What do you know about Icelanders?

Howard   Thursday, March 17, 2005, 08:22 GMT
Can't say that I know too much about them. But apparently, they're a proud and fiercely independent people...and well read!

Iceland Has a Word for It
Usually a very old word.
By William Ecenbarger

Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2005

I hand the agent my brottfarerspjald, step on board Icelandair Flight 642. Just before takeoff, the flight attendant stands before us clasping a seat-belt buckle and droning through the oryggisbunadur um bord. Some five hours later, we begin our descent into Reykjavik. At the airport, I get my passport stamped at vagabraeftirlit, make a quick refresher stop in the snyrtingar, exchange dollars for kronurs at the gjaldeyrir and pick up tourist information at the upplysingapjonustu fyrir feroafolk.

I have come to this nation of 280,000 inhabitants, who speak to each other in a language that is incomprehensible to 19,999 of every 20,000 people on Earth, to see how they are holding up against the onslaught of English. Iceland's linguistic patriots go to incredible lengths to preserve their language. Foreign words are ruthlessly screened out by a special agency, which also invents words for new things and ideas. There's a word for everything in Icelandic — or there will be shortly.

Icelanders have a strong belief in their own national greatness, and that conviction is rooted unshakably in language and words. Literacy isn't a problem here; it's a given. Icelanders believe that men and women should turn a verse as easily as they turn a profit, and both endeavors are considered important to one's well-being.

Iceland has more bookstores per capita than any other nation in the world ("better shoeless than bookless" is an unofficial national motto). Sales of a new novel in Iceland will compare favorably with sales for a similar book in Britain — while a volume of poetry would do even better in Iceland — with a population about 1/200th that of Britain.

The most important tomes are the sagas. Written in the 12th and 13th centuries, these are the great prose narratives of medieval Iceland, bloodthirsty tales of Viking derring-do. Icelandic schoolchildren read their national literature exactly as it was written hundreds of years ago. Modern Icelanders speak virtually the same language as their forefathers of the 10th century. Tomorrow morning's Reykjavik newspapers will be written in the same language as the ancient sagas — that would be like this newspaper using Chaucerian English.

Language preservation worked nicely for centuries because Icelanders lived diphthongs apart from the rest of the world, but in recent decades the cultural floodgates have been opened. English is everywhere — on televisions, VCRs, the Internet and commercial products.

It's part of a global problem: About 400 million people speak English as their first language, an additional 700 million or so use it as a second language and a billion people more are struggling to learn how to speak it. Meanwhile, other languages are disappearing at the rate of two per month. There are about 6,800 languages in the world, but the expert consensus is that 400 of them will soon be extinct.

Why care? "When you lose a language," the late linguistics professor Kenneth Hale once said, "you lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art. It's like dropping a bomb on a museum."

The front line of Iceland's preservation battle is in Reykjavik, the home of the Icelandic Language Institute (Islensk Malstod); this government agency was set up in 1964 to devise new words when existing language proves inadequate. When AIDS first came to national attention in Iceland, the main discussion was what to call it rather than how to prevent it. The institute does not believe that AIDS should be called AIDS, and thus the disease is officially known as alnaemi, an ancient Icelandic word meaning "totally vulnerable," which the institute settled on after some three years of study.

The preservationists often resurrect words from the sagas. A computer is called tolva, a fusion of the old Icelandic words for number and prophetess, and a TV screen is a skjar, a sheep's placenta once used by farmers as window panes. My favorite is friopjofur, the word for pager, which means "thief of peace."

I left Iceland pessimistic. Everywhere I went, I heard English spoken. Though a written language can be purged of foreign words and phrases, policing how people speak is another matter. Many young Icelanders cannot be bothered with a language that is a minefield of subjunctive, inflections and gender (the number 2 has three genders).

In one sense, the Icelanders have no one to blame but themselves. Just as they have earnestly defended their language, they have with equal enthusiasm made sure that every schoolchild has a computer and learns English. Thus Microsoft sees no need to translate Windows into Icelandic. The publishers of popular books are beginning to skip translation as well. It's what the Icelandic language purists call a sjalfhelda — a Catch-22. I fear the handwriting is on the wall — and it's in English.
Brennus   Thursday, March 17, 2005, 08:40 GMT
Dear Howard,

With all due respect, since this is a language forum you might want to rephrase your question: "What do you know about Icelandic?" instead.

I know some people have been asking questions that pertain to nationalities and politics and I know that I don't have the power to stop it but it's really not fair on a forum that was really set up for talking about stuff that pertains to learning English or discussing languages. Thank you. Take care!

Brennus
Kazoo   Thursday, March 17, 2005, 10:00 GMT
It would be great if an Icelander would happen to find this forum and be able to tell us a bit about his or her country. It seems like a very interesting place with an interesting history. I'd like to visit there someday.
Frances   Thursday, March 17, 2005, 10:04 GMT
Thats sad to see their language slowly slipping, and it is true that language is a fundamental basis to a culture. I wouldn't mind going there myself one day, I've seen documentaries on Iceland and it looks fascinating. However if I do go, given the temperature, I would prefer shoes over books (sorry!!)
Fredrik from Norway   Friday, March 18, 2005, 01:10 GMT
And the Icelanders not only hate English words in their language, but also Low German words, prefixes and suffixes! There are plenty of them in modern Danish, Norwegian and Swedish (you could almost say that is what separates these three languages from Icelandic / Norse). Because of that it is impossible for us Scandinavians to talk to Icelanders without English or read modern Icelandic, although many basic words are similar.

For instance modern Scandinavian uses "bevegelse" from Low German "bewegelse" for "movement". But Icelandic uses the word "hreyfing", which is totally unknown in modern Scandinavian. Either it is some old Norse word we have forgot or they have made up a word!

But Icelandic is rather interesting for a Scandinavian, because they use many words that we have nearly forgot or never would have thought of using in that context. At its best Icelandic has a fresh, cute, inventive feel and some sentimental links back to our Viking roots...
american nic   Friday, March 18, 2005, 01:22 GMT
Question: are the Icelanders really 'preserving' their language if instead of accepting foreign words they make up new ones? Either way, they are changing their own language.
Fredrik from Norway   Friday, March 18, 2005, 01:46 GMT
True, it is more like disguising the modern world in the language of the sagas...
Sander   Friday, March 18, 2005, 15:56 GMT
What a load of rubbish! Languages need to change!They even make new words for latin and thats a dead language!
!   Friday, March 18, 2005, 16:54 GMT
I heard iceland is like a timebomb ; there's a hughe crack in the middle seperating two tectonic plates.Iceland threatens to sink collapse in the sea , causing a megatsunami that would destroy everthing lower than 200 metres in Europe ( I'm screwed :):p )

Of course it wont happen in the next 100 or 200 or even a 1000 years ! ( lucky me ! )
Sander   Friday, March 18, 2005, 17:11 GMT
If youre screwed than Im double screwed!
Paul   Friday, March 18, 2005, 17:15 GMT
My Uncle & Aunt were in Iceland for 5 weeks, (No outgoing plane seats available) and they gave me a taste for the country. Even tho English has made some in-roads, it is a very homogenous culture and it will be a long time before English gains acendancy over Icelandic.
The lack of of a huge number of books translated into Icelandic, doesn't mean that people don't prefer to read in Icelandic.
It reminds me of the Netherlands, more than Scandanavia because the people are friendlier and more practical, although not quite as hard headed as the Dutch.
There is kind of a small town atmospere where everybody knows everybody else. The first thing a Icelander might do when meeting someone new is figure out if they are related to each other.
There is only one big city, so there is not a lot of anomnimity outside of
Reykjavik. Telephone listing are organized Alphabetically by first names.
There is almost no serious crime. Where can you run to, anyway. They only have about 50 spots available in the prision.
Gardening and compost heaps are serious business in a land with terrible weather (Windy!) and no trees.
Still everybody gets by pretty good.
It is a very nice place to visit, In the Summer!

People keep busy. A lot of them have 2 Jobs. It used to be common to have an off-shore fishing kind of job and an off-shore job.
Novelty is hard to find, so most people are interested and pretty friendly with foreigners.
The Icelandic language retains the old Norse case structure and is quite efficient and easy to use. I like it.

Regards, Paul V.