c, q, w, z and Foreign Spellings

The Icelandic alphabet does not contain c, q, w, and as of 1973 it no longer contains z either. Yet you will still see all four letters in print — in foreign names, in older books, on a few shop signs. This page explains the division of labour: which of these letters Icelandic uses, where, and why a learner who knows the rules can tell at a glance whether a word is "really" Icelandic or a foreign guest. The headline facts are simple. c, q, w appear only in unassimilated foreign names and the odd untouched loanword; z was removed from the orthography in 1973 and replaced by s. Knowing the z → s reform is essential for reading anything printed before the mid-1970s. (This page is about the letters themselves; the broader story of how Icelandic adapts and replaces loanwords belongs to the word-formation pages.)

The native alphabet leaves four letters out

Icelandic's alphabet has 32 letters, and it pointedly omits c, q, w — and, since the reform, z. The reason is functional: native Icelandic has no sound that needs them. The [k] sound is written k (or kk); [kv] is written kv; [v] is written v; and the sound once written z had long since merged with plain [s]. So the four letters are, from the language's point of view, redundant — every sound they could spell already has a native letter. They survive only at the edges of the vocabulary: in names and words that have not been naturalised.

c, q, w: foreign names only

In modern standard Icelandic, c, q, w live almost exclusively in foreign proper names kept in their original spelling — people, cities, countries, brands that have not been Icelandicised.

Notice the asymmetry in that last example: the personal name Carla keeps its foreign c, but the country has an Icelandic form Mexíkó. Country names and other well-established geographic names are often naturalised (Kúba for Cuba, Mexíkó for Mexico), while personal names and less-domesticated places keep their original letters. So the same text can show c in a surname and a native k in the country two words later.

When such a name has to be declined, Icelandic adds native endings to the foreign stem: Washington → í Washington, Carla → um Cörlu (with native inflection, even though the root keeps its c). The foreign letters stay; the grammar is Icelandic.

z: abolished in 1973

Here is the big historical fact every reader of Icelandic needs. Until 1973, z was a normal letter of Icelandic spelling. It did not spell a separate sound — by then it was pronounced exactly like s — but it was written etymologically, where an s descended from an older cluster (roughly ts, ds, ðs). So íslenzkur ("Icelandic"), verzlun ("shop, commerce"), bezt ("best"), seztur ("seated") were all written with z even though they sounded like plain s.

In 1973 a spelling reform abolished z from the standard orthography and replaced it with s (with a handful of consequences for double letters). The motivation was exactly that the z spelled no distinct sound — it was a purely historical letter that schoolchildren had to memorise word by word, with no help from the ear. After the reform, you simply write s.

Where z still appears

The reform cleaned z out of native Icelandic words, but you will still meet it in three places, and it is worth recognising them so you are not thrown:

• Older texts — anything printed before roughly 1974, plus authors and publishers who keep the old spelling deliberately.
• Proper names and surnames — family names like Zoëga keep their z; the reform did not rename people.
• A few unassimilated loanwords and brands — pizza keeps its z (it has not been respelled), and zeta is the name of the letter itself.

So z is not quite extinct; it is just no longer part of native spelling. In a word that is recognisably Icelandic, write s.

Assimilated loanwords get native spelling

The flip side of all this is what happens to loanwords that do settle in: they are respelled with native letters, often dramatically. The English jeep becomes jeppi (with the native j, a doubled pp, and a masculine -i ending). Shop gives the slangy sjoppa ("corner shop, kiosk"), written with sj- for the [ʃ] sound and -pp-. Coffee is kaffi. The principle is consistent: once a word is naturalised, it loses its foreign letters and is spelled as Icelandic phonology dictates.

This is why c, q, w, z are such a reliable tell. Their presence signals "not yet naturalised" — a foreign name or an untouched loan. Their absence, even in an obviously borrowed word like jeppi or kaffi, signals "fully Icelandic now."

How this differs from English

English is a magpie: it borrows c, q, w, z freely and keeps foreign spellings more or less intact (café, plaza, fjord), because English orthography never tried to stay phonologically pure. Icelandic took the opposite path. It actively maintains its alphabet against foreign letters, naturalises loanwords by respelling them, and even legislated a letter out of existence in 1973 — something that has no parallel in the English-speaking world, where spelling reform is famously impossible. For an English speaker the surprises are therefore two-directional: you must not expect c/q/w/z to behave as normal Icelandic letters, and you must not be surprised when a familiar English word turns up wearing a completely native disguise (jeppi, sjoppa, kaffi).

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The native alphabet omits c, q, w — and, since 1973, z — because Icelandic has no sound that needs them.
• c, q, w survive only in unassimilated foreign names (Washington, Carla, Quentin); well-established names are often naturalised (Kúba, Mexíkó).
• z was abolished in 1973 and replaced by s: íslenzka → íslenska, verzlun → verslun, bezt → best. Modern Icelandic has no z in native words.
• Knowing z → s is a reading skill for older texts; z still lingers in surnames (Zoëga) and a few loans (pizza, zeta).
• Loanwords that settle in are respelled with native letters: jeep → jeppi, shop → sjoppa, coffee → kaffi.
• The presence of c/q/w/z signals "foreign/not naturalised"; their absence, even in a borrowed word, signals "fully Icelandic now."