We are at my in laws home. The conversation during the dinner progresses, between the bowls and plates. At that time, I didn't understand anything about Icelandic, but it seemed that something very bad was happening, so I preferred not to ask. That sucked sound, here and there. Like when one reacts to bad news. It must be something serious. The scene repeats. Now we are at his grandparents house. Again the sound of the breath of air, the gasp. Something does not add up to me, the conversation doesn’t sound tense, they even laugh.
What’s happening here?
In Icelandic there is a peculiarity in the pronunciation of the yes, which it was, initially, driving me crazy. It is difficult to describe it, but it is definitely an interjection that we use to express surprise or astonishment, usually about some negative event, at least is like that in Latin America. However, I have not found the appropriate grammar, so I will do my best to make myself understood. In English it is easy to identify, it is the gasp sound, or the muffled scream (at least you can find it like gasp if you are looking for sound effects). If you forget your homework and suddenly you remember it: “gasp”, or if someone you know had an accident and you find out: “gasp”. That gasping surrounded me everywhere, so I had the impression that there was a sea of bad news all the time. But it was not a gasp, and there was nothing to worry about. It was simply a way in which they say yes. Is what I call the aspirated yes.
Já means "yes" in Icelandic. It is pronounced more or less as "yao".
Já means "yes" in Icelandic. It is pronounced more or less as "yao". With the normality and speed in which they speak, the já tends to be much more aspirated, as if they were short of breath in an asthma attack. Especially at times when they bombard to each other with questions that are easily answered with a yes or a no. During the time when I didn't know what they were saying, I saw it as an telenovela á la islandais. In which all the time something extremely surprising was taking the conversation. Did someone die? Did someone cheated to other somebody? or simply, did someone forgot the food on the oven? I observed conversations where it seemed that the gossip of the year was probably taking place, full of curves and ravings. But no. It was just a yes. A yes to a simple question.