Linguistic Purism in Icelandic - Loanwords

Loanwords

However intensive the efforts for linguistic purification, loanwords are still entering the language. Some of these loanwords have been adapted and moulded to fit in with Icelandic grammatical rules, like the aforementioned inflection and pronunciation. For example, the word bíll (“a car”) comes from the word ‘automobile’ via the Danish shortened version bil. Sapir and Zuckermann (2008) demonstrate how Icelandic camouflages many English words by means of phonosemantic matching. For example, the Icelandic-looking word eyðni, meaning "AIDS", is a phonosemantic match of the English acronym AIDS, using the pre-existent Icelandic verb eyða (“to destroy”) and the Icelandic nominal suffix -ni. Similarly, the Icelandic word tækni (“technology”, “technique”) derives from tæki (“tool”) combined with the nominal suffix -ni, but is, in fact, a phonosemantic match of the Danish (or international) teknik (“technology”, “technique”). This neologism was coined in 1912 by Dr Björn Bjarnarson from Viðfjörður in the East of Iceland. It had been little in use until the 1940s, but has ever since become highly common, as a lexeme and as an element in new formations, such as raftækni (“electronics”) literally meaning “electrical technics”, tæknilegur (“technical”) and tæknir (“technician”). Other phonosemantic matches discussed in the article are beygla, bifra – bifrari, brokkál, dapur – dapurleiki - depurð, fjárfesta - fjárfesting, heila, guðspjall, ímynd, júgurð, korréttur, Létt og laggott, musl, pallborð – pallborðsumræður, páfagaukur, ratsjá, setur, staða, staðall – staðla - stöðlun, toga – togari, uppi and veira.

Icelandic has grammatical cases: an example of adaptation of a foreign word is "Israeli" (same meaning as in English, as a noun), which in Icelandic has the plural Israelar, like with native Icelandic words such as the poetic gumi (“a man”) and bogi (“a bow”).