Icelandic, Scandinavia

We are back to the Far North. Recently, we marveled at the proximity of Scandinavian languages. Let's go back to some earlier sample sentences illustrating the proximity of the Scandinavian languages and take a closer look at some aspects we forgot to address.

1. Hvað kostar þetta? [Icelandic] Vad kostar detta? [Swedish] Hvad koster dette? [Danish] Hva koster dette? [Norwegian]

2. Ég tala ensku. Jag talar engelska. Jeg taler engelsk. Jeg snakker engelsk.

3. Við erum vinir. Vi är vänner. Vi er venner. Vi er venner.

The Icelandic conjugation system seems richer than that observed in the other three Nordic systems. "Við" (We) calls for an -um ending (or perhaps erum, and the verb to be, are a special case), "Ég" for an -a ending, in tala, while the 3rd person singular calls for -ar, like in kostar.

Conversing in a generative AI in lieu of a grammar book, it seems that there are weak and strong verbs. Strong verbs are irregular verbs that undergo stem changes, while weak, regular verbs do not. This won't be news to anyone who speaks English or German. In English, to speak makes speak, spoke, spoken. In German, sprechen (to speak) makes spricht, sprach, gesprochen.

Why is að tala (to speak) deemed by our AI-teacher a weak verb, despite a present tense conjugation in

Ég tala Þú talar Hann/Hún/Það talar Við töluðum Þið talið Þeir/Þær/Þau tala

and a past tense conjugation in

Ég talaði Þú talaðir Hann/Hún/Það talaði Við töluðum Þið töluðuð Þeir/Þær/Þau töluðu

where töluðum (present 1st pers. pl.) and töluðum, töluðuð, töluðu (past. pl.) can be considered as demonstrating, it seems to me, a change of stem?

In Icelandic, even weak verbs can have slight irregularities or shifts in stem or endings [...] That said, weak verbs tend not to undergo significant stem changes while conjugating, whereas strong verbs do.

The way the past tense is formed seems to discriminate between weak and strong verbs.

Strong verbs undergo a vowel change in the stem when conjugated in the past tense, and you need to memorize the changes for each verb.

Some examples illustrate further.

að tala (to speak) Present: tala, talar, talar, tölum, talið, tala Past: talaði, talaðir, talaði, töluðum, töluðuð, töluðu

að hugsa (to think) Present: hugsa, hugsar, hugsar, hugsum, hugsið, hugsa Past: hugsaði, hugsaðir, hugsaði, hugsuðum, hugsuðu, hugsuðu

að byrja (to begin) Present: byrja, byrjar, byrjar, byrjum, byrjið, byrja Past: byrjaði, byrjaðir, byrjaði, byrjuðum, byrjuðu, byrjuðu

að svara (to answer) Present: svara, svarar, svarar, svörum, svarið, svara Past: svaraði, svaraðir, svaraði, svöruðum, svöruðu, svöruðu

The verbs above seem to classify as weak verbs indeed, since the stem vowel doesn't change from infinitive to past tense. að lesa is not weak, as the -e- of the stem becomes -a- in the past tense.

að lesa (to read) Present: les, lest, les, lesum, lesið, lesa Past: las, last, las, lásuðum, lásuð, lásu

Our generative AI was able, at this early stage of its development, to give us further correct examples of strong verbs in Icelandic.

að fara (to go) Present: fer, ferð, fer, förum, farið, fara Past: fór, fórst, fór, fórum, fóruð, fóru

að sjá (to see) Present: sé, sér, sé, sjáum, sjáið, sjá Past: sá, sást, sá, sáum, sáuð, sáu

að taka (to take) Present: tek, tekur, tek, tökum, takið, taka Past: tók, tókst, tók, tókum, tókuð, tóku

að koma (to come) Present: kem, kemur, kem, komum, komið, koma Past: kom, komst, kom, komum, komuð, komu

Of the aforementioned weak verbs, we note the special cases of að tala and að svara, which noticeably change their vowel radical in the 1st person plural present and plural past. Present: svara, svarar, svarar, svörum, svarið, svara Past: svaraði, svaraðir, svaraði, svöruðum, svöruðu, svöruðu

It reminds us of those German verbs that are said to be mixed, not strong but a little more than weak. We ask for confirmation, and an outline of an analogy.

In German, verbs that display characteristics of both strong and weak verbs are often referred to as "mixed" verbs or "irregular weak" verbs. These verbs have a strong-like vowel change in the present tense, similar to strong verbs, but form their past tense and past participle like weak verbs, using the "-te" ending and the "ge-" prefix.

A few examples of mixed verbs in German are: denken (to think) Present: denke, denkst, denkt, denken, denkt, denken Past: dachte, dachtest, dachte, dachten, dachtet, dachten

wissen (to know) Present: weiß, weißt, weiß, wissen, wisst, wissen Past: wusste, wusstest, wusste, wussten, wusstet, wussten

bringen (to bring) Present: bringe, bringst, bringt, bringen, bringt, bringen Past: brachte, brachtest, brachte, brachten, brachtet, brachten

Icelandic linguistic tradition does not formally categorize some of its verbs as "mixed", unlike German. Nevertheless, some weak Icelandic verbs show irregularities in their radical changes according to person or mood, even if they form the past tense with a dental suffix.

The dental suffix in question is -ði or -di. Let's observe again. The weak verbs að tala and að hugsa make

Present: tala, talar, talar, tölum, talið, tala Past: talaði, talaðir, talaði, töluðum, töluðuð, töluðu Present: hugsa, hugsar, hugsar, hugsum, hugsið, hugsa Past: hugsaði, hugsaðir, hugsaði, hugsuðum, hugsuðu, hugsuðu

The weak verb past tense adds in the singular the endings -ði, -ðir, -ði to the stem, and apparently this is precisely what makes them weak verbs.

Strong verbs don't add an ending to the stem in the singular past tense, while the vowel of the stem shifts (to all past tense persons). We notice this with að koma.

Present: kem, kemur, kem, komum, komið, koma Past: kom, komst, kom, komum, komuð, komu

Incidentally, we notice that the vowel change also applies to the present plural. Let's see if this is the case with the other strong verbs mentioned earlier. In að lesa, no stem vowel change in the present tense at all, and the altered stem vowel in the plural past tense is accented.

Present: les, lest, les, lesum, lesið, lesa Past: las, last, las, lásuðum, lásuð, lásu

In að fara, the behavior is somewhat similar to what we noted for að tala - which we called a 'mixed' weak verb by analogy with the German mixed verbs - : in the present tense, only the 1st pers. pl. alters the stem vowel.

Present: fer, ferð, fer, förum, farið, fara Past: fór, fórst, fór, fórum, fóruð, fóru

að sjá presents a further irregularity in the present singular.

Present: sé, sér, sé, sjáum, sjáið, sjá

Past: sá, sást, sá, sáum, sáuð, sáu

Eventually, að taka presents the irregularities of both að fara and að sjá.

Present: tek, tekur, tek, tökum, takið, taka

Past: tók, tókst, tók, tókum, tókuð, tóku

In short, in Icelandic, irregular (strong) verbs really are.

Let's go back for a minute to our proposed analogy with German mixed verbs. Consider for example bringen.

Present: bringe, bringst, bringt, bringen, bringt, bringen Past: brachte, brachtest, brachte, brachten, brachtet, brachten The formation of preterit (past tense) follows that of a weak verb, adding the ending -te to the stem, while the vowel alters (a little more than the vowel in fact, -ing- becomes -ach-).Similarly, að tala features both regular past endings (-ði) and some stem vowel change. Present: tala, talar, talar, töluðum, talið, tala Past: talaði, talaðir, talaði, töluðum, töluðuð, töluðu

We shall remember this (admittedly weak) analogy between the Icelandic "weak irregulars" and the German "mixed".

Now, having made these fruitful investigations, let's carry on reasoning by analogy. The following is a longer list of strong verbs.

að bera (to carry) Present: ber, ber, ber, berum, berið, bera Past: bar, bart, bar, bárum, báruð, báru

að binda (to bind) Present: bind, bindur, bindur, bindum, bindið, binda Past: batt, battst, batt, bundum, bunduð, bundu

að bíta (to bite) Present: bít, bítur, bítur, bítum, bítið, bíta Past: beit, beitst, beit, bitum, bituð, bitu

að draga (to pull) Present: dreg, dregur, dregur, drögum, dragið, draga Past: dró, dróst, dró, drógum, dróguð, drógu

and also

að drepa (to kill) að falla (to fall) að finna (to find) að fljúga (to fly) að ganga (to go) að gefa (to give) að geta (can/to be able to) að grafa (to dig) að koma (to come) að láta (to let) að lesa (to read) að liggja (to lie) að ríða (to ride)

With few exceptions, the German or Norwegian equivalent of each of these Icelandic strong verbs is also a strong verb.

að koma (to come) German: kommen - komt (3rd. pers. sg. present), kam (3rd. pers. sg. past) Norwegian: å komme - kommer (present), kom (past)

að bera (to carry) German: tragen - trägt (present), trug (past) Norwegian: å bære - bærer (present), bar (past)

að binda (to bind) German: binden - bindet (present), band (past) Norwegian: å binde - binder (present), bandt (past)

að bíta (to bite) German: beißen - beißt (present), biss (past) Norwegian: å bite - biter (present), bet (past)

að draga (to pull) German: ziehen - zieht (present), zog (past) Norwegian: å dra - drar (present), dro (past)

að falla (to fall) German: fallen - fällt (present), fiel (past) Norwegian: å falle - faller (present), falt (past)

að finna (to find) German: finden - findet (present), fand (past) Norwegian: å finne - finner (present), fant (past)

að fljúga (to fly) German: fliegen - fliegt (present), flog (past) Norwegian: å fly - flyr (present), fløy (past)

að ganga (to walk) German: gehen - geht (present), ging (past) Norwegian: å gå - går (present), gikk (past)

að gefa (to give) German: geben - gibt (present), gab (past) Norwegian: å gi - gir (present), ga (past)

að geta (to get) German: bekommen - bekommt (present), bekam (past) Norwegian: å få - får (present), fikk (past)

etc. að drepa (to kill) is indeed a strong verb in Icelandic Present: drepi, drepir, drepir, drepum, drepið, drepa Past: drap, drapt, drap, drápum, drápuð, drápu but the obvious equivalents in both German and Norwegian are not German: töten - tötet (present), tötete (past) Norwegian: å drepe - dreper (present), drepte (past)

and it could be the sole exception to the list.

In a nutshell, we seem to be able to confirmed that strong German, Norwegian or English verb seems likely to find a strong counterpart in Icelandic. Nothing could be more normal, as we remain among Germanic languages.

We have illustrated once more how to learn languages of the Far North by analogy.

What about the other modes, the subjunctive, the imperative and the conditional.

In Icelandic, compound tenses are less common than in some other Indo-European languages, but they do exist. It functions similarly to the present perfect in English and the Perfekt in German. Ég hef talað. (I have spoken) Hún hefur lesið. (She has read)

Apparently so. There are numerous topics to explore shortly. We will soon be practicing our novice sagacity in spotting Icelandic verb forms.