Pronunciation Guide & The Icelandic Language

If you have browsed our website a little, read our itinerary, or encountered the Icelandic language in any capacity, you will have noticed how many of the words are a Right Mouthful. Trust us, hearing these words in person will not serve to disappoint… they are perhaps even more overwhelming to the ear than to the eye.

To no one’s surprise therefore, the Icelandic language is considered one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. While part of the Germanic family of languages, it is similar to Norwegian. However, most of the vocabulary in Icelandic is said to have more of an ancient root structure. It officially has 32 letters (English has 26), and to add to the difficulty, Icelandic grammar is also rather complicated.

In our experience, the first time we heard it spoken out loud we felt like a tidal wave had just washed over us and we could only smile and sheepishly identify ourselves as English speakers. Thankfully, nearly all Icelanders speak very fluent English. However, our curiosity about the Icelandic language had already been piqued before showing up. Admittedly hearing it spoken aloud only served to heighten that curiosity. What was first incredibly overwhelming, and a bit of a culture shock, quickly turned into a desire to understand as much as we could. Our photographer, Steph, was kind enough to give us a mini lesson on some of the pronunciation, since she was in the process of learning the language.

We found this cool navigational landmark atop a hill during our Snæfellsnes journey. It labels several of the main towns in Iceland, pointing in their direction away from this hill. We spent a fair amount of time admiring this landmark and attempting to pronounce place names, enjoying a mini lesson in Icelandic from Steph.

We enjoyed coming across Icelandic words for the remainder of our trip and attempting to say them out loud to each other. I am sure any Icelander hearing us would have had a few great laughs, but hey, at least we tried. We are fairly sure we at least managed to master the fairly simple and cheerful greeting of, “Hej hej” by the end of our trip!

For fun, here’s a brief pronunciation guide of some of the places we visited. We in no way claim this guide to be accurate by a native Icelandic speaker’s standards, and kindly request forgiveness for any transgressions.

Our understanding is certainly a work in progress!

Some examples of Icelandic:

Attention!

Oryggisnumer

Landmannalaugar