zip is more like the i without accent in Icelandic, which is an i sound that is more towards an e sound, so it’s technically between an i sound and an e sound, and it’s not a normal / full i sound like the í with accent - while the u is an yu sound that sounds like the English word you and like the ü in German and like the u in French and like the UU diphthong in Dutch words like muur / duur / vuur etc, being an i sound followed by an u sound that are said fast in one short sound, and the Icelandic AU diphthong is indeed pronounced EOI / EOY and the EO sound is spelled with œ or ö or ø depending on the language!
Thank you so much again! I'm excited to be learning a little bit of icelandic every day and you explain the pronunciations very well. Thank you! Also "Otti" sounds exactly like "Ох ты" in Russian. It means "Oh, you" in an exclamatory way. My mom would use it when she was angry at me after I did something terrible as a kid 😂 and she uses it when I'm rebellious in a "oh, you silly little thing" way
Hahhaha my first Russian word/phrase! And what a fun one at that. I will make sure to try it out the next time I meet a Russian person. Thanks so much for this, and for watching ♥
The "au" sound is _very_ similar to a sound of exasperation or annoyance in American English. Maybe not the most common sound, but definitely recognized by all Americans. I believe it's spelled "oy" and is effectively a shortening of the Yiddish phrase, "Oy vey." As a side note, the British English exclamation "oi" is the same sound but said quickly and harshly. The American equivalent to that would be the "hey" exclamation.
Yes, the vowels are fairly easy, but overall at least Spanish/Italian people usually pronounce Icelandic very well. I am sure French/Portuguese people do to, but I have heard it less, so I don't know for sure.
OK... short answer no - they should not be the same 😄 To try to exaggerate the difference: For U: Press your lips almost together (not make a circle), and push out your jaw a little. Nothing should move. For Ö: Keep your lips round, jaw back, and try to open the lips up while saying Ö, I think this should help* *In some words we start with the lips more open and close them while saying Ö, but start by learning the other way, small -> large, that is easier (I think) and also more common. Try this and if you still have troubles, try to listen to Icelandic with subtitles and see if you can recognise the difference and try again! And if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask! Good luck! / Gangi þér vel!
I need help so bad. I met a guy in Iceland named Haukur and I can't pronounce his name and it is driving me crazy! I have tried to use the o into e sound and he is saying I'm saying it wrong. I tried to use google translation and it is is saying "how kurrrr" which is wrong. Any help?why I say it, I am saying hoy e kerr
Go to google translate, write "haukur" and press the sound button. The pronunciation for haukur there is actually very good (not completely true for all words). Good luck!
Pro tip: "au" sounds exactly like the French word for eye, "œil", if you want to explain this to a French person or for future French speakers on this channel!!
Ah... Good question... Difficult to answer. I would say Icelandic is a slightly "purer" or "stronger" ú or ´oo´ sound than in Spanish/Italian, which to us sound like 80% Ú + 20% U. But you can just forget I said that, and assume spanish/italina U is the same as Icelandic Ú, they certainly overlap, and are almost the same.
That's so funny, I had no idea! I don't know any Portuguese, but I know some Spanish, and the Portuguese pronunciation sounds incredibly cute to me. Portugal is one of my favourite Eurovision nation because they so often send a song in their own language and I love that!
![Icelandic Pronunciation - X, M, R, S, J, and H [EP.03]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n49qdbNyJ7M/mqdefault.jpg)
![Icelandic Pronunciation - X, M, R, S, J, and H [EP.03]](/img/tr.png)
![[EP.00] Let's Learn Icelandic - Introduction](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/x5M97-PFESw/mqdefault.jpg)
Your channel is a blessing for someone that wants to learn icelandic and has no idea where to start from! Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! It makes me happy and relieved that this is useful!
Gangi þér vel / Good luck!
@@letslearnicelandic405 Great Videos! Thank you so much. One thing is the video suggestion at the end blocks the chat at the end. I look forward to watching many more of your videos. I'm from Ireland originally and I love Iceland!!!
xD My Icelandic friend was laughing at me a ton while I was practicing. It was tons of fun!
:) Having fun is the most important part!
Thank you for watching ♥
I'm very pleasantly surprised to see that all of the icelandic vowels have an equivalent sound in French. It will probably be a very different story with consonants however... Thank you so much for these videos, you make it very approachable and interesting!
I am not surprised! The pronunciation of French seems quite complex to me (even though I don't know any French), but I expect French has even more vowel sounds than we do!
I did hear of a French girl that had difficulties distinguishing between the Icelandic E and I...
Though that might be only that one girl... or because Icelanders sometimes pronounce things sloppily.
But I am pretty sure that at least some of the consonant sounds will be new to you :)
though maybe only a couple, lets see :)
@@letslearnicelandic405 I wouldn't be surprised if we have more vowel sounds yes, the tricky ones are similar though. For the difficulties between E and I that seems odd as we have both too. The E would be spelled É in french and our E would be more like your Ö. The I is the same but we don't have a distinction with the Í.
In any case, all of that is fascinating. It's so interesting to see the differences and similarities of languages and the different paths taken by each. As for the consonants, definitely a lot of unheard sounds, I was taken aback the first time someone tried to teach me icelandic in person haha You make it look reasonably less jarring at least so thank you!
@@kettebece Yes I am sure the complexities of French pronunciation will help your Icelandic :)
Yes I agree, I think it's very interesting to see similarities and differences between languages (and I have already learned so much in the few months that I have taught this course).
For the Icelandic pronunciation - I think that it is important to see it as a marathon... not try to learn everything at once, just one step at the time :) Then even if you don't get something at the first try (which is normal) you will get better and better as you practice and listen to more Icelandic.
Good luck with everything!
@@letslearnicelandic405 Thank you, that's a great advice and it sounds like a good approach to have with language learning in general!
Yea, very similar to French vowels, and almost all the sounds in Icelandic also exist in English, while the Ö letter also exists in German and it is the same as the Œ in the French word cœur and the same as the Norwegian / Danish / Norse / Faroese letter Ø and it represents an EO sound (normaI E sound + normal O sound that are said in one sound) and, the AU diphthong is very similar to the EU / ÄU diphthongs in German and is an EOI / EOY sound, so it’s almost the same with an extra E sound! I must admit that it’s true that I couldn’t tell the difference between í and i at first, but then I realized that the i without accent is actually very similar to the i in the English word within which is an i that is more towards and e sound, which is used a lot in English words, while the í with accent is the normal / full i / y sound like a shorter version of the EE diphthong in the English word seen and like the i in the Spanish word mia! Pronouncing and learning Icelandic and Old Norse words is real fun!
I am so glad someone made this. My go-to for language learning is Duolingo, but there is no course there. Thank you so much.
You're an excellent teacher. Keep it up 👏
The grapheme < au > is almost equivalent to french < euille > as in « feuille ».
Yes! More people have mentioned this, so now I have to listen to French to hear this very random and unexpected similarity :)
@@letslearnicelandic405
In fact, French is the most Germanic of the Latin languages because France is essentially a Germanic kingdom although the Frankish monarchs claimed to be heirs to the Western Roman Empire (just as English is the most Latin one among Germanic languages because of French influence and Norman conquest in 1066; this also explains, in addition to the Danelaw, why there are so many Norse tropes in modern English).
We have a lot of pretty frequently used verbs like « abandonner » or « briser » which are of Germanic origin. However, most of the diphthongs and triptongs that sound Germanic in French (as < eui > is) are in fact derived from latin words, so I can't really explain the similarity.
It could be due to the influence of Frankish elites on what would become "La Langue d'Oïl", which is the ancestor of modern French, but given the evolution of French over time, I don't really think so. Another reason could be a synthesis between gallic and classical Latin phonetics but, that being said, the two were probably too close for this to be a credible explanation.
I know, that's a very complicated way of saying "I don't know why". ^^
takk fyrir for the lessons, keep going🙌
Your lectur is very helpful. You do not only explain the changing of lips, but also let me notice the forewards movement of your lower jaw . ( U ,Ö . AU )😢. Thank you.
In Québec French, the u in closed syllables are pronounced like the Icelandic u! Ex. lune (tungl í íslensku)! In European French, u's are always pointed. Takk aftur!
Yes, I noticed, my French speaking American friend pronounces U excellently in Icelandic, while this is a difficult vowel for many!
(For me, all of French is difficult in pronunciation)
@@letslearnicelandic405 Góðan daginn! Franskur framburður er stundum erfiður. Bless bless!
Takk takk
You really helped a lot with that and I figured out that for a native German the pronunciation of most of these are pretty easy. For example Á is the sound we German make when we are in pain. Aua or Au which is exactly the same pronunciation or the U its a Ü in German and sound pretty simliar so it's rather easy :)
But I can't wrap my head around how you pronounce the R. It's so difficult
I'm so happy I could help!
Yes! Á is also the sound we Icelanders say when we are in pain! Either Á or Ái 😊
The German R is also difficult for us! I don't know if you looked at my EP. 03, but hopefully it can help (with a lot of practise).
Good luck! / Gangi þér vel!
Isländisches „U“ wird sogar gleich ausgesprochen wie das deutsche „Ü“ in „üppig“ (und nicht wie in „übel“) :)
I'm trying to learn Icelandic and your videos are so helpful. Thanks for making them. :)
Happy to hear that! Good luck with everything!
Thank you so much for these videos. I'm planning on doing a video every day in the hope that I can say some things when I'll visit Iceland one day. You seem like a very nice person and you explain everything very well. It's a joy to follow your lessons!
Good luck!
Just started to follow your lessons, they are simply excellent, congrats!!
Funny surprise: « au » is one of the easiest vowel to pronounce for a native French speaker since it sounds exactly like « œil » which means « eye » :)
Ok let’s continue with lesson no 3 :)
Yes! I have heard a French speaker mention this before, not so many languages that have this sound, so you have an advantage :)
Gangi þér vel / Good luck!
I am very pleased to find your channel.
I am very pleased that you found it ❤️
i am german and someday i want to move to iceland and i am starting to learn icelandic now with you and its so fun and helpful
What a lovely comment! I hope you manage to realise your dreams! And that you have fun with learning Icelandic!
Good luck! / Gangi þér vel!
How’ve you progressed since typing this comment? I’m curious as I’ve started learning Icelandic 4 days ago with possibly the same goal in mind. If not at the very least to visit Iceland.
The way I get people to pronounce ö is to tell them to round their lips for O and then say “E” inside their mouth. The Icelandic pronunciation of both letters seems to involve a glide, so I guess it works from either side. :-)
Thank you so much for these videos! I hope more videos are on their way as I am really enjoying the style and lightheartedness. As many of others have said, keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!
For my scottish dialect, we dont have the Ú sound at all, all our o, oo and u's like in "wolf" "foot" and "sure" has been replaced with a vowel thats somewhere inbetween the icelandic u vowel and the icelandic ö vowel
That is interesting. Scottish is fascinating. Some years back I visited Edinburgh (which was very lovely). I had to ask some directions, and the person who was nice enough to help me had such a unique accent that I did not understand even one single word! That was a very funny experience that I did not expect, and I didn't have any problems understanding anyone else, just this one person.
I like this language amazing video keep going 🤠 you are great teacher 👍
Thank you so much ❤
I think that also in Italian we have this difference between O and Ó (even if they are written the same). We call them "open" and "closed" vowels!
Yes, the different accents in Italian are not completely trivial...
Fantastic bombastic takk takk
Ciao Ása! I write in Italian 'cause I know you're learning it :) If you want to have another Italian friend for a language exchange, here I am! I'm starting to learn Icelandic with your videos, let me know if you want to chat sometimes :) I'm a born-and-raised Italian translator from Spanish and English and I'd like to add Icelandic to my combinations.
Ciao! I am not in need for a language exchange partner right now, but thanks for offering.
Icelandic is a very ambitious addition :)
Good luck!
Ciao Paola!! Volevo sapere come va dopo un anno!? Anch'io sono traduttrice, dall'italiano e dall'inglese al francese principalmente, e voglio anch'io aggiungere l'islandese!! (Tra l'altro, se proponi ancora conversazioni per parlare italiano, sarei interessata, per non perderlo) E quindi.... Ce la fai con questa lingua? 🤗
Just discovered your channel and wanted to thank you for these fantastic videos. Your explanations on pronunciation are the best I've seen & very helpful!
I am glad you found the videos useful, best of luck to you!
Gangi þér vel!
I love your lessons!!
Thank you!!!
Dear Asa, your lessons are very informative but quite time consuming when there is a lot of commentary. Would be good if you could make an abbreviated lesson on all the letters in icelandic alphabet, that excludes much of the commentary, advice, or encouragement for learners.
You can start with EP.13, which is the alphabet... then there are some shorter versions by other people online. Good luck!
@@letslearnicelandic405 Right. Perhaps you can consider a lesson repeating the words you had pronounced from Ep00 to Ep13. Abbreviated lessons like that would cater for a bigger audience, as those valuing summary styles.
@@tantrigos108 This is not on my plan. You don't really need to watch all the pronunciation videos, they are mainly meant for reference and more detailed description. You can just pick up pronunciation through general learning of Icelandic (whatever method you choose), and if there is any letter you have problems with, you can look at that specific video.
Can Icelandic people still understand non-native Icelandic speakers who have a tough time with the trilled r? As an American English speaker who has studied some French and German, "aur" is the most challenging word for me to pronounce yet. The diphthong itself isn't too difficult (I liken it to the last syllable of the French word, "recueil"). However, combining that diphthong with a trilled "r" at the end of the word is tough! Guess I'll try to avoid talking about money in Icelandic XD! Thanks so much for making these vids!
Yes! In general we understand it quite easily if the r is "foreign", it is mainly a matter of having a stronger accent. Actually you will see later that Icelanders often soften the R at the end of words, and when speaking quickly and so on.
I provide some tips on how to do the R in EP.03, so if you haven't I suggest that you look at the episode and do your best to try and practise. But if you still cannot, do not worry you will still be completely understandable with an American R, so don't let that stop you!
Thanks for the kind words and good luck!
To make it easier, the letter ö is pronounced [ø] as in Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, German, and Turkish. It can also be pronounced [œ].
And U is pronounced like the I in “zip”, but with the lips rounded, which is [Y] in IPA.
Likewise, Au is pronounced [œi] or [œy]
Very good tips!
The Ö represents the OE sound and it is the same as the Œ / œ in French word cœur and the Ø / ø in Norwegian / Faroese / Norse etc, which is the same sound, but has different letters in certain languages, and it is a normal E sound + a normal O sound pronounced fast in one sound, so the two sounds are connected - the U in Icelandic is usually pronounced yu in most words, and it’s a normal i / y sound + a normal u sound pronounced fast in one word, and in certain words it is pronounced more towards an i sound with softer u sound that isn’t very obvious, while in other words it is pronounced like a normal u sound, and usually when there are two u letters in the same word, one will be pronounced like a normal u sound and one like an yu sound, depending on the word, in both Icelandic & Old Norse, most pronunciation rules are actually the same in both Icelandic & Old Norse, tho there are also some differences!
So, the u isn’t pronounced like the i in zip at all, the i in the English word zip is more like the i without accent in Icelandic, which is an i sound that is more towards an e sound, so it’s technically between an i sound and an e sound, and it’s not a normal / full i sound like the í with accent - while the u is an yu sound that sounds like the English word you and like the ü in German and like the u in French and like the UU diphthong in Dutch words like muur / duur / vuur etc, being an i sound followed by an u sound that are said fast in one short sound, and the Icelandic AU diphthong is indeed pronounced EOI / EOY and the EO sound is spelled with œ or ö or ø depending on the language!
@@FrozenMermaid666 That’s what I said…
A help for some Australians, the Au is kind of like the oe in 'joey'
Thank you so much again! I'm excited to be learning a little bit of icelandic every day and you explain the pronunciations very well. Thank you!
Also "Otti" sounds exactly like "Ох ты" in Russian. It means "Oh, you" in an exclamatory way. My mom would use it when she was angry at me after I did something terrible as a kid 😂 and she uses it when I'm rebellious in a "oh, you silly little thing" way
Hahhaha my first Russian word/phrase! And what a fun one at that. I will make sure to try it out the next time I meet a Russian person. Thanks so much for this, and for watching ♥
@@letslearnicelandic405 I forgot to add, its also used as in "oh wow!" Like "oh wow that view is unbelievable"
thank you so much for the lesson 😄
You are very welcome!
The "au" sound is _very_ similar to a sound of exasperation or annoyance in American English. Maybe not the most common sound, but definitely recognized by all Americans. I believe it's spelled "oy" and is effectively a shortening of the Yiddish phrase, "Oy vey."
As a side note, the British English exclamation "oi" is the same sound but said quickly and harshly. The American equivalent to that would be the "hey" exclamation.
Yes now that you mention it, this is quite similar! Nicely spotted 😊
the pronunciation is easy for latim language speakers, at least the vowels.
Yes, the vowels are fairly easy, but overall at least Spanish/Italian people usually pronounce Icelandic very well. I am sure French/Portuguese people do to, but I have heard it less, so I don't know for sure.
Really great video but I'm struggling a bit with the difference in pronunciation between U and Ö. Should they be sounding the same? 😂
OK... short answer no - they should not be the same 😄
To try to exaggerate the difference:
For U: Press your lips almost together (not make a circle), and push out your jaw a little. Nothing should move.
For Ö: Keep your lips round, jaw back, and try to open the lips up while saying Ö, I think this should help*
*In some words we start with the lips more open and close them while saying Ö, but start by learning the other way, small -> large, that is easier (I think) and also more common.
Try this and if you still have troubles, try to listen to Icelandic with subtitles and see if you can recognise the difference and try again! And if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask!
Good luck! / Gangi þér vel!
I need help so bad. I met a guy in Iceland named Haukur and I can't pronounce his name and it is driving me crazy! I have tried to use the o into e sound and he is saying I'm saying it wrong. I tried to use google translation and it is is saying "how kurrrr" which is wrong. Any help?why I say it, I am saying hoy e kerr
Go to google translate, write "haukur" and press the sound button. The pronunciation for haukur there is actually very good (not completely true for all words). Good luck!
Úlfur is "wolf" in English (not "woolf", even it is pronounced alike)
Ah, yes of course, sorry for the mistake
Pro tip: "au" sounds exactly like the French word for eye, "œil", if you want to explain this to a French person or for future French speakers on this channel!!
This is a useful comment for future students, thanks!
„Ása á á á á" is interesting sentence to know..😂 I think Ai has difficulty translate it properly..
I imagine it has 😂
3:32 What do you mean with softer? :)
Ah... Good question... Difficult to answer.
I would say Icelandic is a slightly "purer" or "stronger" ú or ´oo´ sound than in Spanish/Italian, which to us sound like 80% Ú + 20% U. But you can just forget I said that, and assume spanish/italina U is the same as Icelandic Ú, they certainly overlap, and are almost the same.
Þakka þér fyrir
2:31
it's so funny that both "o" and "ó" exist in Portuguese but it's the opposite lol
our "o" sounds like your "ó" and our "ó" sounds like your "o".
That's so funny, I had no idea! I don't know any Portuguese, but I know some Spanish, and the Portuguese pronunciation sounds incredibly cute to me. Portugal is one of my favourite Eurovision nation because they so often send a song in their own language and I love that!
Ha, ha, ha, four thousand vowels! Try "aeolian."
That sounds like a good description of English :)
Icelandic🇮🇸 "u" = Finnish🇫🇮 "y" = Mandarin🇨🇳 "ü" = French🇫🇷 "u"
Icelandic🇮🇸 "ö" = Finnish🇫🇮 "yö"
Icelandic🇮🇸 "ei/ey" = Finnish🇫🇮 "ei"
Icelandic🇮🇸 "au" = Finnish🇫🇮 "öi"
😂🤣😂🤣