The Icelandic language is important to be aware of and practice a little bit, because it has the more rare voiceless rr and ll consonant sounds, which you don't find in many languages beyond this and Welsh. Icelandic also makes a lot of use of the cc and CC, which is common in English (the word "the", or "think"), but is not found in that many other languages. It appears those two sounds are also among the last sounds children begin to pick up, starting around age 4, only mastering their sound after ages 6 to 8!
Icelandic also has some interesting and useful-to-practice vowels, like the other cultures and languages nearby.
Here are the 26 fundamental consonants used when speaking Icelandic.
For a complete list of possible consonants a human voice might make while speaking a natural language, check out the consonants page.
This language has aspirated consonants.
| bilabial | labiodental | dental | alveolar | postalveolar | retroflex | velar | uvular | pharyngeal | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quiet nasal | |||||||||||
| voiced nasal | |||||||||||
| voiced palatalized nasal | |||||||||||
| quiet plosive | |||||||||||
| quiet aspirated plosive | |||||||||||
| quiet palatalized plosive | |||||||||||
| quiet sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| quiet non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| quiet palatalized non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| voiced non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| quiet trill | |||||||||||
| voiced trill | |||||||||||
| voiced lateral approximant |
These are the 8 base vowels used when speaking Icelandic.
Also, a complete list of possible vowels a human voice might make while speaking can be found here.
| manner | front unrounded | front rounded | front central unrounded | front central rounded | central unrounded | central rounded | back central unrounded | back central rounded | back unrounded | back rounded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | |||||||||||
| near-close | |||||||||||
| open-mid | |||||||||||
| open |