Languagle #15: Icelandic
Árinni kennir illur ræðari
"A bad rower blames the oar."
What it means
A poor worker blames their tools. Icelandic swaps the workman's tools for a rower's oar.
How to say it
OW-rin-ni KYEN-nir IT-lur RYE-tha-ri
Icelandic always stresses the first syllable. á sounds like 'ow', the ll in illur like 'tl', and ð like the th in 'this'.
Word by word
- Árinni OW-rin-ni: the oar
- kennir KYEN-nir: blames
- illur IT-lur: bad
- ræðari RYE-tha-ri: rower
It reads 'the oar blames a bad rower', but the oar is the one being blamed. In Icelandic the word endings, not the word order, show who does what.
Where it was found
Icelandic calls a proverb a málsháttur. This one is from Wikiquote's list of Icelandic proverbs.
Similar sayings
- English: A bad workman blames his tools
How to recognise Icelandic
Icelandic has two letters almost no other language uses: þ (thorn) and ð (eth), both said as a th. It also has á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, æ and ö. Faroese has ð but no þ, and uses ø instead of ö. Danish and Norwegian have æ, ø and å, but neither þ nor ð.
About the Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken by around 350,000 people. It has changed so little since the Middle Ages that Icelanders can still read the 13th-century sagas in the original. Rather than borrowing international words, Iceland usually coins new ones from old roots: a computer is 'tölva', from words for number and prophetess. The alphabet keeps two letters English lost long ago, þ (thorn) and ð (eth).
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