Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2003, Blaðsíða 150

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Margrét Jónsdóttir
another work by Sigfús Blöndal, namely the textbook Praktisk Lœrebog i islandsk
Nutidssprog, co-authored with Ingeborg Stemann, first published in 1943 and twice
after that. The book was intended for speakers of Danish and its purpose was twofold:
to be a textbook of Icelandic as well as a conversation manual for prospective travel-
lers to Iceland. The book is compared to other books on Icelandic from the same pe-
riod or earlier and various characteristics are pointed out. Thus it is mentioned that in
the chapter on phonetic the authors recommend the southem and more common vari-
ant of Icelandic. This includes the “soft” (i.e., non-aspirated) pronunciation of stops
after a long vowel, whereas its (Northem) counterpart (aspirated stops after long
vowels) has sometimes been recommended by those who have discussed possible
standardization of Icelandic pronunciation. In the chapter on inflections the book is
remarkably Uberal, accepting inflectional variants that have standardly been frowned
upon in textbooks and handbooks. In this respect this textbook follows the descriptive
grammar of Valtýr Guðmundsson (1922). Some comments are also made on the
vocabulary of the book and it is compared to that of íslensk-dönsk orðabók by the
same author (Sigfús Blöndal) as well as to more recent dictionaries.
Margrét Jónsdóttir
íslenskuskor Háskóla íslands
IS-101 Reykjavík, ÍSLAND
mjons@hi.is