Statistics, tactics, politics, and geography.”
WE shall climb over the mountains and their hard names, and gallop through the valleys a little more smoothly, if we look at the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of some of the Icelandic terms. A great appropriateness will be seen in nearly all the geographical names in Iceland. By translating the language, we shall see some characteristic feature embodied in the name of about every place, river, lake, mountain, bay, and island in the country. The explanation of a few Icelandic words will show the signification of many of the names that I shall have occasion to mention. The letter Á (pronounced ow) signifies river, and is the last letter in the names of Icelandic rivers. Bru is a bridge, hence bruarÁ, or bridge river. Hvit is white; vatn, water or lake; hvitÁ, white river; hvitarvatn, white lake. Hver is a hot spring; laug (pronounced lage), a warm spring, and dalr, a dale or vale. There is a valley north of Hekla, known as Laugardalr, or vale of warm springs. The Icelanders pronounce double l at the end of words, like tl. They have a distinct name for each description of mountain. Jokull (pronounced yo-kut-l; or, spoken rapidly as the Icelanders speak, it sounds about like yo-kul) is the term used to designate mountains that are covered with perpetual ice. Fell, fjall, and fjÖll (pronounced fee-et-l, fee-aht-l, and fee-ote-l), all signify mountains, but fell is applied to single peaks, to small and isolated mountains, and fjall and fjÖll to large mountains, or chains of mountains. Bla is blue; snÆ, snow; and we have blafell, or a blue mountain standing alone—an isolated peak in the middle of a plain. A celebrated mountain in the west of Iceland, is SnÆfell Jokull (snef-el-yo-kul), a snowy mountain, standing alone, and covered with perpetual ice; and in the comprehensive language of the Icelanders, it is all expressed in two words. OrÆfa signifies desert or sandy plain, and torf is turf or peat. There are two mountains, OrÆfa Jokull and Torfa Jokull; one standing in a desert, and the other in a large peat district. One portion of the immense mountain, the Skaptar Jokull, is known as Vatna Jokull, as it is supposed to contain, on a portion of its surface, large pools of standing water. The points of compass are, north, suth, Æst, and vest. Eyjar signifies islands. South of Hekla is a lofty and celebrated mountain known as the Eyjafjalla Jokull. To an English reader, unacquainted with the Icelandic, it is a crooked-looking mouthful; but on the tongue of an Icelander, it flows off, a round, smooth, sonorous term. They call it i-a-fe-aht-la yo-kull. It defines itself as ice mountain of islands, having numerous knobs or peaks that stand up like islands in the sea. Many Icelandic words are identical with the English, and many others nearly so. It remains for some future lexicographer to show the great number of English words that are derived from the Icelandic. The points of compass have been noticed; a few more examples will suffice. Hestr is a horse; holt, a hill; hus, a house; hval, a whale; lang, long; men, men; mann, man; sandr, sand; sitha, the side; gerthi, a garden; litil, little; mikla, large (Scottish, muckle); myri, a bog or miry place; fjorth, is a firth or bay; kirkja, a church; prestur, a priest; morgun, morning; ux, ox; daga, days. “July, or midsummer month,” stands literally in Icelandic, Julius etha mithsumar-manuthur. J, at the beginning of words and syllables in the Icelandic, is pronounced like y consonant, and in the middle of a syllable, like i or long e.
Their affirmative yes, is jÁ (pronounced yow), and their no is nei (nay). Their counting is much like ours: einn (1), tveir (2), thrir (3), fjorir (4), fimm (5), sex (6), sjÖ (7), atta (8), niu (9), tiu (10), ellefu (11), tolf (12), threttan (13), fjortan (14), fimmtan (15), sextan (16), seytjan (17), atjan (18), nitjan (19), tuttugu (20), tuttugu og einn (21), thrjatiu (30), fiÖrutiu (40), fimmtiu (50), sextiu (60), sjÖtiu (70), attatiu (80), niutiu (90), hundrath (100), fimm hundrath (500), thusund (1000). The date 1851, in words, would be: einn thusund atta hundrath fimmtiu og einn. This list might be extended to great length, showing the similarity between the Icelandic and the English; but these examples are sufficient for my purpose.
I have a few words for my friends the geographers, who, in their anxiety to Anglicize geographical names, so completely change them that the natives of a country would not recognize their own rivers and mountains when once disguised in an English dress. The Icelandic is the only one of the old Scandinavian tongues that has the sound of th; and they have two different letters, one to represent th in thank, and the other the th as heard in this. The latter sound is heard in fiorth and in north[3]—different from our pronunciation of north; and as the letter representing this sound of th is a character that some resembles the letter d, we find the above words written and printed by the English as fiord and nord. With the Danes and Swedes, who have neither the sounds nor the letters, it is not to be wondered at that they use d or t for these sounds. I shall give the Icelandic names in their native spelling, as near as possible, with perhaps the exception of the name of the country,—which they write Island, but now with us is thoroughly Anglicized as Iceland. They pronounce it ees-land, the a in the last syllable rather broad. I see no particular objection to using y for j in jokull, as it has that sound; or in substituting i for the same letter in fjorth, Reykjavik, Eyjafjalla, and similar cases. I will, however, protest against an Icelandic Thane being turned into a Dane, without as much as saying, “By your leave, sir,” or ever asking him if he wished to change his allegiance.
If this chapter is dry and technical, it has at least the merit of brevity.
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