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Best modern Icelandic dictionary? | ||
Tags: Icelandic | Dictionaries | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk |  | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6110 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 1 of 29 25 April 2012 at 5:48am | IP Logged |
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Not quite sure where to put this thread...
I'm hoping someone might help me locate a bilingual comprehensive, modern, Icelandic dictionary. The target language can be anything, so long as it was published in the last 10 years and contains modern terminology. Basically, enough to use as an advanced level resource. Everything I've found in English, German, French, Swedish, Danish has been unsatisfactory, as they are simply not comprehensive enough (they're usually a few hundred pages only). Does such a thing exist? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5393 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 2 of 29 25 April 2012 at 12:52pm | IP Logged |
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A ten years limit is a bit harsh for a comprehensive dictionary in a lesser used language, but there you go...
My biggest one is the Íslensk - ensk orðabók written by Sverrir Hólmarsson. It is 536 pages long, but already 13 years old. I have another smaller one, a German one published by "Buske". I am not sure about modern terminology, but Hólmarsson knows for example the word "tölva", which means "computer", and "kjarnorkusprengja" for "atomic bomb. Edited by Cabaire on 25 April 2012 at 12:53pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 3 of 29 25 April 2012 at 1:46pm | IP Logged |
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There's a German-Icelandic dictionary by PONS which is quite comprehensive and quite up to date. It was published in 2009. Unfortunately, it only translates from German to Icelandic, not the other way round! If you want to have a look at it, here you go!
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6497 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 29 25 April 2012 at 1:52pm | IP Logged |
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I have a good Icelandic - English dictionary from Idunn (which I ordered directly from am Icelandic bokstore), plus an older Icelandic-Danish one. I haven't tried to find other dictionaries in this direction.
I'm less satisfied with my something --> Icelandic dictionaries because they generally are written for Icelanders, not for foreigners. Langenscheidt has one in their usual two-way format (German/Icelandic), and I also have a Danish one from Mál og Menning plus a Swedish one from Norstedt, which probably is the best of the lot - if you know Swedish, that is. Actually I looked through all something -> Icelandic dictionaries in the largest bookstore in Reykjavik during my last visit without finding anything which really looked like the perfect solution. Edited by Iversen on 25 April 2012 at 1:53pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5393 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 5 of 29 25 April 2012 at 2:12pm | IP Logged |
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My Íslensk - ensk orðabók is published by Iðunnar, so maybe Iversen and I are speaking about the same book. Edited by Cabaire on 25 April 2012 at 2:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6110 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 6 of 29 27 April 2012 at 5:52am | IP Logged |
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I guess ten years is asking a little much, but it's mainly because the only half-way decent dictionaries I've seen having publishing dates of around the 1950s, which puts them largely out of date with respect to modern information technology and its terminology. I guess 20 years wouldn't be so bad, but what amazes me most is that even among the Scandinavian languages its difficult, if not impossible, to find a book that exceeds 400 pages. How many words can you cram into such limited page space?
Cabaire, how sufficient do you feel the Sverrir Hólmarsson dictionary is? Edited by ChristopherB on 27 April 2012 at 5:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| csjc Tetraglot Newbie IcelandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5394 days ago 20 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, Icelandic, Modern Hebrew, Dutch Studies: Norwegian, French, Japanese | Message 7 of 29 27 April 2012 at 7:12am | IP Logged |
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The Hólmarsson dictionary was republished last year with a minor revision. It's the best you're going to get as far as
bilingual dictionaries go. As someone who speaks Icelandic at an advanced (C1ish) level, I use a monolingual dictionary almost exclusively. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6110 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 8 of 29 27 April 2012 at 3:01pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, you're fluent in Icelandic? I see you're a native English speaker, whereabouts are you from? I'd love to hear about your experiences learning this fascinating tongue! Apparently most people in Iceland speak English so well that I would have assumed getting the necessary practice would be sometimes difficult. C1 is extremely impressive!
I agree, a monolingual dictionary is probably the best and wisest alternative to an advanced-level bilingual edition. Fortunately it's probably not so difficult to track one down. But man... fluent Icelandic. That's pretty cool. Edited by ChristopherB on 27 April 2012 at 3:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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