Modern Icelandic Pronunciation Guide


Modern Icelandic Pronunciation
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Brief Introduction

Icelandic is descended from Old Norse, whose early speakers originated from
Scandinavia from the 9th century onwards. It has stayed mostly unchanged since
the early middle ages due to the existence of written laws and also the
vernacular bible of Bishop Guðbrand. These written text are still readily
understood by Icelandic readers today.

For those that are using software for viewing Chinese, Japanese and korean Characters, you will notice the appearance of CJK character(s) in these pages. This is normal when an acented character is followed by another letter or numeral. Please disable or map to non-CJK fonts.

The modern alphabet consists of the following thirty three letters:


Upper CaseLower CaseNameSound
Aaashort 'a' as in 'car'
Á áá 'ow' as in 'cow'
Bbbésame as english 'b'
Dddésame as english 'd'
Ððeðsimilar to 'th' in 'rather'
Eeeshort e as in 'get'
Ééélong 'e' as in 'been'
Ffeffsimilar to english 'f' but 'v' when between vowels or end of word
Gggeas 'g' in 'good' or 'ch' in scottish 'loch' when between vowels
Hhhásame as english 'h' in 'hat', but when a letter 'v' appears after it, it is sounded like 'k'
Iiishort 'i' as in 'it'
Ííílong 'i' as in german 'kino'
Jjjoðpronounced like an english 'y' or german 'j' as in 'ja'
Kkkáas 'k' in english 'kitchen'
Llellsingle 'l' pronounced as in english 'lean', if double, 'll', it takes on a 'd' sound with almost an unaspirated scottish 'ch' as in 'loch' or 'dl' sound with the 'l' stopped short.
Mmemmas 'm' in english 'man'
Nnennas 'n' in english new', but when it appears double, it sounds like 'dn' with 'n' sound cut short. Exception to this is when 'nn' appears in the article 'hinn' and its declensions.
Oooas 'o' in english 'got'
Ó óó long 'o' as in english 'so'
Pppéas 'p' in english 'pan'
Rrerricelandic 'r' is always trilled like the french 'rue'
Ssessalways as 's' in english 'sand'
Tttéas 't' in english 'team'
Uuulike 'u' in the french 'leur'
Úúúas 'oo' in english 'cool'
Vvvaffas 'v' in english 'van'
Xxexas 'x' in english 'axe'
Yyupsílonsame sound value as 'i'
Ýýý same sound value as 'í'
Zzsetaequivalent to 's' and used inside words only, historically representing letter in the word. There is a trend away from using it nowadays.
Þþþornas 'th' in english 'thank'
Æææsounds like 'eye' in english
Öööas 'u' in english 'burn' or german 'hören'


Plus three more that are only found in foreign words.


Upper CaseLower CaseNameSound
Ccse same as 'c' in the word's languge of origin
Qqkú same as 'q' in the word's language of origin
Wwtvöfalt vaff same as 'w' in the word's language of origin


Vowel Dipthongs
Also there are three vowel combinations that are used in everday speech and writing.


DipthongSoundAU, ausimilar to the combination of a short icelandic 'u' and a long icelandic 'í' said quickly
EI, eias 'ay' english 'pay'
EY, eysame as for 'ei' dipthong.


This is meant as a guide to the approximate sounds in Modern Icelandic.

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This page was last updated on Friday 12 September 1997.
©Dylan W.H.S. 1996-1997

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