Orð og tunga

Formáli ritstjóra

2023-09-07T11:03:57+00:00

Cursing with trolls in Njáls saga

2023-09-07T11:03:03+00:00

Rætt er um tvö tilvik í Njáls sögu þar sem tröll eru ákölluð til að greina betur merkingu blótsins, tilgang og hverjir blóta. Eins er rætt um trúskiptin, stöðu hjátrúarinnar og seiglu fornra yfirnáttúrulegra vætta í nýkristnu samfélagi.

Að blóta á íslensku

2023-09-07T11:02:06+00:00

Swearing in Icelandic is the topic of this article. The main focus is on the grammatical aspects of swear words, i.e. their morphological and syntactic characteristics and behaviour, emphasizing how one swears rather than why. The Tagged Icelandic Corpus (MÍM), containing searchable texts from the early 21st century, is the primary source for the analysis. Even if the vocabulary of swear words is relatively small and swearing is a formulaic use of language, the results show that there can be considerable flexibility in Icelandic swearing and that there are creative means to modify and extend both the vocabulary and the syntactic constructions typical of swearing. The vocabulary extensions are partly based on word-formation (in some cases with unusual methods) and partly by borrowing, especially from English nowadays. In the syntax, certain forms of nouns used in swearing have acquired new functions, e.g. by using them adverbially, and nominal phrases can be extended by adding attributes preceeding the head-noun, adding to their diversity and effect. In such phrases, the genitive forms of swear nouns ‒ usually preceeding the head counter to genitive attributes in other nominal phrases — have been reinterpreted as adjectives allowing them to be freely coordinated in a string of attributes without conjoining them by conjunctions.

Orð koma í orða stað

2023-09-07T11:05:02+00:00

The article discusses the words fokka (verb) and fokk (noun) in Icelandic. These words have a dual origin in the language. On the one hand, the verb was probably first borrowed from older Danish or Low German already in the 17th century, and the noun later derived from it. On the other hand, the much more recent loanword, E. fuck (verb, noun, exclamation), took the same form in the language, both in writing and pronunciation. This happened even though Icelandic phonotactics and phonology require the short vowel in English words such as butter, hut, luck, etc. to be represented by the Icel. phoneme /ö/, surfacing as [œ], when such words enter the language as loanwords or are pronounced with an Icelandic accent. However, the words fuck and fucking, which started appearing in Icelandic newspapers and magazines around 1970, are almost always pronounced and spelt differently than expected, i.e., with the vowel [ɔ] and spelt fokk, fokking, not with [œ] or spelt *fökk, *fökking. The reason probably is that the older words to a certain extent, both in terms of semantics, use and partly in pronunciation, already occupied the position that the new loanwords were expected to take in the language. However, the older words, fairly low valued, belonging to a low linguistic register and relatively rare, judging from the texts that have been examined, gave in to the new words. The new words were accompanied by pressure from popular culture, the language of young people and supported by high international use and social media. This article discusses the older words fokka and fokk, their history over the past centuries, their meaning, usage
and semantic development, and compares them with the newer words derived from E. fuck who took their place, with examples taken to show what happened when the new loanwords met the old ones.

Að eiga það sem maður er

2023-09-07T11:06:14+00:00

Í greininni er fjallað um tvö eignarmynstur í íslensku, X þinn (s.s. helvítið þitt, skömmin þín) og X á honum/henni (s.s. helvítið á honum, skömmin á henni) og þau borin saman. Þau eiga það sameiginlegt að eigandinn í segðinni samsvarar eigninni, ólíkt öðrum segðum með eignartáknun. Margt er þó ólíkt með þessum mynstrum. X þinn á sér langa sögu í málinu. Það var til í fornu máli en setningafræðilega var það notað á fjölskrúðugri hátt en nú. Mynstrið er geysilega frjótt. Það er einkum bundið við skammaryrði og inn í það virðist mega setja nánast hvaða skammaryrði sem er. En í nútímamáli það einnig oft notað í jákvæðu samhengi, jafnvel hástemmdu lofi, en um slíkt hafa ekki fundist dæmi í fornu máli. Mynstur sambærileg X þinn eru til í öðrum Norðurlandamálum (din X). Þau mynstur koma fyrir í jákvæðu samhengi en í mun minna mæli en í íslensku. X á honum/henni virðist ekki eiga sér langa sögu í málinu og sambærileg mynstur þekkjast ekki í skyldmálunum. Mynstrið er miklu lokaðra en X þinn, innan þess koma aðeins fyrir skammaryrði og þau skammaryrði sem fundust við þessa athugun eru teljandi á fingrum. Þá eru flest samböndin innan mynstursins lítið þekkt.

Íslensk-frönsk orðabók

2023-09-07T11:22:19+00:00

Lexia is a web-based dictionary between Icelandic and French where the source vocabulary was originally generated from the Icelandic-Scandinavian dictionary ISLEX. The work poses some different challenges for the editing of the target language than has been the case for ISLEX. This article is centred on three points in particular, that require special solutions to convey as clearly as possible the correspondence between Icelandic and French: collocations, middle voice of verbs and prepositions. We argue that an Icelandic-French dictionary cannot be modelled in every single detail from an Icelandic-Scandinavian one, as in some instances the representation of the Icelandic source language needs to take the French target language into consideration.

Mannanafnaskrá

2023-09-07T11:17:25+00:00

The article sheds light on the origin and development of the Icelandic register of personal names. There were various matters of opinion during the creation of this register, e.g. regarding the interpretation of the provision in the name law from 1991 that given names should be Icelandic. Procedural rules have been established to ensure that the law‘s implementation would be clear. In 1996, a new naming law was passed, and it was no longer required that a given personal name should be Icelandic. That change had a great impact on Icelandic register of personal names, and based on it, many names of foreign origin have been added to the register. A number of nicknames that were not allowed as personal names according to the old law, as well as many old names that were not included in the register in 1991 because how uncommon they were have also been added. With the entry into force of the law on gender autonomy in 2019, the provision that a girl should be given a female name and a boy should be given a male name was abolished, and as a result various gender-neutral names have been added to the personal names register.

Blótsyrði og örnefni

2023-09-11T15:58:37+00:00

In this paper, placenames that originate or can be associated with Icelandic swearwords are listed and discussed.

Kveikjan að nýjum nöfnum

2023-09-07T11:23:29+00:00

This article discusses new names that have been added to the personal names register since its first publication in 1991. Examples are given of new names inspired by nature, literature, movies and mythology.

Samtalsorðabók

2023-09-11T16:06:34+00:00

In this article, a new webdictionary for pragmatic markers in Icelandic is presented.

Götunöfn í Reykjavík 2001-2022

2023-09-07T11:25:59+00:00

Greinin fjallar um störf götunafnanefndar Reykjavíkur á árunum 2001 til 2022.

Á sporbaug

2023-09-07T11:26:59+00:00

Ritfregnir

2023-09-07T11:28:31+00:00