Ég tala ekki íslensku. How do you say "subtitles" in Icelandic?

July 17, 2015 10:08 AM

I... well you see... okay, can we just accept that I have a reason for asking this? I don't speak Icelandic (I even have a t-shirt to attest to that fact). Google Translate is ambivalent, suggesting either "texti" or "Undirtitill" or just throwing up its hands depending on how I phrase it. Are you from Iceland? What do you call the words on the bottom of the screen that translate what a character is saying? Kattullus, are you out there?
posted by Naberius to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

Best answer: I'm not an Icelandic speaker, but from a bit of googling I'm pretty sure that undirtitill is "sub-title" in the sense of sub-title of a book.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 10:41 AM on July 17, 2015

Best answer: Not Icelandic, but Swedish and somewhat able to understand written Icelandic. Undirtitll seems be a subtitle in the sense of an explanatory or alternate title. For example, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Looking at Icelandic movie retailer nammi.is, subtitles are listed as Texti: Íslenska, Danska, Enska, Þýska = Icelandic, Danish, English, German.

Texti is obviously correct.

Edit: seems that we read the same Icelandic wiki page.
posted by delegeferenda at 10:55 AM on July 17, 2015

Response by poster: Oh, clever! Looking up Icelandic video dealers! Okay, I'm convinced "texti" is the word.* Thank you!

* It's got a groove, it's got a meaning
posted by Naberius at 1:47 PM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]