Letter from Iceland #60
The Little Book of Icelandic—The Day of the Icelandic Tongue!
Heil og sæl!*
In today’s Little Book of Icelandic installment we’re going to talk a bit about the English slang words that have been adopted into the language because there just aren’t any Icelandic words that adequately convey the meaning, or at least not with the easy flair that English does.
I had a lot of fun with this one because, in addition to recording the post, I also let myself comment a bit on what I was reading. You might think of it as an annotated version of the book—vocal annotations. 🥹
I had a comment last week from a reader in which he wonders whether we Icelanders are at all concerned about the future of our language, given the proliferation of English in Iceland these days. Indeed, if you have been here lately you will no doubt have noticed the widespread use of English everywhere, from people speaking it in the tourism and hospitality sectors, to signs, business names and menus being in English.
The answer is that, indeed, we are concerned. Yet it is also complicated. Right now, around 20 percent of the population is made up of immigrants, many of whom have come to Iceland specifically to work in tourism. We need those people because we are too few to fill all the required positions to keep the industry running. And many of them are not going to take the time to learn a language as complicated as Icelandic, particularly if they don’t plan on settling here permanently. Yes, it is a little discomfiting to call a business, or go out for a meal or a coffee, and not be able to speak your own language. But it’s the trade-off we have to accept right now in order to keep our economy humming along.
And on that note: on to the post!
*(Be) whole and happy!
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