samhlög

Samhlög are the Icelandic term for consonants, a class of speech sounds produced with constriction or closure in the vocal tract. Unlike vowels, which rely on an open vocal tract and typically serve as syllable nuclei, samhlög shape the airflow through contact or near-contact of articulators such as the lips, tongue, or larynx. They can create obstructions, friction, or both.

Consonants are described by place of articulation (for example bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal) and by manner of articulation (stop/plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal, liquid, glide). They may be voiced or voiceless, and many languages contrast aspiration, voicing, or other phonation features. Some consonants involve nasal or lateral airflow and may interact with surrounding vowels in predictable ways.

In Icelandic, samhlög contribute to syllable structure and word formation, often appearing in clusters that convey morphological information. The distribution and sequential patterns of consonants influence phonotactics, allophony, and stress patterns, making consonants essential to the phonological identity of words.

Orthography maps samhlög to written symbols. The Icelandic alphabet represents consonant phonemes with letters and digraphs, and certain letters may have distinct sounds in different phonological environments. Consonants participate in processes such as assimilation, palatalization before front vowels, and word-boundary changes, illustrating the close relation between sound systems and written language.