Icelandic Morphology

The noun has a number of archaic traits corresponding to the Scandinavian state: 3 genders (masculine, feminine, middle) and 4 cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative ). The noun has the categories of number (singular and plural), as well as certainty and uncertainty.

The postpositive definite article , arising from a demonstrative pronoun , is a nominal enclitic : it tends to duplicate a nominal inflection . The indefinite article is absent. There is a so-called double definiteness: the article is added to nouns that already have a syntactic determinative .

The principle of formation of the post- positive article: armurinn = armur + inn << armur hinn (“that hand”); kinnarinnar = kinnar + innar << kinnar hinnar (“that cheek”). Separately, the article hinn in the modern language is used only in the book style and in solemn speech. He forms the group “adjective + noun”: hinn gamli maður (“that old man”, book style) = gamli maðurinn (“old man”, neutral style).

Characteristically, the declension system of the modern Icelandic language is very close to the declension system of Old Icelandic. However, there are some simplifications and alignments:

• in the dative case of the singular, the ending -u in modern language appears in a much smaller number of feminine nouns of strong declension;
• some masculine nouns of a strong group do not have ending dates. p. h. -i ;
• some nouns simplified the alternation of the stem in declension: snjór (snow) -> snjós (snow) << dis. snæs ;
• masculine nouns in the accusative plural no longer use the ending -u in any of the common paradigms, etc.

An example of a nominal paradigm for the following words in indefinite and definite forms:

armur (m. strong) "hand";

afi (m. weak) "grandfather";

sól (f. strong) "sun";

kinn (f. strong) cheek;

rigning (f. strong) "rain";

saga (f. weak) "history";

barn (cf. strong) "child";

hjarta (cf. weak) "heart".

In order to show the archaic nature of the Icelandic language, we note that in the Swedish noun arm of these 16 forms only 4 were preserved - forms of the genus, and dates. and wines. deaths disappeared: arm - armen - armar - armarna .

2 types of adjectives are used - strong and weak. An example of the declension of an adjective in strong (indefinite) and weak (defined) forms:

langur dagur "long day";

löng nótt "long night";

langt líf "long life".

Masculine

Strong declination

Masculine strong declension first class

Masculine nouns that are inclined to the first class in the plural receive the ending -ar , and in the genitive singular -s . This class is the most common, but remember that any rules have exceptions, so there are several types of declination that belong to the first class.

Types of declination individually:

First Type

heimur “earth, peace”; fiskur "fish"; hundur "dog".

According to the first type, in particular, the following nouns are inclined:

• bátur “ship”, baugur “ring”, brunnur “spring, spring”, draumur “dream”, fiskur “fish”, garður “garden”, hattur “hair”, hestur “horse”, hundur “dog”, kálfur “calf” ", Munnur " mouth ", piltur " guy ", pollur " puddle ", prestur " pastor ".

Second Type

The second type includes nouns with -ll , -nn at the end. With the declension of such nouns, one l or n disappears, and the endings are the same as with the first type.

Note that when declensing, the vowel before -ll or -nn disappears. According to the second type, in particular, the following nouns are inclined:

aftann “evening”, morgunn “morning”, lykill “key”, fetill “wick”, ketill “boiler”, engill “angel”, spegill “mirror”, j ökull “glacier”.

Monosyllabic words of this type do not receive the singular ending number -i in the dative case. There are many such words: stóll “chair”, hóll “hill”, bíll “car”, páll “spade”.

Third Type

The third type includes monosyllables without endings. They get the same endings as the words of the first two types.

In particular, the following words belong to this type: fugl “bird”, karl “man”, vagn “carriage”, svefn “dream”.

Fourth Type

This type includes words ending in -s , -ss , -x . These words in the genitive singular do not get the ending -s .

The following words belong to this type: koss “kiss”, foss “waterfall”, háls “neck”, mars “March”, dans “dance”, lax “salmon”.

Second strong declination class of masculine nouns

First Type

The second class includes nouns ending in -ur , which in the plural receive the ending -ir .

The only common word that is inclined by this type is gestur “guest”.

Second Type

The second type includes words that do not receive the ending -I in the dative singular.

The most common words of this type: svanur “ swan ”, hvalur “whale”, valur “falcon”, dalur “valley”, refur “fox”, salur “hall”, lýður “people”, smiður “blacksmith”.

The third class of strong declension of masculine nouns

The third class includes words that incline differently than words of the previous two types. These are very common words: faðir “father”, bróðir “brother”, maður “man”, fótur “foot”, fingur “finger”, vetur “winter”.

Weak declination

First Type

Weak nouns include nouns with -i at the end. With a weak declension, the noun ends in -a in the genitive, dative, and accusative singular, -ar in the nominative plural. Nouns with -kki , -ggi , -ki , -gi at the end get the endings respectively -ja and -jar .

A huge amount of words are prone to weak declination. Here are some examples: Rússi “Russian (person)”, Grikki “Greek”, Tyrki “Turk”, Finni “Finn”, Spanverji “Spaniard”, afi “grandfather”, banki “bank”, bakari “baker”, kennari “teacher” ", Dómari " judge ". Almost all names of nationalities and professions refer to the weak declension of masculine nouns.

Second Type

The second type includes words ending in -andi. These words in the nominative and accusative cases of the plural receive the ending -ur , and in the plural and in the suffix -andi turns into e .

The following words belong to this type: lesandi “reader”, leikandi “player”, nemandi “student”.

Feminine

Strong declination

First Class

First Type

In the first, nouns with the endings -ing and -ung are inclined , and the latter have -u in dates. p. hours may be absent:

Second Type

In the second type, mainly book words, some words and some proper names with the ending -ur , as well as proper names with the endings -dís and -unn (for example, Þórdís , Þórunn ) are inclined :

Third Type

According to the third type, the noun ending in the root vowels á , ó , ú is inclined:

Declination of personal pronouns:

The verb in Icelandic has the categories of tense , mood and voice . The perfect form is built using the verbs “have” (for most verbs) and “be” (only for intransitive limit verbs). The future tense form is not grammatical . The passive is formed analytically. There is a class of medium verbs with a marker - st , which has a reflective origin. There is an extensive class of verbs related by strong control to nouns in the dative and genitive cases. An example of conjugation is the example of the strong verbs fara (“go”) and vinna (“work, win”) and the weak verb kalla (“call”):

As can be seen from the paradigms, the verb in the Icelandic language is actively conjugated by persons and numbers, which other Scandinavian languages ​​(except Faroese ) did not save. For example, in Swedish for all persons: fara >> far - ( fare ) - for - fore ; vinna >> vinner - ( vinne ) - vann - vunne ; kalla >> kallar - ( kalle ) - kallade - kallade (in brackets are given the little-used archaic forms of the subjunctive mood of the present tense).

Examples of analytical forms:

Perfection : ég hef kallað þig “I called you”;

Subjective result: þeir eru komnir “they came” ( ext. “Essence came”);

The present is continuous: ég er að lesa bókina "I am reading (now) this book."

The verb has two forms of participles - present and past tense: að kalla >> kallandi , kallaður .

The past participle tends to be a regular adjective: kallaður - kallaðir - kallaðan , etc.