{"id":2676,"date":"2013-06-05T02:14:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T02:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=2676"},"modified":"2013-06-05T02:14:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T02:14:42","slug":"headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/headlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"news-icon\"<\/p>\n

Before jumping right into reading entire news stories on Icelandic sites like R\u00daV<\/a> and V\u00edsir<\/a>, one thing I did when first starting out in Icelandic was to just translate the headlines. You can actually learn quite a bit of vocabulary that way, without the seemingly huge task of translating several paragraphs of just one article. That’s not to say there isn’t some challenge involved – media headlines don’t always read like normal sentences \ud83d\ude42 But you can generally expect to get a noun and a verb out of it, and it gives you the opportunity to focus on just a few words. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

N\u00e6stum helmingur \u00f3k of hratt<\/a><\/strong>
\nNearly half drove too fast<\/strong><\/p>\n

You could probably also say ‘Nearly half were speeding’, it seems flexible enough. It’s also good practice to think of different ways of saying the same thing, and making it sound like a news headline instead of a direct translation. In this one we get the verb for to drive<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 aka – to drive<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nek<\/td>\n\u00f3k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nekur<\/td>\n\u00f3kst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nekur<\/td>\n\u00f3k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\n\u00f6kum<\/td>\n\u00f3kum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\naki\u00f0<\/td>\n\u00f3ku\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\naka<\/td>\n\u00f3ku<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Definitely an irregular beast \ud83d\ude42 Let’s look at the rest of the words:<\/p>\n

\r\nn\u00e6stum adv                           nearly\r\nhelmingur m (-s, -ar)                half\r\nof adv                               too\r\nhra\u00f0ur adj (f hr\u00f6\u00f0)                  fast, quick\r\n<\/pre>\n
Here we see hra\u00f0ur<\/strong> in the neuter form, hratt<\/strong>.
\n
\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7<\/center><\/p>\n
A\u00f0alskipulag borgarinnar sam\u00feykkt<\/a><\/strong>
\nCity master plan approved<\/strong><\/p>\n
In this case we see a participle of the verb sam\u00feykkja<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 sam\u00feykkja – to agree, approve<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nsam\u00feykki<\/td>\nsam\u00feykkti<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nsam\u00feykkir<\/td>\nsam\u00feykktir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nsam\u00feykkir<\/td>\nsam\u00feykkti<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nsam\u00feykkjum<\/td>\nsam\u00feykktum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nsam\u00feykki\u00f0<\/td>\nsam\u00feykktu\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nsam\u00feykkja<\/td>\nsam\u00feykktu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
The first word is a compound with the prefix a\u00f0al-<\/strong>, which imparts the meaning of main<\/em>, chief<\/em>, primary<\/em>. In this case I went with master<\/em>. The word it is attached to is skipulag<\/strong>, which can mean organization<\/em> or plan<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Note that the word for city (borg<\/strong>) is not only in the genitive case but also has the definite article. I chose to leave it out of the translation, again for the ‘headline’ sound.
\n
\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7<\/center><\/p>\n
St\u00f3rt krapafl\u00f3\u00f0 \u00ed Flj\u00f3tsdal<\/a><\/strong>
\nBig slushfall in Fljotsdalur<\/strong><\/p>\n
Here’s an example with no verb. The most interesting thing is the compound krapa\u00b7fl\u00f3\u00f0<\/strong>. Other than meaning flood<\/em>, you find fl\u00f3\u00f0<\/strong> in compounds related to certain types of flows, like snow. In that case, snj\u00f3\u00b7fl\u00f3\u00f0<\/strong> means avalanche<\/em>. Here it’s slush instead of snow. And going back to the beginning of the title, we’re tipped off that krapafl\u00f3\u00f0<\/strong> is a neuter noun from the adjective st\u00f3rt<\/strong>, from st\u00f3r<\/strong> – big, large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
krap (n) – slush, sludge<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\nsingular<\/th>\nplural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
nom<\/th>\nkrap<\/td>\nkr\u00f6p<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
acc<\/th>\nkrap<\/p>\nkr\u00f6p<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dat<\/th>\nkrapi<\/td>\nkr\u00f6pum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gen<\/th>\nkraps<\/td>\nkrapa<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
Another thing to be aware of when translating place names is that they decline, so when giving an English equivalent, you have to first find the nominative form before doing the transliteration. We can deduce that Flj\u00f3tsdal<\/strong> is in the dative due to the preposition \u00ed<\/strong>, then recognize that dal<\/strong> come from dalur<\/strong> (valley, dale). Make use of the search capability in the B\u00cdN<\/a> site that lets you put in any form of a word, I use this a lot \ud83d\ude42
\n
\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7<\/center><\/p>\n
Fengu skr\u00fafu \u00ed pizzuna<\/a><\/strong>
\nScrew found in pizza<\/strong><\/p>\n
So I took great liberties with that one; a direct translation would be ‘Got screw in pizza’. From the verb for get, receive<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 f\u00e1 – to get, receive<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nf\u00e6<\/td>\nf\u00e9kk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nf\u00e6r\u00f0<\/td>\nf\u00e9kkst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nf\u00e6<\/td>\nf\u00e9kk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nf\u00e1um<\/td>\nfengum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nf\u00e1i\u00f0<\/td>\nfengu\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nf\u00e1<\/td>\nfengu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
Of course skr\u00fafa<\/strong> is screw<\/em>, and hopefully everyone can figure out pizzuna<\/strong> \ud83d\ude42
\n
\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7<\/center><\/p>\n
Tv\u00f6faldur \u00edslenskur sigur \u00ed spj\u00f3tkasti<\/a><\/strong>
\nDouble Icelandic victory in javelin<\/strong><\/p>\n
Another with no verb, but tv\u00f6faldur<\/strong> leads to interesting things. Here it means double<\/em>, and is actually a compound with faldur<\/strong>, which is like -fold<\/em> in English, so twofold in this case. You can use other numbers as well, so \u00ferefaldur<\/strong> – triple, fj\u00f3rfaldur<\/strong> – quadruple, fimmfaldur<\/strong> – quintuple, etc. Einfaldur<\/strong> would be single<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The word for the javelin itself is spj\u00f3t<\/strong> – it is paired with the word for throw (kast<\/strong>) to indicate the event. Since \u00ed<\/strong> is indicating the dative case here, kast<\/strong> becomes kasti<\/strong>.
\n
\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7<\/center><\/p>\n
So even if you just look at the headlines, you can learn quite a bit, and narrow your focus to just a handful of words. Over time it all adds up, you start reading more and more of the articles themselves, and slowly but surely you’re looking up fewer and fewer words \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before jumping right into reading entire news stories on Icelandic sites like R\u00daV and V\u00edsir, one thing I did when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3,13,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2676"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2724,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions\/2724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}