Lögberg-Heimskringla - 22.04.2005, Blaðsíða 11

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 22. apríl 2004 «11
A STUDY TRIP T O
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Winnipeg, MB
Eight students leaming
Icelandic at the Department
of Icelandic Language and
Literature Studies at the Uni-
versity of Iceland will be on a
two-week study trip in Iceland
in May. “The theme of the trip
is culture, history and nature,”
says the department’s instructor
Helga Hilmisdóttir, who will be
the guide in Iceland.
About three years ago, the
Icelandic Department decided
to sponsor students in Icelandic
to go to Iceland and paid $ 1,000
of the cost of each student. This
was part of marketing the de-
partment and four students
accepted the offer. “We had a
great time,” said Elva Jónasson,
one of the students, in an article
in Morgunblaðið after the trip
in 2002.
This time the group will
depart Winnipeg May 11 and
return two weeks later. The stu-
dents will go on a guided tour
around Reykjavík, visit the Uni-
versity of Iceland, the National
Museum, the Culture House
and various museums and art
galleries, and the Reykjavík Art
Festival takes place during their
visit to the capital.
After a few days in Reykja-
vík, they will drive to the north-
em part of the country. Among
the places they will visit are
Snorrastofa, Glaumbær, Hólar,
the Icelandic Emigration Cen-
tre in Hofsós, the Herring Mu-
seum in Siglufjörður, Akureyri,
Goðafoss and the Dettifoss
circle.
The Icelandic department
takes care of the airfare and
rental car for two weeks, which
means that the cost to the stu-
dents is not much.
PHOTO: STEINPÓH GUÐBJARTSSON
The trip to Iceland discussed. From left: Helga Hiimisdóttir, Birna Bjarnadóttir, Chair of Ice-
landic Studies, Ryan Eyford, Pat Odegaard, Sandy Anderson, Jacek Kozlowski, Louise Jona-
son, and Patrick Lee. Missing are Geoff Bjornson and Joel Fridfinnson.

NO. 3
by Helga Hilmisdóttir
Department of icelandic, University of Manitoba
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/icelandic
Icelandic for beginners
Cender - Feminine
The boldfaced words in the dialogue at right are examples of
feminine nouns. Gender in Icelandic is a grammatical category. That
means that the gender of these words does not have any relation to
the natural gender of the things they refer to. All nouns are either
feminine {hún ‘she’), masculine {hann ‘he’) or neuter {pað ‘it’). In
Icelandic, úlpa, ‘a winter jacket,’ is feminine and. therefore ‘she’.
Compare the following examples and their English translation:
(A) Þeí/a er stclpa. Hún er títil. ‘This is a girl. She is small.
(B) Þetta er taska. Hún er títil. ‘This is a bag. It is small.’
In both examples, the pronoun used in lcelandic is hún, ‘she’. In
A, the natural gender and the grammatical gender are identical. In
B, however, there is no obvious reason for the grammatical gender
to be feminine. Sometimes the grammatical and the natural gender
can appear to be contradictory, e.g. when a feminine noun refers to a
man or vice versa.
Words such as taska ‘bag’, klukka, ‘clock’, amma, ‘grandmother’,
tölva, ‘computer’, vika, ‘week’ and flaska, ‘bottle’ are all examples of
feminine nouns. As you probably have noticed, all these words end
with the vowel -a. However, not all feminine nouns end in -a. Words
such as mjólk, ‘milk’, rós, ‘rose’, sveit, ‘country’, borg, ‘city',ferd, ‘trip’
and þjóð, ‘nation’ are also feminine nouns, but end in a consonant.
The definite article in Icelandic is attached to the end of the
noun: húfa-n, mjó/k-in. To form the definite form of feminine nouns
we add an -n to the ones that end in -a, and -in to the ones that end
in a consonant.
-n
kona-« ‘the woman’
stúlka-« ‘the girl’
pylsa-« ‘the sausage’
kanna-n ‘the cup’
-m
búð-/« ‘the store’
tjörn-m ‘the pond:
íiurð-m ‘the door’
skáI-?/7 ‘the bowl’
Peter: Hvar erpeysan mín?
Þóra: Ha ...peysa ? Erpettapeysan
pín?
Peter: Já, þetta erpeysan mín.
Þóra: Hér er úlpa. Erpetta úlpan pín?
Peter: Nei,þetta er ekki úlpan tnín.
Peter: En hvar er húfan min ?
Þóra: Húfanpín? Hvada húfa?
Peter: Lopahúfan.
Peter: Já... Hérna er húfan.
Where is my sweater?
What? ... Sweater? Is this your
sweater?
Peter: Yes, this is my sweater.
Þóra: Here is a jacket. Is this your
jacket?
Peter: No, this is not my jacket.
Peter: But where is my hat?
Þóra: Your hat? What hat?.
Peter: My woollen hat.
Peter: Yes ... Here is your hat.
Hvar er húfan mín? - Where is my hat?
Peter:
Þóra:
Exercise
Form the definite:
Hér er b'ók. Erpetta...................pín? ‘Here is a book. Is this your book?’
Hér er appe/sina. Erpetta................pín? ‘Here is an orange. Is this your
orange?’
Hér er gata. Erpetta...............pín ? ‘Here is a street. Is this your street?’
Hér ergjöf. Erþetta................mín? ‘Here is a gift. Is this my gift?’
Form the indefinite: -
Þetta er..........Þetta er borgin mín. ‘This is a city. This is my city.’
Þetta er...........Þetta erperan mín. ‘This is a pear. This is my pear.’
Þetta er...........Þetta er myndavé/in mín. ‘This is a camera. This is my
camera.’
•fpavputCiU ‘n.tjJ 'Suoq ‘ufoŒ •iwjv'd 'uviqspjjv ‘uiyoq :SJ9MSU\/
The content of this article is based on icelandic on-line (www.icelandic.hi.is). icelandic on-line is a free web-based course in modern icelandic, developed by the
Universlty of iceland. The material Is used with permission from the director of the project, Dr. Birna Arnbjörnsdóttlr, associate professor. The on-line course is
used as teaching materlal for fírst year students In lcelandic at the Universlty of Manitoba.
Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca