Íslenskir

Íslenskir is an Icelandic adjective meaning “Icelandic,” used to describe things associated with Iceland. It is the masculine plural nominative form of the adjective íslenskur and is used to modify masculine plural nouns, for example íslenskir menn (Icelandic men) or íslenskir tónlistarmenn (Icelandic musicians). The standard Icelandic demonym for people from Iceland is Íslendingar; thus íslenskir does not by itself denote a people, but can describe them when paired with a noun.

In Icelandic, adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number and case, so the form changes with different nouns and grammatical cases. The masculine plural nominative form íslenskir is just one form in a wider set that includes feminine and neuter, singular and plural variants such as íslensk, íslenskt, íslenskir and íslenskar depending on the noun they describe.

Etymology and relation to other terms: íslenskir is derived from Ísland (Iceland) with the adjectival suffix -skur, forming a lexical family that includes íslenskur (masculine singular) and its other inflected variants. The term reflects Icelandic language conventions for nationality and origin, paralleling similar formations in other Germanic languages.

See also: Ísland; Íslendingar; Icelandic language.