Letter from Iceland #48

The Little Book of Icelandic—Say how? and the viruses

Góðan daginn!

I had to go back and check to where we had got in our Little Book of Icelandic perusal, and see that we have come to the part about some of the more common words that have entered the Icelandic language as slang, all of them derived from English—unsurprisingly, given the prominence of the English language worldwide.

These are the types of words that old Eggert Ólafsson proclaimed would lead to “the disease and death of Icelandic” in his treatise on the demise of the Icelandic language back in the 18th century. Which, happily, has not yet happened, though constant vigilance is definitely needed.

Also, I give you a vocal sample of how Icelandic vowels are pronounced, so you can maybe figure out what those words are in English (I have spelled them out phonetically, with the Icelandic letters).

Icelandic businesses are increasingly using English names in their branding and other marketing, and omitting Icelandic. Photo from Reykjavík, taken outside the “Whales of Iceland” museum, by Paolo Chiabrando on Unsplash

All right! Let’s get into it.