Wiktionary:About Icelandic

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

This page explains considerations (beyond those covered by general policies) which apply to Icelandic entries and Icelandic translations of English entries. For entries in Old Norse, sometimes referred to as Old Icelandic, see Wiktionary:About Old Norse.

Wiktionary:Entry layout explained is the principal policy on formatting entries. You are advised to read that policy before continuing. This document supplements that policy.

Entries

Icelandic entries begin with a ==Icelandic== header, which is inserted into the article after any ==Translingual== or ==English== section, but otherwise in alphabetical order with other level 2 headers.

Following is a simplified entry for the Icelandic word orðabók (“dictionary”). It shows the fundamental elements of an Icelandic entry:

==Icelandic==

===Etymology===

===Pronunciation===
* {{IPA|is|/ˈɔrðaˌpouːk/}}

===Noun===
{{is-noun|f|orðabókar|orðabækur}}

# [[dictionary]]

====Declension====
{{is-decl-noun-f-s3|orðab|ó|k}}

Headers

The headers allowed below the 'Icelandic' header are the same as those used in English entries, except for the “Translations” section, which is only allowed in English entries. The headers also have the same order and levels as in English entries, and the format of their content is generally identical, though certain differences between the two languages have to be taken into account.

Pronunciation

For an overview of the symbols used to transcribe Icelandic pronunciation, see Appendix:Icelandic pronunciation and the Wikipedia article on the function of symbols in Icelandic.

Nouns

Icelandic nouns can have any of 3 genders: neuter, masculine and feminine. The modern language has both singular and plural and most nouns are declined in four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Nouns are also distinguished by definiteness, having both definite and indefinite forms.

Verbs

Icelandic verbs inflect for tense, mood, person, number and voice. Verbs have three voices: active, passive and middle (or medial). There are also two moods for Icelandic verbs: indicative and subjunctive.

Adjectives

Like nouns, adjectives are declined in the four cases and for number in the singular and plural. In addition, adjectives are declined in strong and weak forms in their positive and superlative forms, but not in the comparative, for which only weak forms are used.

Spelling

Although Icelandic has an unbroken written tradition spanning almost a thousand years, spelling norms have varied over time and the modern Icelandic orthography came to be standardised in the 19th century. A very similar orthography used in normalised representations of Old Norse also includes the letter Ǫ, which is instead represented by Ö in modern Icelandic.

Obsolete spellings

Since 1973, the letter Z has been obsolete and all instances have been substituted by S. However, it is very occasionally used in some proper names and loanwords, by people educated before the reform, and by house style. See the Wikipedia article on Icelandic orthography for more.

Templates

See: Category:Icelandic templates

Help

• Using templates:
  • Wiktionary:Icelandic noun inflection-table templates
  • Wiktionary:Icelandic adjective inflection-table templates
• See generated lists of missing Icelandic words:
  • Wiktionary:About Icelandic/Todo
  • Wiktionary:Requested entries (Icelandic)
  • Wiktionary:Frequency lists/Icelandic

See also

• Category:Icelandic language

References works

• Category:Icelandic reference templates