skiptir

skiptir is a Python package to hyphenate Icelandic text. Requires Python 3.9 or later.

Installation

You can install skiptir via pip:

pip install skiptir

Usage

from skiptir import hyphenate

hyphenate("Þetta er íslensk setning.", hyphen="-")
'Þetta er ís-lensk setn-ing.'

Command line tool usage:

skiptir [--mode MODE] [--hyphen HYPHEN]

The tool reads text from standard input and prints the hyphenated result to standard output, e.g.:

echo "Þetta er íslensk setning." | skiptir --hyphen "-"
Þetta er ís-lensk setn-ing.

MODE is pattern by default, which means using Pyphen with the latest Icelandic hyphenation patterns. Other modes are not supported yet.

HYPHEN refers to a custom hyphenation character, e.g. · or -. By default, skiptir uses the invisible soft hyphen character (U+00AD).

Version History

• 1.0.0 (2026-01-07): Initial package release.

License

(c) Copyright 2026 Sveinbjörn Þórðarson
(c) Copyright 2020 Kristján Rúnarsson

The program files are licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use the files except in compliance with the License or with another license under which they are also licensed according to this file or another written declaration by the author. You may obtain a copy of the License here.

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Acknowledgements

The basic funcionality in this package is based on work by Kristján Rúnarsson, who originally developed it under the auspices of the Icelandic Government's Language Technology Program (2016-2019).

The package includes a modified version of the Pyphen library by Wilbert Berendsen and Guillaume Ayoub, which is licensed under the GNU LGPL 2.1 or later. See the file src/skiptir/pyphen/COPYING.LGPL for details.