My choir is tackling this beautiful song, and I think it could help us with pronunciation to hear how the lyrics sound as ordinary spoken Icelandic. If any Icelandic person feels comfortable posting a recording of themselves saying the following, I would be very grateful.
Blá nótt yfir himininn
Blá nótt yfir mér
Horf-inn út um gluggann
Minn með hendur
Faldar undir kinn
Hugsum daginn minn
Í dag og í gær
Blá náttfötin klæða mig í
Beint upp í rúm
Breiði mjúku sængina
Loka augunum
Ég fel hausinn minn undir sæng
Starir á mig lítill álfur
Breytir mér í, en hreyfist ekki
Úr stað sjálfur
Starálfur
Opna augun
Stírurnar úr
Teygi mig og tel (Hvort ég sé ekki)
Kominn aftur og allt allt í lagi
Samt vantar eitthvað
Eins og alla veggina
Starir á mig lítill álfur
Breytir mér í, en hreyfist ekki
Úr stað sjálfur
Ég er
Takk!
4 comments
You should give the excellent folks over at r/learnIcelandic a visit, your post might get more traction there
Someone correct me if I’m wrong. But contrary to spotify and all lyric pages I looked at, I think its “horfi út um gluggann” not “horf-inn út um gluggann”.
Edit: wanted to add, good job on picking a song with actual Icelandic lyrics. A lot of their songs are just gibberish.
Check out the work of Cayla Roche. She is a music professor in Wisconsin whose area of expertise is Icelandic phonetics for singers.
I’m a singer, singing this in concert on Monday, I can record a thing for you. Pm me.