Download or read book Icelandic Language written by Meda Gunnarsdottir and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether you have a trip to Iceland coming up and you're not sure quite where to begin with the language, or you need to study Icelandic for any other reason, this guide will provide everything you need to make your trip to Iceland a comfortable one. With the most frequently heard Icelandic words and phrases, all grouped by topic, plus fascinating details about its culture make this book a must for any traveler to Iceland. But wait. There's more! The menu has been laid out for easy, convenient navigation, and a mini English-to-Icelandic dictionary for quick reference on-the-fly has also been included. Learning Icelandic should be not only educational but also fun, and this guide was created to ensure that you appreciate the many facets of Iceland's language and culture - even before you set foot in one of the world's most beautiful nations.

Download or read book The Little Book of Icelandic written by Alda Sigmundsdottir and published by Little Books Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-21 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Icelandic is one of the oldest and most complex languages in the world. In this book, Alda Sigmundsdóttir looks at the Icelandic language with wit and humor, and how it reflects the heart and soul of the Icelandic people and their culture. Many of the Icelanders' idioms and proverbs, their meaning, and origins are discussed, as is the Icelanders' love for their language and their attempts to keep it pure through the ongoing construction of new words and terminology. There is a section on Icelandic curse words as well as Icelandic slang, which is mostly derived from English. Throughout, this book deconstructs Icelandic vocabulary, and the often-hilarious, almost naive, ways in which words are made. Among the fascinating topics broached in The Little Book of Icelandic: • The Language Committee: how Icelanders struggle to keep their language “pure” • Let's make a word!—How names for new things are constructed • Old letters, strange sounds: wrapping your tongue around the Icelanders’ tongue • $#*!%&!“#$%*, or how Icelanders curse • The missing dialects—why Icelandic has none • Which is the prettiest of all: contests to find the most lovely word in Icelandic (and the ugliest!) • Quintessential Icelandic words and phrases (the ones that describe the Icelanders like no others) • Useful phrases to impress your new Icelandic friends! • Klósett—the unexpected origin of the Icelandic word for toilet ... and so much more! This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the Icelandic people, their culture—and of course their language. Excerpt "Idioms and proverbs provide a unique insight into the soul of a nation. They say so much about a people’s history—the heartfelt, the tragic, the monumental, the proud. Icelandic has a vast number of idioms and proverbs that are a direct throwback to our nation’s past, especially idioms relating to the ocean, which is such a massive force in our nation's history. Many of them we use all the time without ever giving a thought to their origins. What follows is a random sampling—I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I did. — Idiom: Eins og skrattinn úr sauðaleggnum Translation: Like Satan out of the sheep’s leg bone Meaning: Unexpectedly, out of the blue If someone suddenly appeared, especially someone I didn’t really want to see, I might say hann kom eins og skrattinn úr sauðaleggnum, literally “he appeared like Satan out of the sheep’s leg bone”. Where the affiliation between a sheep’s leg bone and the prince of darkness comes in I could not tell you. However, I can tell you that, in the old days, Icelandic children (being impoverished and everything) had no proper toys. Instead, they played with sheeps’ bones, each of which was assigned a role. The jawbones were the cows, the joints of the legs were the sheep, and the leg bones were the horses. So maybe folks were worried that Satan—being the crafty bugger that he was—would install himself in a sheeps’ leg bone when the kids were playing and then suddenly BOO! pop out and scare the bejeezus out of them. It’s just a theory. Incidentally, the use of this idiom is not confined to people—it is also successfully used to comment on unwanted happenings, as in: “Damn, this huge phone bill comes like Satan out of a sheep’s leg bone!”

Download or read book Secrets of the Sprakkar written by Eliza Reid and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-02 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Canadian first lady of Iceland pens a book about why this tiny nation is leading the charge in gender equality, in the vein of The Moment of Lift. Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman—but why? For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that enables its society to make such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home? The answer is found in the country’s sprakkar, an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women. Eliza Reid—Canadian born and raised, and now first lady of Iceland—examines her adopted homeland’s attitude toward women: the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement. Throughout, she interviews dozens of sprakkar to tell their inspirational stories, and expertly weaves in her own experiences as an immigrant from small-town Canada. The result is an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as equal than we may understand. What makes many women’s experiences there so positive? And what can we learn about fairness to benefit our society? Like influential and progressive first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Michelle Obama, Reid uses her platform to bring the best of her nation to the world. Secrets of the Sprakkar is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of a tiny country that could lead the way forward for us all.

Download or read book Miss Iceland written by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Will appeal to readers of Elena Ferrante and Margaret Atwood . . . the unusual setting offers an interesting twist on the portrait of an artist as a young woman.” —Bookpage In 1960s Iceland, Hekla dreams of being a writer. In a nation of poets, where each household proudly displays leatherbound volumes of the Sagas, and there are more writers per capita than anywhere else in the world, there is only one problem: she is a woman. After packing her few belongings, including James Joyces’s Ulysses and a Remington typewriter, Hekla heads for Reykjavik with a manuscript buried in her bags. She moves in with her friend Jon, a gay man who longs to work in the theatre, but can only find dangerous, backbreaking work on fishing trawlers. Hekla’s opportunities are equally limited: marriage and babies, or her job as a waitress, in which harassment from customers is part of the daily grind. The two friends feel completely out of place in a small and conservative world. And yet that world is changing: JFK is shot. Hemlines are rising. In Iceland, another volcano erupts and Hekla meets a poet who brings to light harsh realities about her art—as she realizes she must escape to find freedom abroad, whatever the cost. Miss Iceland, a winner of two international book awards, comes from the acclaimed author of Hotel Silence, which received the Icelandic Literary Prize. “Only a great book can make you feel you’re really there, a thousand miles and a generation away. I loved it.” —Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon “[A] winning tale of friendship and self-fulfillment.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Download or read book Iceland written by Andrew Evans and published by Bradt Travel Guides. This book was released on 2011 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brand new edition of this in-depth guide to Iceland, from the remotest offshore islands and the uninhabited interior to the ins and outs of Reykjavik s crazy music and art scene. Whether you re an outdoor enthusiast, an independent traveler on a budget, or a comfort-seeking tourist, author Andrew Evans shows you how to do it Icelander style at this trendy, eco-friendly destination."

Download or read book Independent People written by Halldor Laxness and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author: a magnificent novel that recalls Iceland's medieval epics and classics, set in the early twentieth century starring an ordinary sheep farmer and his heroic determination to achieve independence. • "A strange story, vibrant and alive…. There is a rare beauty in its telling." —Atlantic Monthly If Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to free himself is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic. Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur's spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity and intimate in its homely detail. Vast in scope and deeply rewarding, Independent People is a masterpiece.

Download or read book Writing in Ice A Crime Writer s Guide to Iceland written by Michael Ridpath and published by . This book was released on 2021-07 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you had to choose a new location for a crime series, where would you look? Michael Ridpath had to do just that. He chose Iceland, a country of fjords, glaciers and volcanoes, of long, manic summer days and long, sinister winter evenings, a place where everyone is on Facebook and everyone's grandmother has spoken to an elf. This is his account of researching the country: the breathtaking landscape, its vigorous if occasionally odd people, the great heroes and heroines of its sagas, and (of course) those troublesome elves; with a little bit thrown in about how to put together a good detective story. Entertaining and informative, it's a guide to Iceland for the visitor, and a guide to crime writing for the reader.

Download or read book A List of Words and Phrases in Every day Use by the Natives of Hetton le Hole in the County of Durham written by Francis Milnes Temple Palgrave and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Colloquial Icelandic written by Daisy L. Neijmann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-14 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colloquial Icelandic provides a step-by-step course in Icelandic as it is written and spoken today. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Icelandic in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required. Key features include: progressive coverage of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills structured, jargon-free explanations of grammar an extensive range of focused and stimulating exercises realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of scenarios useful vocabulary lists throughout the text additional resources available at the back of the book, including a full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues This second edition has been extensively updated and revised throughout, and includes up-to-date cultural information, an enhanced index, an expanded glossary and completely new audio recordings. Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Icelandic will be an indispensable resource both for independent learners and for students taking courses in Icelandic. Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills. By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages and at the Intermediate-High on the ACTFL proficiency scales.

Download or read book A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic written by Geir Tómasson Zoëga and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Icelandic Language written by Stefán Karlsson and published by Viking Society for Northern Research University College. This book was released on 2004 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Mavens Word of the Day Collection written by RH Disney Staff and published by Random House Reference Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does "skanky mean? Where did "okay come from? Can I end a sentence with a preposition? Why do Americans say "zee and the British say "zed? Here is the book that Mavens fans have been asking for: answers to hundreds of questions on word and phrase origins, slang, grammar, and usage, all from Random House Reference's Word Mavens. This Collection is the first original book based on the hugely popular Mavens' Word of the Day feature. The best of the site's postings are gathered here, so that language buffs can browse the old-fashioned way without having to find an Internet connection. Many of the essays incorporate responses from readers to the postings, including follow-up research. Also included is an appendix of favorite electronic and print resources for word sleuths.

Download or read book The Little Book of the Icelanders written by Alda Sigmundsdóttir and published by Little Books Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-21 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After more than 20 years away, Alda Sigmundsdottir returned to her native Iceland as a foreigner. With a native person's insight yet an outsider's perspective, Alda quickly set about dissecting the national psyche of the Icelanders. This second edition, from 2018, contains new and updated chapters from the original edition, reflecting the changes in Icelandic society and among the Icelandic people since the book was first published in 2012. Among the fascinating subjects broached in The Little Book of the Icelanders: • The appalling driving habits of the Icelanders • Naming conventions and customs • The Icelanders’ profound fear of commitment • The Icelanders’ irreverence • Why Icelandic women are really men • How the Icelanders manage to make social interactions really complicated • The importance of the family in Icelandic society • Where to go to meet the real Icelanders (and possibly score some free financial advice) • Rituals associated with the most important life events (weddings, confirmations, graduations, and deaths) ... and many more. One chapter leads to the next, creating a continuous chain of storytelling. It feels as if you’re sitting in the author’s kitchen, enjoying a cup of coffee and conversing with her about the quirks of her countrymen, every now and then bursting out laughing. [...] I’m going to heartily recommend The Little Book of the Icelanders, both to fans of Sigmundsdóttir’s blog and those unfamiliar with her work. - Iceland Review Online There aren’t many books I’d recommend reading over morning coffee but The Little Book of the Icelanders is one of them. [...] I laughed at the essays in this book, not because I was laughing at Icelanders but because I recognize much of the behavior in myself and members of my family. It felt good. It’s not just the sanest, most impressive characteristics that we pass on and share but also some of the zaniest. As I read this book, I frequently thought, yup, I’m definitely part Icelandic. - Lögberg-Heimskringla, Canada Excerpt "Even though they live on the edge of the inhabitable world with engulfing darkness for several months of the year, the Icelanders continue to score among the most optimistic people in the world. Is it the fish? The fresh air? The cod liver oil? Natural selection? The copious amounts of anti-depressants they consume? Nobody really knows. However, one thing is sure: this character trait serves Icelanders well and has helped the nation cope with innumerable shocks, from volcanic eruptions to famines, to a massive economic crisis. Whatever happens, you can be sure that the Icelanders will seek the silver lining and soldier on, firmly believing that things will soon get better. Indeed it is fascinating to observe how the Icelanders deal with trauma at a national level. Their initial reaction always seems to be to bond together. People who on regular days will bicker and quarrel amongst themselves, suddenly become enormously supportive of each other. I’ve seen this happen in the aftermath of disasters such as snow avalanches and volcanic eruptions, or tragedies that capture the nation’s attention. Take, for example, the economic meltdown of 2008, which for the Icelanders was one of the most catastrophic events in recent history. Many people feared an onslaught of suicides in the wake of all the bankruptcies that ensued. Yet it turned out that the number of suicides actually declined. According to the Directorate of Health, it was because the nation had bonded together, and people were closer and more supportive of each other than they had been in a very long time. In other words, the optimism is probably a long-term survival strategy. After all, through the centuries of hardship and geographical isolation that the Icelandic nation has endured, defeat was not an option – it was stand together, fight together, or die."

Download or read book Colloquial Icelandic written by Daisy Neijmann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-01-16 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colloquial Icelandic provides a step-by-step course in Icelandic as it is written and spoken today. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Icelandic in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required. Key features include: • progressive coverage of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills • structured, jargon-free explanations of grammar • an extensive range of focused and stimulating exercises • realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of scenarios • useful vocabulary lists throughout the text • additional resources available at the back of the book, including a full answer key, a grammar summary and bilingual glossaries Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Icelandic will be an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Icelandic. Course components: The complete course comprises the book and audio materials. These are available to purchase separately in paperback, ebook, CD and MP3 format. The paperback and CDs can also be purchased together in the great-value Colloquials pack. Paperback: 978-0-415-20706-5 (please note this does not include the audio) CDs : 978-0-415-28690-9 eBook: 978-0-203-99545-7 (please note this does not include the audio, available from www.tandfebooks.com) MP3s: 978-0-415-47084-1 (available from www.tandfebooks.com) Pack : 978-0-415-42707-4 (paperback and CDs)

Download or read book Icelandic Authors of To day written by Halldór Hermannsson and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Viking Language 1 written by Jesse L. Byock and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to Old Norse, runes, Icelandic sagas, and the culture of the Vikings. The 15 graded lessons include vocabulary and grammar exercises, 35 readings, pronunciation, 15 maps, 45 illustrations, and 180 exercises. Journey through Viking Age Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Britain, Russia, and Byzantium with original Old Norse readings of Vikings, Norse mythology, heroes, sacred kingship, blood feuds, and daily life.

Download or read book Mr Dickens and His Carol written by Samantha Silva and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A charming, comic, and ultimately poignant story about the creation of the most famous Christmas tale ever written. It’s as foggy and haunted and redemptive as the original; it’s all heart, and I read it in a couple of ebullient, Christmassy gulps.” —Anthony Doerr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of All The Light We Cannot See Laced with humor, rich historical detail from Charles Dickens’ life, and clever winks to his work, Samantha Silva's Mr. Dickens and His Carol is an irresistible new take on a cherished classic. Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in. Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs. As Dickens’ deadlines close in, Eleanor propels him on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition, and love. The story he writes will change Christmas forever.