Swearing in the Nordic languages
Warning: As you may expect, this article contains uncensored swearing which some readers may find offensive. Hav
NORDIC TRANSLATION SPECIALISTS
Icelandic translation services
Over the last decade, we’ve provided Icelandic translation services in over 50 domains, serving over 200 clients with 2 million words of Icelandic translation during this period.
Entering the Icelandic market
Iceland is a very small country with a population of only 370,000 people. It is located between North America and Europe and its economy relies primarily on three industries: tourism, aluminium manufacturing and fishing. Since it is a small society, a personal touch is key to building long-lasting relationships with the Icelandic people. When entering this market of potential customers, language localisation and adaptation of your content to Icelandic culture are crucial to show respect and generate trust.
Key market entry considerations when launching new products or services in Iceland
Iceland is not in the EU, but it is in the EEA, meaning it has adopted most EU rules when it comes to product standards and regulations.
Iceland is a world leader in green energy thanks to its geology, which includes an abundance of hot springs and volcanoes and means that 90% of homes are heated by geothermal energy.
Because most Icelandic households are dual-income, private consumption is very high. The most in-demand consumer goods include computer software and hardware, gaming products and high-tech gadgets.
The Icelandic government has several incentives in place to encourage companies to engage in innovative projects, particularly in the fields of blue tech, green tech and life sciences.
Cultural Values
An essential piece of connecting with new potential customers is learning what makes them tick, as this can help you communicate more effectively with them and win them over. That’s why our Icelandic translation services are underpinned by an in-depth understanding of integral Icelandic cultural values, including:
- Self-sufficiency and independence
- Equality and fairness
- Environmentalism and sustainability
- Open and direct communication
- Modesty and humility
Your specialists in Icelandic translation
- Dedicated in-country linguists
- Native cultural proficiency
- Translation from English, Danish, German and Swedish into Icelandic
- Translation from Icelandic into English
235k
words translated into Icelandic per year
Icelandic expertise in all sorts of domains
Financial services
Healthcare
Legal
Manufacturing
Marketing
Technology & software
Travel & hospitality
About Icelandic
Icelandic (íslenska) is a North Germanic language and derives from the western varieties of the North Germanic language continuum. As such, it is part of the Indo-European family of languages. It is the primary language of the vast majority of the Icelandic population (97%), some 320,000 people.
The closest relatives of Icelandic are the Nordic languages Faroese, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, but Icelandic has retained more of the inflection of its ancestor, Old Icelandic or Old Norse.
Icelandic uses the Latin alphabet, and the Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters: A Á B D Ð E É F G H I Í J K L M N O Ó P R S T U Ú V X Y Ý Þ Æ Ö
The diacritics (accents) over the vowels signify neither stress nor length as in many other languages: instead the vowels with diacritics represent phonemes differing from their counterparts without diacritics.
Our Icelandic translation services
Translation
Icelandic translation is the core of our offering. We can work in any translation environment or file format.
Machine translation post-editing
We can bring machine-translated content up to either usable or human translator level.
Revision
We can revise our own translation in-house, or you can ask for a revision of a third-party translation.
Terminology management
Allow us to maintain your Icelandic terminology resources or create them from scratch.
Copy adaptation
We rework your copy in collaboration with you so it really hits home with your target geo.
Transcreation
We offer Icelandic transcreation (creative translation) for when a simple translation just won’t do.
Multilingual SEO
When a website needs greater visibility in search results, we help by localising the target keywords and optimising the digital content.
Market-specific copywriting
Country-specific content that aligns perfectly with local customs, celebrations or cultural events.
Tone of voice
When it comes to multilingual communication, tone of voice can be one of the hardest things to get right. Our Icelandic linguists adapt a text’s tone of voice to match the expectations of an Icelandic audience, understanding both cultural nuances and keeping up with contemporary changes in the language. Icelandic people prefer honesty when it comes to marketing and an exaggerated advertisement for a product will likely fall flat. This is the knowledge that makes Sandberg’s Icelandic translation services some of the best on the market.
ISO-certified
Sandberg was the first company in the UK to achieve both ISO 17100 and ISO 18587 certification. Whether the translation is done by our in-house experts or one of our carefully sourced freelancers, you can be confident that a translation produced by Sandberg will hit the mark.
Need a quote for Icelandic translation?
Find out more about how we can we work with you on your next Icelandic project.
Read more about Icelandic
Explore more on the Icelandic language on our blog.
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