09 May 2009

Stafrófið (The Alphabet)

Just when you think the world is falling apart and that the "end" must be near, it is nice to know that some things are consistent all over the world. It seems that most countries--countries that have an alphabet that is--have a version of the alphabet song. Iceland is no different. As I thought about this, I realized that I never did learn the alphabet song while I was a missionary, in the MTC or in Iceland. I'm not sure I even heard anyone ever sing it. So being the dutiful academic that I am, I dug through a set of Icelandic language instuctional dvds that I had until I found a section where the teacher was teaching the students the Icelandic alphabet and was using the song to help her do it. Below are the letters and words to the song. The "dot, dot, dots" are the holds or long notes in the song. All together now!....

A,Á,B,D,Ð,E,É…F,G,H,I,Í,J,K…L,M,N,O,Ó og P…R,S,T,U,Ú,V þá….X og upsílon, Y og Ý….að Þ,Æ,Ö, mér svo ég sný….íslenskt stafróf kættir gef….þótt C og Q og tvöföld vaf sé ekki með.

Say that now 10 times fast and you win the prize. This is what might happen to your faces though on just the second time through if you aren't careful. Thanks Björg and Ólafur.

4 comments:

Grandpa and Grandma B said...

Sure glad we get to see their happy smiley faces! What a great couple and family!

MiriamR said...

ha ha I love this picture!

Hera said...

I remember singing the alphabet in elementary school in Iceland. The words were more like the words the English speaking kids learn in the alphabet song. It was a little hard trying to fit all the extra letters in but as you know Icelanders speak breathing in and out so we were ok with it. No extra breaths needed or even wasted.

Clayton said...

Ég er mjög hrifinn af þessari mynd! Vel gert! Nú skil ég hvaðan börn þeirra fengu slíka hæfileika!