28 February 2009

Til að geta beygt eitt einasta íslenskt orð sem til er! (To be able to decline and conjugate every single Icelandic word that exists!)

Since I am not a native speaker of the Icelandic language I am often looking for sources online that can help me decline a noun or conjugate a verb that I am unfamiliar with when I can't figure out how to do so in my dictionaries. In the Icelandic class I am teaching at BYU right now, I have three students. I was grading one of their writing assignments not too long ago and came upon a website while doing so that was the answer to this problem. The website was designed specifically for Icelanders and has no English. But it is also a really powerful tool for those of us who are non-natives who also want to learn the language correctly. All you do is type in the word and it will show you EVERY SINGLE way the word could be declined or conjugated in EVERY SINGLE language situation. I couldn't believe I had finally found a site that I could go to for EVERY SINGLE Icelandic inflection question and the answers would be there.

Well, the site is: http://bin.arnastofnun.is/. No more dead ends or frustration about not knowing for sure how to correctly change a word when I wanted to use it. The site does NOT help with phrases or colloquialisms, but that is small potatoes when you consider what it DOES help with. Thank you to the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies which has developed the online reference for the rest of us. (A missionary from the late 70's or early 80's sent me this picture of early Icelandic training in the MTC. lol)

2 comments:

enigmatic said...

I am so glad you stumbled upon this site. It is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to me.

Joe Holt said...

This is the bestest most amazingest thing ever. Thanks so much.