Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.06.2006, Qupperneq 13

Issue 07, 2006 8 Page Listings Section in Your Pocket
it’s
free
The saxophonist for Zappa Plays Zappa provided us with
one of the most surreal, and possibly precognizant, quotes
in the history of the Grapevine: he asked us if Iceland
was “quite tropical” like Hawaii. Maybe he was addicted
to the science magazine Nature, which just revealed that
Greenhouse gasses at one point brought the Arctic to a
year-round temperature of 74 degrees Fahrenheit.
We recommend the Zappa Plays Zappa concert on
June 9 as another in a long line of must see concerts this
summer. But for the more pleasant sign of global warming,
we should also recommend Reykjavík’s outdoor festival,
the Reykjavík Trópík festival from June 2nd to the 4th.
As Trópík is organized by people who actually live
here, there will be a massive tent to block of the Arctic
wind and rain that still rises, now and then, and the festival
also takes the cue from the king of local festivals, Iceland
Airwaves, in that it strongly incorporates local bands with
critically acclaimed greats from abroad, among the visitors,
Supergrass, ESG and Ladytron, playing with locals like
Apparat Organ Quartet, Benni Hemm Hemm and Gus
Gus.

By Bart Cameron
Reykjavík Gets Tropical
A friend of mine was a huge fan of
Superman comics when he was a kid.
However, he was taken aback and
gravely offended whenever Superman,
the epitome of masculine strength,
blurted out: “To weep loudly!” In my
friend’s young mind, Superman didn’t
weep (and if he did, he wouldn’t pub-
licly announce it). It wasn’t until my
friend grew older and learned English
that he realized that Superman’s
exclamation “For crying out loud!” had
been translated to Icelandic with these
results.
My friend, like the rest of my
generation, has grown up in a society
where the majority of entertainment
is in English, whether it be music,
movies or TV programmes. English
has slowly but surely become the
dominant language on the globe.
Although Mandarin and Hindi have
more native speakers, English is
currently the most common second
language around the world. It is also,
by international treaty, the official
language for aircraft/airport and
maritime communication, as well as
being one of the official languages of
both the European Union, the United
Nations and the Olympic Committee.
The entertainment industry has also
furthered the spread of English, as my
generation bears witness to.
For decades, Iceland has had a
language preservation policy that
fights to protect Icelandic from foreign
language influences. In this struggle,
the titles of Hollywood movies are
occasionally translated to Icelandic,
sometimes with rather awkward
results. For example, we recall the 80’s
hit Naked Gun as ‘Directly Edgeways’
(Beint á ská). However, the language
preservation policy doesn’t reach the
dubbing level with superstars like
Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman
speaking Icelandic, because of how
costly it would be. Instead, movies and
TV programmes for adults are accom-
panied with Icelandic subtitles, leaving
dubbing to children’s entertainment.
It may be difficult for foreigners to
understand our passion to defend our
language. After all, it’s only spoken
by 300,000 people in the world, as
opposed to the estimated 600-700
million people use the various dialects
of English regularly. Nations like
Denmark have partly succumbed to
the English invasion by adopting
words directly from English, such as
“computer” and “weekend”. In the
meantime, Icelanders stubbornly in-
vent new words for new technological
inventions such as cell phone (‘farsími’
or ‘gemsi’) and laptop computer
(‘fartölva’ or ‘fistölva’). I have repeat-
edly gotten into heated debates with
native speakers of English who don’t
understand our obsession with keep-
ing Icelandic from adapting English
words, it being the global language
and all. To illustrate the distortion
that other languages face if they were
to adapt to English, I’ve turned the
tables around in this example below.
This is what the lyrics to the Red Hot
Chilli Pepper’s song Aeroplane would
look like if Icelandic was the dominat-
ing language on the globe, infiltrating
English:
I like pleasure spiked with pain and
Music is my aeroplane
It’s my aeroplane
Sitting in my kitchen, hey girl
I’m turning into dust again
My melancholy baby
The star of mazzy* must
Push her voice inside of me
I’m overcoming gravity
I’m overcoming gravity
*not listed in any major dictionary
I like pleasure spiked with wound
increment and
tone art is my flight machine
Is my flight machine
Sitting in my firehouse, hey girl
I’m turning into dust again
My heavy mood baby
The star of mazzy must
Push her voice inside of me
I’m overcoming weight force
I’m overcoming weight force
(translations with liberty on the columnist’s behalf)
To those who respect and adore the
English language, the above example
is probably horrifying (and to Red Hot
Chilli Pepper’s fans as well). In the
same way, native speakers of languages
who are becoming more and more
affected by English shudder when
they hear its impact on their mother
tongue. In this year’s Miss Iceland
contest, every single contestant said
that she “comes from”* this or that
place, which is correct in English, but
terribly wrong in Icelandic. Here, you
“are from”* this or that place, unless
you’re describing where you just came
from (ex. I just came from the store.)
Having been a speaker of both
English and Icelandic for most of my
life, I am quite fond of the differences
between the two languages, which
are most obvious to me in nouns, as
seen in the example above. The word
‘honeymoon’, a beautifully picturesque
word in English, is called ‘wheat bread
days’ in Icelandic (hveitibrauðsdagar),
referring to the luxury that comes with
being newlywed whereas wheat bread
was considered a luxury back in the
day. Other words that are interesting
when translated from Icelandic into
English are for example ‘period plug’
(túrtappi,) the word for tampon, ‘lady
tie’ (dömubindi,) the word for sanitary
napkins and ‘inside shoes’, the word
for slippers.
Living in modern day Iceland, I
have been influenced. When I slam
the car door on my knee, I catch
myself blurting out curse words in
English with great fury, most com-
monly the ones used to describe poop
and copulation. However, I am a
fervent supporter of language preserva-
tion because of the history, culture and
richness each language possesses. As
I am writing this, I am sitting in my
firehouse, wearing my inside shoes,
thinking that Superman probably
weeps every now and then. Even if he
doesn’t admit it.
*Ég kem úr Hafnarfirði.
*Ég er úr Hafnarfirði.
To Weep
Loudly
a column by þórdís elva
þorvaldsdóttir bachmann
opinion
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Puffin season
Oct
13:00
9:00
Sept
13:00
9:00
July
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17:00
9:00
June
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9:00
May
13:00
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Aug
13:00
17:00
9:00
April
13:00
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