There are certain rules on pronunciation provided for learners new to Icelandic, a few examples of which are m/n/l/r devoicing before p/t/k, and t-insertion. These rules apply to most words I have so far met, but some words don’t seem to follow the patterns.
For example, I don’t think I have heard in the tape that ‘Velkomin’ is pronounced with l voiceless and k not aspirated, nor that the -tl- in ‘Bretland’ is preaspirated, nor that ‘Írland’ is pronounced with a t-insertion. But I did hear that ‘Íslensk’ was pronounced with a t-insertion. And I think in ‘langamma’, the m seemed to be held doubly long although the rule I learnt was that double consonants are pronounced longer only when in the stressed syllable (which is the first syllable?) and before less than two consonants or certain clusters. These are just a few examples.
I’m not sure if the pronunciation varies between dialects—I’m currently wondering how the rules are in the standard dialect—or whether it was that I didn’t hear clearly. Since I’m on the beginner level, I have trouble identifying compounds and their morphemes. But I wonder why ‘Írland’ and ‘Ísland’ seem to be treated differently. And since there’s a rule known to me that k becomes aspirated morpheme-initially, I wonder what are the other pronunciation rules that apply only to single-morpheme words, or rather, what are the rules that should be restated by changing expressions like ‘word-initial’ to ‘morpheme-initial’ or adding something like ‘within one morpheme’, to name but a few examples that I imagine. Comprehensive rules, especially those whose imprecision tend to cause mistakes in the pronunciation, would be appreciated.
