Icelandic alphabet

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The modern Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:

Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A	Á	B	D	Ð	E	É	F	G	H	I	Í	J	K	L	M	N	O	Ó	P	R	S	T	U	Ú	V	X	Y	Ý	Þ	Æ	Ö
Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a	á	b	d	ð	e	é	f	g	h	i	í	j	k	l	m	n	o	ó	p	r	s	t	u	ú	v	x	y	ý	þ	æ	ö

Eth	Thorn
A handwriting extract; the special Icelandic letters ð and þ are visible.

It is based upon a Latin alphabet with diacritics, in addition it includes the character eth Ðð and the runic letter thorn Þþ (pictured to the right). Ææ and Öö are considered letters in their own right and not a ligature or diacritical version of their respective letters.

Often the glyphs are simplified when handwritten, for example ð may be written as a d with a horizontal line (đ) and the ligature æ (considered a separate letter) may be written as ae, both of which can make it easier to write cursively.

[edit] History

The modern Icelandic alphabet has developed from a standard established in the 19th century, by the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask primarily. It is ultimately based heavily on an orthographic standard created in the early 12th century by a document referred to as The First Grammatical Treatise, author unknown. The standard was intended for the common language of Scandinavia, alias Old Norse. It did not have much influence, however, at the time.

The most defining characteristics of the alphabet were established in the old treatise:

Use of the acute accent (originally to signify vowel length).
Use of þ, also used in the Old English alphabet as the letter thorn.

The later Rasmus Rask standard was basically a re-enactment of the old treatise, with some changes to fit concurrent Germanic conventions, such as the exclusive use of k rather than c. Various old features, like ð, had actually not seen much use in the later centuries, so Rask's standard constituted a major change in practice.

Later 20th century changes are most notably the adoption of é, which had previously been written as je (reflecting the modern pronunciation), and the abolition of z in 1974.

[edit] Letter names

The names of the letters are:

Letter	Name	Pronunciation in IPA	Typical sound value
Aa	a	[a]	as in the English 'father'
Áá	á	[au̯]	the "ow" in "cow"
Bb	bé	[pjɛ]	'p' with no puff of air.
Dd	dé	[tjɛ]	't' with no puff of air.
Ðð	eð	[ɛð̠]	the "th" in "the" (always inside a word, not at the front).
Ee	e	[ɛ]	"eh" like the "e" in "end"
Éé	é	[jɛ]	a shorter sounding "yeah"
Ff	eff	[ɛfː]	(same as in English sometimes, see notes)
Gg	gé	[cɛ]	(same as in English sometimes, see notes)
Hh	há	[hau̯]	(same as English)
Ii	i	[ɪ]	the "i" in "win"
Íí	í	[i]	the "ee" in "we"
Jj	joð	[jɔð̠]	said as a "y" or an aspirated "y" (see notes)
Kk	ká	[kʰau̯]	'k' with a puff of air.
Ll	ell	[ɛtl̥]	(same as in English)
Mm	emm	[ɛmː]	(same as in English)
Nn	enn	[ɛnː]	(same as in English)
Oo	o	[ɔ]	the "o" in "hot" (British English)
Óó	ó	[ou̯]	"oh"
Pp	pé	[pʰjɛ]	'p' with a puff of air.
Rr	err	[ɛr]	rolled, as in Spanish, but slightly more delicately
Ss	ess	[ɛs]	always an unvoiced "s" never a voiced "z" sound
Tt	té	[tʰjɛ]	't' with a puff of air.
Uu	u	[ʏ]	'i' in 'in' but rounded.
Úú	ú	[u]	like the "ou" in "you"
Vv	vaff	[vafː]	similar to English 'v'
Xx	ex	[ɛxs]	like the hard German "ch" followed by an s
Yy	ypsilon y	[ʏfsɪlɔn ɪ]	same as 'i'
Ýý	ypsilon ý	[ʏfsɪlɔn i]	same as 'í'
Zz	zeta	[sɛːta]	like 's', never as English 'z'
Þþ	þorn	[θ̠ɔrn̥]	"th" as in "thing" (always at the front of a word, with some exceptions)
Ææ	æ	[ai̯]	"eye"
Öö	ö	[œ]	"e" in "end" but rounded, from the middle of the mouth

[edit] Notes

Icelandic alphabet

An Icelandic speaker reciting the alphabet in Icelandic

Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The letters a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, u, ú, y, ý, æ and ö are considered vowels, and the remainder are consonants.

The letters C (sé, [sjɛ]), Q (kú, [kʰu]) and W (tvöfalt vaff, [ˈtʰvœfal̥t ˌvafː]) are only used in Icelandic in words of foreign origin and some proper names that are also of foreign origin. Otherwise, c, qu, and w are substituted with k/s/ts, hv, and v respectively. (And in fact, hv is a direct cognate of Latin qu and English "wh": Icelandic hvað, Latin quod, English "what".)

The letter Z (seta, [ˈsɛta]) was used until 1974, when it was abolished, as it was only an etymological detail. However, one of the most important newspapers in Iceland, the Morgunblaðið, still uses it sometimes (although very rarely), and a secondary school, Verzlunarskóli Íslands has it in its name. It is also found in some proper names of people. Older people, who were educated before the abolition of the z sometimes also use it.

The Icelandic keyboard layout.

[edit] Letter frequencies

The most common letters in Icelandic are n and a.^[1] The list below shows the letter frequencies for more letters in order of descending frequency.

Letter	Frequency
n	9.395%
a	9.395%
i	8.563%
r	8.543%
e	6.369%
s	5.434%
ð	5.013%
t	4.872%
u	4.766%
g	4.299%
l	3.891%
m	3.365%
k	3.115%
f	2.582%
h	2.266%
v	2.223%
o	2.019%
þ	1.592%
á	1.549%
b	1.365%
í	1.338%