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Niðurstöður leitar - 1679 svör fundust

category-iconBókmenntir og listir

Er til tónn sem er svo ljótur að hann er kenndur við djöfulinn?

Hugtakið tónskratti eða diabolus in musica varð til á miðöldum og á við tónbil en ekki stakan tón. Ekki er víst hvort ástæðan fyrir nafngiftinni hafi verið sú að tónbilið þótti ljótt. Á miðöldum voru svonefndar kirkjutóntegundir notaðar í tónlist. Frumtóntegundirnar fjórar voru: dórísk, frýgísk, lýdísk og mixó...

category-iconBókmenntir og listir

Hvers vegna eru sápuóperur kallaðar óperur?

Upphafleg spurning var á þessa leið: Sápuóperur heita sápu-óperur vegna þess að sápufyrirtæki styrktu þær, en hvers vegna óperur? Fólk syngur ekki í þeim. Sögu sápuópera má rekja til ársins 1932 að fyrstu dramatísku þáttaraðirnar, sem kalla má sápuóperunafninu, voru sendar út í ljósvakann á bandarískum útvar...

category-iconAnswers in English

Are portmanteau words frequent in Icelandic?

Portmanteau words are quite rare in Icelandic, and that kind of word formation is not a part of the regular way of making new words for the Icelandic vocabulary. I have asked quite many people, e.g. the lexicographers at the lexicographical department of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies and some ...

category-iconEfnafræði

Hvað hefur vísindamaðurinn Kristín Ingólfsdóttir rannsakað?

Kristín Ingólfsdóttir er fyrrverandi rektor Háskóla Íslands og prófessor við Lyfjafræðideild. Hún stundaði nám í lyfjafræði við Háskóla Íslands og við King's College, University of London, þaðan sem hún lauk doktorsprófi. Rannsóknir hennar hafa einkum snúist um efnafræði og lífvirkni efna sem finnast í íslenskri n...

category-iconAnswers in English

How many words are there in Icelandic?

It is impossible to say exactly how many words there are in Icelandic. Words are made every day, some of which may only be used once. These are usually compound words that are made because some event or object has to be instantly described, and there are no suitable existing words to choose from. Such words, whic...

category-iconAnswers in English

How many words are there in Icelandic for the devil?

It is difficult to say how many words there are for devil in Icelandic. Most of the known examples owe their existence to the fact that it was not considered proper to name the devil, so he was referred to by nicknames or by mutation of his name. In the Icelandic thesaurus the following words are listed under fjan...

category-iconBókmenntir og listir

Af hverju er sungið í kirkjum og hvernig skapaðist sú gerð tónlistar sem leikin er þar?

Eitt sinn heyrði ég bandarískan tónlistarprófessor svara spurningunni „til hvers er tónlist?“ á þessa leið: „Tónlist er alls staðar, það er ekki einu sinni hægt að selja sápu án hennar.“ Það er heilmikið til í þessu einfalda svari, því að tónlist hefur frá örófi alda verið samofin flestu því sem maðurinn tekur sér...

category-iconBókmenntir og listir

Hverjir hönnuðu nótnaskrift upphaflega og hvernig hefur hún breyst síðan?

Vitað er að Forn-Grikkir skráðu nótnaheiti með bókstöfum og almennt er talið að innan kirkjunnar hafi fyrstu tilraunir til að skrásetja tónlist hafist á 6. öld. Margs konar tilraunastarfsemi átti sér stað áður en það kerfi sem þekkist í dag mótaðist, en grunnurinn að því kom fram innan kirkjunnar á 9. öld. Ekki...

category-iconMálvísindi: íslensk

Why do male last names in Icelandic end with -son instead of -sonur?

In Old Icelandic, when the word sonr formed the second part of a compound, i.e. Magnús-son, Sigurðs-son, the final -r (-ur) was dropped in nominative singular, and the same morphology is used in Modern Icelandic. E.g.: Nom. Magnús Sigurðsson (son(u)r) Acc. Magnús Sigurðsson (son) Dat. Magnúsi Si...

category-iconAnswers in English

What is the shortest sentence in Icelandic to contain all the letters of the Icelandic alphabet?

Despite searching, I have not found a sentence that is said to be the shortest containing all the letters of the alphabet. It would need to have:aá b d ð eé f g h ií j k l m n oó p r s t uú v x yý þ æ ö = 32 letters.It is a good party game to try to make such a sentence but not an easy one. One would usually have ...

category-iconAnswers in English

Why are people in Iceland not named after fish like Bleikja (arctic char) or Urriði (trout)?

The custom of giving people names from natural phenomena, particularly from the animal kingdom, is ancient, maybe going all the way back to the Indo-European origins of the language. Words like this appear in old Icelandic sources, many still being used today, with quite a number having been added during the last ...

category-iconAnswers in English

Are there rules that say when words in Icelandic should be masculine, feminine and neuter? For a foreigner it is not enough to add an article.

In Icelandic, words almost always have a fixed gender, and it is seldom possible to deduce the gender from the stem. There are only a few examples of words that exist in more than one gender. It is however true of hveiti and jógúrt, which have both feminine and neuter forms, and regnskúr which can be either mascul...

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How did the Icelandic language start?

When Iceland was first settled in the 9th century, most of the settlers came from Norway, some of whom took slaves from Ireland en route. During the first centuries, the same language was spoken in Norway and Iceland, so there was little difference and the vocabulary was mostly Norse, with the exception of a f...

category-iconAnswers in English

What is the origin of the Icelandic language?

Icelandic belongs to the branch of the original indo-European known as Germanic. The Germanic languages divided early into three sub families: East Germanic is considered to comprise only one language, Gothic, which was spoken by the ancient race of Goths, and is now extinct. Sources about this can be found...

category-iconEðlisfræði: fræðileg

How far into the sky does the light from Yoko Ono's Peace Tower travel?

The short answer is that there is no particular limit to the distance it travels. If we were out in space and inside the ray of light, and there were no clouds between us and the light source, we could see it, either with the naked eye or with the appropriate equipment. With sufficiently good equipment, we would...

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