Letter from Iceland #56
The Little Book of Icelandic and our very own secret language club
Hæhó!
Did you have a secret language as a kid? Like when you and your friends made up words that only you understood, so you could talk about things without other people knowing?
Well, we Icelanders kind of have that with our very own Nicelandic. Because our language is so obscure and spoken by so few people, we can go pretty much anywhere on the planet and babble on to our hearts content without anyone understanding us.
I am so used to this now that when I was in Thailand with my cousin in March I kept forgetting that we spoke English together, and caught myself about to say stuff referring to people or things around me that I didn’t necessarily want them to hear. Nothing bad or mean, you understand—just things about street vendors and the prices they were charging, whether we should try to haggle … that sort of stuff.
Anyway, today’s post from The Little Book of Icelandic is about that. You can also hear me reading it, if that’s what you prefer. (Paid subscribers only I’m afraid.)
Have a great weekend, everyone!
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