# Icelandic: af hverju / afhverju / akkuru



## Alxmrphi

Hey all,

I was just curious about the acceptability of these forms in the opinions of the native speakers.
This is pretty much documenting language change and usually the more radically different the form, the less accepted it is.
In English this has happened with "_Do you know what I mean?_" which is the full and "proper" form, then you often see (usually mixed with chatspeak-spelling) _"no wat I mean?_" ('Know what I mean?') and then '_nowa I mean?_' and the shortest I've ever seen written is '_naa mean?_' in colloquial (internet) writing.

Anyway, yeah in careful speech in Icelandic I've heard all three of these versions, in a quick casual conversation I think it'd be rare to hear the fully pronounced "af hverju..?" (where you can tell it's meant to be a separate word). I think most of the time what I hear is a sort of inbetween version of the other two, like if somebody says something and the person they are talking to quickly responds "Why not?" it's usually something like "Akkerju ekki?" (which would be what is like a stage between "afhverju" and "akkuru") but there's also "Akkurekki?"

I know spellings can be tolerated differently in Icelandic, especially when it comes to a verb like in "*Hvað meinarðu*?", that last -ðu isn't there most of the time (in speech) and it seems to be quite normal and accepted in casual writing to just put "*Hvað meinaru?*", and all variations of that theme of missing out [ð]. So my question is, is it a case where the first option is the normal standard, the second one is something that doesn't raise "too many" eyebrows by a lot of people, and only when you're being really colloquial people would use "Akkuru"?

Have you ever seen this spelt a different way?
Is there a stigma attached to the more divergent spellings (I'd expect there to be, but I am more looking for the opinions of the younger generation, like people in their 20s, like the Icelanders on this forum )?

Part of what I want to figure out is to recognise the slang and the alternate spellings used in the daily life of colloquial writing/speaking so if people are going to think I'm stupid because I am writing that way, I would probably want to avoid it, but I think maybe also it's a sign of knowing and understanding the language well, where it can be seen as 'fitting in' and therefore it gives off a good sense of language-use, to people when deliberately trying to be colloquial. That's the reason I wanted to ask the opinions of the usages.

I've got a lot of Italian friends who talk to me on Facebook, and I can see them using chatspeak to me, which I think shows they are pretty comfortable and have adjusted well to how I speak with my friends in the same sort of situation, but I know to others it will seem quite uneducated. But obviously they also know how to write perfectly correctly, if it was to an older person or a potential employer, etc.

Takk fyrir,
Alx


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## sindridah

I just have no idea how to answer this question, probably because I have no idea what you mean


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## Alxmrphi

Ok I'll try to rephrase it a bit.

First of all, do you think people automatically think the person who writes things like "afhverju/akkuru/akkurekki" is not a good speaker/writer/user of the language?
Or is it just an acceptable way to write informally?


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## sindridah

No I don't really think so, I don't really look at it that way, But you can of course see less intent of mis-spelling if you see someone writing af hverju in one word because you really can't tell if he or she is trying to writing it correctly ( or what? ) But I would guess so, You can see the intent of mis-spelling when you see akkuru so I guess that's looked at in more excused matter?  I would try to avoid afhverju and use af hverju or akkuru when you want to type faster unless of course it's some sort of formal message or something like that Lets see what others think about it


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## kepulauan

I barely ever bother to say "hvað segir þú", but that is partly due to the fact that it almost has a different meaning (though I'll swear it does not), because as a result of the lazy way, "hvað segir *þú*" puts emphasis on "þú".

I agree with Sindri. An intended shortening can be used for the sake of sounding playful or even polite:
"Heyrru" means both "hey! what are you doing" (said to a friend) and "I hope I'm not bothering you too much but..." (probably safer with friends too).


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## Alxmrphi

That's a good point, with "afhverju" you might not know if the person is aware of the "true" form but if you see "akkuru" then you are pretty sure that the person knows it's an alternative, and might just want to type faster (like 'no/know', '8/ate/eight', '2/to/too' in English). 

Pollodia, so you mean that, the normal way people say it is, well, so normal, to say it *properly* means you're emphasising the person, and seems a bit weird?
I think that's like explaining to someone an idea and then ending it with "Do you know what I am saying?"
That actually would be really awkward and not even advisable in my opinion, you'd have to say it like "Know wadam sayin?" because to say it the proper way is just odd, like "Are you capable of understanding the words coming out of my mouth?" rather than "Do you get me?" (which is the real meaning).

But, with your example, that's why you have segir* þú -> segirðu*, right?
That is completely acceptable in all levels of written Icelandic, right?

But when the -ð- goes out of writing, is that the first sort of step into non-standard spelling? (*Hvað segiru*?)
Then the chat way I've seen (and almost always heard) is *hva(s)segiru*?

I found it appeared in a newspaper article actually (the last version) here, but it is a deliberate attempt at recreating speech (_Hvasegiru Nonni,helduruakonurhafisál?_)


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## kepulauan

Yep. Are *you* capable of understanding my post?

Skipping the ð is the crossing point.


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## Alxmrphi

pollodia said:


> Yep. Are *you* capable of understanding my post?


Erm, all execpt that actual post.
I don't know why you are asking that ?


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## kepulauan

Of course one would not try to emphasize *you* in speech (or in writing as I arrogantly did above) unless desired. But you know what I mean.

It was only for illustration .


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