Tungumálin í kringum okkur — the languages around us

The neighbours

You already know íslenska, enska, danska, þýska, franska and spænska. This lesson completes the Nordic set and adds one southern neighbour:

languagecountry
norskaNoregur
sænskaSvíþjóð
ítalskaÍtalía

Language names are weak feminine nouns and take the accusative after tala: She speaks Norwegian and Swedish.

Hún talar norsku og sænsku.

Foreign

erlendur is the adjective foreign — erlend tungumál, erlendir ferðamenn, erlendar fréttir: Many foreign tourists come to Iceland.

Margir erlendir ferðamenn koma til Íslands. Its opposite is íslenskur, or innlendur (domestic) in news language.

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