Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.11.2015, Qupperneq 24

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PB The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 17 — 2015DESIGNMU IC
November 16 is a special day in Iceland. It
is the birth date of one of Iceland’s most
influential poets, Jónas Hallgrímsson, who
essentially introduced romanticism (and
all that entails, like the pentameter) to
Iceland. This is exactly why Icelanders de-
cided it would be a good time to celebrate
their language, which is why November 16
is also known as “Dagur íslenskrar tungu”
(literally “Day Of The Icelandic Tongue,”
i.e. “Icelandic Language Day”), a day that
celebrates the potential and beauty of the
Icelandic language, raising awareness for
Icelandic education and conservation. It’s
great (or, if you want to practice some Ice-
landic, “æði”)!
To learn more about it all, we spoke
with one of this year’s event organisers,
Hjördís Erna Sigurðardóttir, who’s current-
ly working on her MA degree at Árnastof-
nun, the University of Iceland’s Institute for
Icelandic Studies.
The Dagur
íslenskrar
what now?
In 1995, the Minister of Education de-
clared that Jónas Hallgrímsson’s birth-
day, November 16, would be dedicated to
celebrating the Icelandic language. The
first iteration of Dagur íslenskrar tungu
was in 1996, and it’s been ongoing ever
since. Traditionally, there are events in
schools and libraries around the country
celebrating the language. The Minister
also awards the Jónas Hallgrímsson Prize
for the special promotion of the Icelandic
tongue, to an honoree chosen by a special
committee.
The event has nothing to do with the
people or the culture—there’s no nation-
alistic aspect to it. It’s just meant to em-
phasise the Icelandic tongue and its many
uses. How words are used in poems, lit-
erature, things like that.
Hjördís participates in communication
and promotion for the day, raising aware-
ness with schools and businesses. “I try to
find fun things that people can do with the
language. I sometimes make my own rid-
dles, like: ‘Það er í upphafi efa, enginn he-
fur það, ekkert heldur því, og frelsi geymir
það’ (‘It’s at the beginning of doubt, no-
body has it, nothing contains it and free-
dom stores it’). It’s wordplay, based on an
English riddle. The answer is ‘E,’ which is
at the beginning of ‘efi,’ and also found in
‘enginn,’ ‘ekkert’ and ‘frelsi,’” Hjördís says
enthusiastically.
“Events include poetry reading and
writing, concerts, and Menntamálastof-
nun often stages a poetry competition. A
poet writes the first two lines of a poem,
and then the children write the last two
lines to the poems. We encourage children
to play with the language,” she continues.
This year’s theme for the day is words for
the weather, “veðurorð.” While Icelandic
used to have an incredible variety of words
for weather, modern technology has ren-
dered many of them obsolete, while oth-
ers have taken on a different meaning
altogether.
As part of her interest in Icelandic, and
for this year’s Language Day, Hjördís has
been researching these words that have
fallen out of favour, and she showed me
a file that was over forty pages long. “I
could understand most of them, but in my
research I came across some compounds
I’d never heard of,” she happily shares with
me. “That’s why I like throwing them out
there, to see what people like and relate to.
For me, ‘hundslappadrífa’ is a very normal
word for a type of snowfall, but it’s appar-
ent that people are starting to use ‘jólas-
njór,’ ‘Christmas snow,’ in its stead. That’s
a fine compound word, but I would rather
we have both.”
Many words that are not thought of as
related to the weather originally had dif-
ferent meanings, though they might still be
used. “One example of the ‘lost’ words that
are somewhat related to weather is ‘afæta’
[basically ‘moocher’],” Hjördís explains.
Afæta used to also refer to water that had
eaten through ice and softened it—a very
dangerous condition. “You’d never want to
be called an afæta—likewise, you’d never
go out on ice that’s called afæta.”
Caring about dog-paw
drifts and mooching ice
The richness of the Icelandic language
allows for the variety of expression that
is part of its appeal. Words like “creamy
fair weather” and “dog-paw drifts” give
Icelandic an unusual charm, as Hjördís
emphatically agrees. “There’s something
powerful and charming about having
good command of a language. With each
word you add to your language, your lan-
guage becomes bigger, more fluent. You
can describe your feelings, your wants,
more accurately,” she says.
Therefore, on November 16, be sure
you lament the derringur as it blows over
the dalalæða, while you look forward to
the hundslappadrífa that’s sure to fall in
December. It would be the worst kind of
shame if people of the future couldn’t en-
joy dog-paw snow, and YOU can prevent
that.
Words Alexander de Ridder
The Jónas Hallgrímsson
prize will be awarded
on November 16 at the
Mosfellsbær library at
16:00—all are welcome.
There will be poetry
readings, songs, and
an address by the
Minister of Education,
Illugi Gunnarsson. Also
in the area, Hundur í
óskilum will play a free
show at Gljúfrasteinn,
the Halldór Laxness
Museum, at 17:00.
Crazy
Weather
Words
Dalalæða (a grounded mist)
“A very romantic, misty word.”
Bylsnæðingur (a snowstorm)
“You can feel the cold, and you kind of
want to crawl under a blanket as soon
as you’ve said it.”
Derringur (a cold wind).
Also, an arrogant person.
“It’s weather with an attitude.”
Amra (a slow breeze)
“It doesn’t have to be just a good
breeze, just a breeze. It can be a little
cold, but it’s never a horrible one.”
Blálogn (very calm weather)
“Like blue skies, when the wind is very
still, but not necessarily hot.”
Rjómablíða
(literally “creamy fair weather”)
“It’s one of the best weather words.
It’s warm, it’s nice; you’re sunbathing.
It’s when you would sit outside and
eat cream.”
Hundslappadrífa
(literally “dog-paw drift”)
“It means very large snowflakes,
very soft.”