Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.10.2013, Page 10

10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 16 — 2013
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Online voting? You just know some-
one's gonna figure out a way to make
the winner a word too rude to say in
public, let alone print.
That hopefully will not happen be-
cause one suspects that the impetus
behind the contest is to encourage
positive discussion about the Ice-
landic language. As it is, discussion
about the language among Iceland-
ers, at least the part of it that takes
place online, is notoriously vitriolic,
even by the notoriously vitriolic stan-
dards of the notoriously vitriolic Ice-
landic online vitriol.
So, if I understand you correctly, on-
line discussion in Iceland is vitriolic?
The unofficial motto of the Icelan-
dic part of the internet is: "If you
can't stand the heat, take your face
off the stovetop." That said, if I actu-
ally wrote that on an Icelandic online
discussion forum, I would probably
get yelled at, figuratively speaking,
for using an American phrase as the
basis for a motto for something Ice-
landic. To which I would say: "Well, it
was first coined by President Harry S.
Truman, who was a badass mofo who
nuked the hell out of people sooner
than look at them." And then they
would say...
You're angrily arguing with voices in
your head now.
Sorry. This is what happens to people
who are exposed to Icelandic online
discussion, a constant state of anger
over everything. This leads to quick
polarization. Icelanders who are
persnickety and pedantic about lan-
guage refer to those who they feel
are too permissive and loose in their
language use as "málsó!ar," which
means "language slob" or "language
besmircher." Those who prefer play-
fulness and freedom tend to call the
other side "tungumálafasista," which
means "language fascist."
I suppose the irony of using terms like
"slob" and "fascist" with such lack of
precision is lost on everyone.
Online discussions about language
in Iceland tend to be on the level of
kindergarten fights and it is impos-
sible to take part without coming out
of it wearing a black shirt covered
in poo. Language is always a hotly
debated topic in any society, but in
Iceland this is especially fraught be-
cause the foundational stone of the
independence movement of the 19th
and 20th Century was the idea that
Icelanders were special because of
their language and their literature,
i.e. what they did with their language.
What follows from this is that anxiet-
ies about a changing society often ex-
press themselves as anxieties about
language.
Ah, so a fear of language change is
really a fear of social change.
This can sometimes be seen in
strange ways. On September 17, the
top story on the front page of the
newspaper Fréttabla!i! was: "One out
of ten infants has a mother tongue
other than Icelandic." The article led
with the somewhat alarming sen-
tence: "Difficulties lie ahead for pri-
mary schools if there is no response
to the great increase of children with
another language than Icelandic."
The rest of the article is a fairly dry
survey of how primary schools and
their administrations are responding
to this new reality.
I don't see why that's so strange, it's a
fairly interesting story and on a slow
news day I can easily see why that's
the top story.
The story at the bottom of the front
page was about intense sandstorms
stripping paint off cars, cracking
windows and scaring the bejesus
out of everyone who got caught up
in it. It says something about the
importance of language that the fact
that one in ten babies under six have
parents who speak a tongue other
than Icelandic is considered more
newsworthy than life-endangering
sandstorm.
Makes sense to me, it's newsworthy
that anyone born outside Iceland
would want to raise their children in
a country where the weather can strip
paint off cars.
I see your point. As the news article
goes on to say, this is a fairly recent
development, historically speaking,
and children of non-Icelandic par-
ents only became common in the
school system 10 years ago. Worries
about change in Icelandic society are
expressed in fears about language.
The reverse of that is the fact that all
of these children will be taught Ice-
landic. Bilingual Icelandic speakers
can interpret and translate beautiful
words between cultures, which will
enrich both societies, though I sup-
pose that makes for a less snappy
headline.
The Icelandic state broadcaster RÚV and the
humanities department of the University of
Iceland have launched a contest to find the
most beautiful word in the Icelandic lan-
guage. People can submit their suggestions
online and explain why they think their
word of choice is especially beautiful. Then
a committee will select a few of the submis-
sions and the wider public can vote for their
favourite one online.
Words: Kári Tulinius | Illustration: Inga María Brynjarsdóttir
So What’s This Beautiful Word
Contest I Keep Hearing About?
Iceland | For Dummies
Continues over
Happy, happy, joy, joy! Earlier this
month Iceland was named the
Most Peaceful Country by the
2013 Global Peace Index, again.
The report ranks countries based
on factors in three major categories:
conflict, societal safety and militarisa-
tion. Iceland's overall status shot it
straight to the top, that's right, #1 of
162 countries evaluated. So what's all
the grumbling about?
On October 1, more than 50 earth-
quakes were detected just north
of Eyjafjör#ur, North Iceland.
Although the quakes were mild, they
appear to be part of a new wave of
seismic activity in the North. All right
Earth, we get it. You're upset. But
what's this all about, really?
Maybe it's the proposed road over the
lava fields of Gálgahraun. Despite
the fact that the fields were
declared a protected area back
in 2009, construction for the pro-
posed road was given the green
light earlier this month. Since the
clearance of the proposal, groups
like Hraunavinir (“Lava Friends”)
have organised protests in the area,
including a heated stand-off between
protestors and a fleet of construction
equipment in September. There is
now talk of setting up a tent city in
the fields until the issue is resolved.
NEWS IN BRIEF
SEPTEMBER
by Parker Yamasaki