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• 1 2021-09-01T20:29:08+00:00 Chapter 8: The Sounds of Icelandic, by Gage Peek 51 plain 2021-12-15T22:38:05+00:00

  Introduction to Icelandic

  Icelandic, represented by the glottocode ISL, is a very medium sized language that is the official language of Iceland. It is a very interesting language that is vastly different than many other languages that exist in the world today. Due its insular nature, it has been persevered for about eleven centuries and has been untouched by many other languages. This means that fluent Icelandic speakers could read and comprehend texts from the 12^th century due to the preservation of the language. According to Ethnologue, Icelandic is spoken by about 328,000 people and over 300,000 of this speaking population live in Iceland, which upholds this language in various institutionalized settings. Icelandic is also seen in many other countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is also observed that Icelandic speakers have a strong cultural connection with their language and are strongly determined to keep developing the language and preserve it for future use. Due to the world of technology, Icelandic has seen some recent drastic changes in growth with a lot of new words coming in from English and Danish roots (Holmarsdottir 1). Today, Icelandic is classified as an Indo-European language, but more specifically in the North Germanic group.

  The Consonants

            
           Icelandic shares many phonetic aspects similar to other Germanic languages. The phonetic inventory of Icelandic consists of forty-eight phonemes, thirty-two of which are consonant phonemes. It is notable that some scholars are in disagreement with the phonemes enclosed above are actually phonemes rather than allophonic variations of other phonemes. It is also notable that some scholars argue whether approximants actually exist in the language as phonemes, but for this chapter I will be considering them as such. There is also a bunch of variety in terms of voicing, manner, and placement of the sounds themselves. There are three big findings that give Icelandic and interesting and unique phonetic inventory: aspiration and voicing. Length can also be an additive feature, but consonants in Icelandic just take on the attributes of the proceeding vowel.
  
  Here is a contrastive list showing different consonant phonetic sounds in Icelandic:
  (Note that all sound files used in this chapter are from the UCLA Online Phonetic Database)
  
              Aspiration is a noticeable in terms of phonetics for Icelandic. Similar to other languages, aspiration can play a meaning in the lexical meaning of the word that is being pronounced. Meaning that the meaning of the words [pɛːra] and [phɛːra] are different respectively due to the aspiration of the [p] sound. These differences can be noted in orthography as well as sound environment, meaning that aspiration seems to be found at the beginning of words compared to the end of words. Due these big differences, /p/ and /ph/ are different phonemes within the Icelandic language.
  
  Here is an example showcasing how aspiration is used to change lexical meaning:
  
  Another distinctive feature is voicing of certain consonant sounds. Voicing can play an important role in understanding lexical content in Icelandic. The eight plosives in the language are all mostly unvoiced, while fricatives are split with four voiced and six voiceless. Where voicing starts to get super interesting is when considering the nasals and liquids that Icelandic has. Looking at the nasals, all the voiced sounds, [m, n, ɲ, ŋ], have their voiceless counterparts, [m̥, n̥, ɲ̊, ŋ̊]. The same thing can be observed with the liquids in such that we have [l] and [r], but also [l̥] and [r̥]. While just like the aspiration of Icelandic has certain environments in which we can predict when it’s going to occur, we can see the same thing happen with voicing. The important note is that these are not always followed and can offer phonemic contrast, making the voiceless counterparts their own separate phonemes (Holmarsdottir).
  
  Here is an example showcasing how voicing is used to change lexical meaning:
  The Vowels

  The vowel phonetic inventory of Icelandic consists of sixteen total phonemes, eight of which that are short and eight counterparts that are long. This means that vowel length is a distinctive feature in Icelandic. In the diagram shown below, you will see the vowel placement of all the voiced vowel phonemes in Icelandic.
  
  
  Vowel length, like mentioned before, is a very vital role in the Icelandic language. Length can actually be seen across the board in both consonants and vowels but is only a distinctive factor in vowels. Just like the distinctive consonantal traits, there are environments in which it is common to see long vowels; for example, we can see it with long consonant clusters and other long consonant sounds, meaning when there are long vowel sounds, there are long consonant sounds. That being said, length can play into a distinctive feature, changing lexical meaning (Holmarsdottir).
  
  Here is an example showcasing how length is used to change lexical meaning:

  
  Syllables and Syllable Structure

  The syllable structure of Icelandic seems to be pretty similar to other Germanic languages. That being said, it is worthy to note that there seems to be a lot of varying information as to how speakers of Icelandic group their syllables in terms of numbers of consonants in either onset or coda position of a syllable. In the past it was deemed that Icelandic preferred coda maximization. According to other studies it as deemed as preferring onset maximization. The information in which I am using to present the syllables and syllable structures of Icelandic is based off a study which took many native Icelandic speakers influence. (Berg)
              Before presenting the syllable structures within themselves, in the article “A Phonetic Illustration of the Sound System of Icelandic” written by Stefon Flego and Kelly Harper Berkson, they offer use some generalizations about the typical syllable structure of Icelandic:

  1. Consonants want to be adjacent to a vowel, and preferably followed by a vowel.

  2. Non-strident obstruents, more than other consonants, want to be adjacent to a vowel, and preferably followed by a vowel.

  3. Consonants that are relatively similar to a neighboring segment want to be adjacent to a vowel, and preferably followed by a vowel

  
  Icelandic Phonotactics:
  (The symbol ‘h’ represents aspiration, a topic that will be focused on later in the chapter)
  V                                                          /i.tak/ ‘ītak’ right to use another’s land
  CV                                                        /si.ma/ ‘síma’ to call
  CVC                                                     /bauː.ðɪr̭/ ‘báðir’ both
  CVCC                                                   /θjoud̥n̥/ ‘þjónn’ waiter
  CCV                                                     / n̥jɛː/ ‘hné’ knee
  CVCC                                                   / saxl/  ‘sagt’ said
  CVCCC                                                 / θɪŋs/ ‘þings’ thing
  CVhC                                                   / leiʰt/ ‘leitt’ sorry
              There are a lot of interesting finds that can be noticed when looking at the Icelandic syllable structure, mainly dealing with consonant clusters. In Icelandic, it is found that the tendency is to prefer onset maximization rather than leaving clusters attached to the coda, but this rule does not always exist. It is also noted that consonant clusters of three, C­­3 is always pronounced, but C1 and C2 either form off each other or one of the sounds is omitted within the sound.  (Côté, 3)
  
  Focus on Preaspiration in the Language

  Like many languages in the world, aspiration is a necessary factor to talk about regarding their phonology. Icelandic is one of the languages in which aspiration takes on a large roll. Unlike many other languages, however, Icelandic takes on what is called “preaspiration”. This means that some aspiration that is seen in Icelandic proceeds the consonantal sound that it is attached to. It should be noted that this is a distinctive feature and that preaspiration and postaspiration are in complementary distribution in Icelandic (Keer 1). In Icelandic, preaspiration occurs intervocalically where orthography indicates, or they used to be aspirated geminates (Heimisdóttir 114). This can be seen in the following examples (Másdóttir 2016):
  (Note that preaspiration for Icelandic is typically transcribed as [h] paired with a plosive.)
  
  mappa [mah.pa] ‘folder’
  pakka [phah.ka] ‘to pack’
  fatta [fah.ta] ‘to realize’
  
  The second environment where preaspirated stops are found in Icelandic is where a fortis stop is followed by a liquid or a nasal, [l], [n] or [m]. A world will never start with a preaspirated plosive. This can be seen in the following examples:
  
  epli [ɛhplI] ‘apple’
  batna [pah tna] ‘get better’
  sakna [sahkna] ‘to miss’

  
  
  
  
  
   

  
  Allophonic Alternations

  Just like in many other languages, Icelandic takes advantage of allophonic alternations within its language. The usage of allophonic variations is to change the manner of production of a certain phonemic sound to help support the phoneme’s surrounding environment. This means that a phoneme can have one or multiple allophones or altering pronunciations of the phonemic sound. This would mean that that these altering sounds would be in complementary distribution due to the fact they should never occur in the same environment. Icelandic does have a handful of allophonic alternations that occur. For this section, I am going to break it up between consonantal allophonic variations and vocalic allophonic variations.

  Consonants

  In Icelandic, there is a lot of debated arguments as to which phonemes are actual consonantal phonemes and not allophones of the same phoneme. The most agreed upon phoneme having allophonic variations is /ð/. The allophone [x]. The allophonic variation for /ð/ occurs in a certain phonetic environment, which has to deal with the length of the vowel in front of the consonantal sound. If the vowel length is elongated, then the sound [ð] will be produced. If the vowel length is short, then the sound [x] will be produced. This can be seen in the following example:
  
  
  
  It should be noticed that there is a lot of ongoing arguments surround other phonemes and their suspected allophonic variations, such as /n/ versus /n̥/, /l/ versus /l̥/, and /r/ versus /r̥/. But these particular phonemes do show contrastive evidence when presented in the on-set position of a word; therefore, I have not chosen to include them in this portion of the chapter (Másdóttir 2021).

  Vowels

  The vowel system of Icelandic is generally more agreed upon in terms of whether or not certain vowel phonemes have allophonic variations. Generally speaking, all vowels are short if followed by a geminate, pre-aspirated stop, or consonant cluster, and surface as long otherwise (Flego and Berkson 8). This would mean that /ɛ/ /œ/ /ɔ/ /i/ /ɪ/ /ʏ/ /u/ and /a/ all have long allophonic alternations. The picture below helps show us some of the difference regard pitch production of the long and short vowel sounds.
  
  
  
  You can also note the difference in the vowel sounds in the examples below:
  
  
  
  References Cited/Bibliography

  Keer, E. W. (2021). Icelandic Preaspiration and the Moraic Theory of Geminates.
  Holmarsdottir, Halla B. “Icelandic: A Lesser-Used Language in the Global Community.” International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für Erziehungswissenschaft, vol. 47, no. 3/4, July 2001, pp. 379–394. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1023/A:1017918213388
  Flego, Stefon & Berkson, Kelly. (2020). A Phonetic Illustration of the Sound System of Icelandic.
  Côté, Marie-Hélène. (2009). Consonant cluster phonotactics : a perceptual approach.
  Thomas Berg (2001). An Experimental Study of Syllabification in Icelandic. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 24, pp 71-105 doi:10.1080/03325860120533
  Másdóttir, Thora. (2016). Phonological development and disorders in Icelandic-speaking children. 10.13140/RG.2.1.4555.0486.
  Másdóttir T, McLeod S, Crowe K. Icelandic Children's Acquisition of Consonants and Consonant Clusters. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021 May 11;64(5):1490-1502. doi: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00463. Epub 2021 Apr 26. PMID: 33900802.
  Flego, Stefon & Berkson, Kelly. (2020). A Phonetic Illustration of the Sound System of Icelandic.
  Harbert, Wayne. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  Glottolog 4.4. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2021, from https://glottolog.org/glottolog?iso=isl#12/63.4837/-19.0212.
  Volhardt, Marc Daniel Skibsted (2011). Islændinges udtale af dansk. En sammenlignende analyse af lydsystemerne i islandsk og dansk, og islandske studerendes danskudtale (Bachelor's degree essay) (in Danish). Reykjavík: University of Iceland.