How to pronounce “Eyjafjallajökull” in Icelandic
Published by marco on
Alternate title: Why Reddit is so awesome.
The post “Eyjafjallajökull” isn’t as foreign to English as it sounds (Reddit) is in the linquistics Reddit (to which I am subscribed, natch) and is treasure-trove of crowdsourcing goodness vis-à-vis the etymology, pronunciation (OGG file[1]) and unique linquistic characteristics of spoken Icelandic. There is no way I would have guessed the pronunciation from the spelling; the native Icelander seems to elide quite a bit, but what do I know about Icelandic phonetics? Just what I read on Reddit, that’s all.
The etymological breakdown of Eyjafjallajökull, mapping cognates to Old English is pure Internet gold, though.
eyja means “island”. The direct modern English cognate is eyot. It also survives in the first syllable of “island”, although the spelling of the modern word has been changed to match the Latin-derived “isle”.
fjalla means “mountain”. The direct modern English cognate is fell (a mountain or high plateau).
jökull means “glacier”. The Old English cognate was gicel, which survives in modern English as the -icle ending of “icicle”.
If this is all a bit much—and the umlaut is bound to throw off many a Statesider—be happy the volcano’s not in this town in Wales: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Wikipedia) (pronunciation (OGG file)).
[1] OGG is an open-source alternative to MP3-encoding. Smug Linux users are probably sorted, as are any OS X users with VLC or Perian installed (which is pretty much every file-sharer out there). Windows users…I have no idea what you need to download in order to play OGG files.↩
Comments
#1 − I heart windows
dianavb –
Windows users don’t have to download anything to play the OGG file… it plays right in Wiki :P
#2 − Mt Eyjafjallajokull
RinaA –
Maybe many are still confused how to pronounce the name of this volcano, Mt. Eyjafjallajokull. The eruption of Mt. Eyjafjallajokull has disrupted air travel once again. The volcano re-erupted and a change of winds caused an ash cloud to prevent air travel again. Luckily for travelers this time around it was only overnight and not for days. There’s chatter that this volcano may erupt all over again, leading to delays in flights yet again. If it is in any way achievable, I would recommend not flying into any regions affected by this volcano until it is certain that there won’t be any more activity with the volcano.