Reykjavík Grapevine - Jan 2022, Page 6

Browsing through RÚV’s website, you come
across a headline stating that people in
Hrísey and Grímsey are living under a fear of
old sluts taking over the islands. Confused,
you rub your eyes. Are Iceland’s northern
islands overrun by promiscuous geriatrics?.
As you read through the sentence again,
your inner feminist stirs. What is this mi-
sogynistic bullshit in the newspaper? Why
are these people referring to women as ‘old
sluts’? This is in no way acceptable, it’s 2021
for God's sake!
And more so, why are they referring to old
sluts specifically? Apparently it’s okay to
be a slut, but a young one with perky body
parts and no wrinkles. That is exactly what’s
wrong with today’s world: women are not
allowed to grow old, whereas men are like
wine—they get better as they age.
You are appalled. What a load of crap!
Furiously you open the article and proceed
to find out what other horrifying statements
it makes about ageing women.
A closer look calms your blood pressure.
The article is not about sluts—young or old.
The residents of these islands are actually
afraid of old junk, but Google Translate has
fooled us yet again.
The Icelandic word ‘drusla’ means some
sort of junk, although it can also denote a
slut. In this case, however, Google has made
a mistake when deciding which meaning to
pick. RH
An earthquake swarm began in
Reykjanes on December 21st; specifi-
cally, near Fagradalsfjall. Although the
eruption in this area that captivated
the world last March has since fizzled
out, the seismic activity–and other
data–gave scientists pause for thought.
Events were starting to look a lot like
those that preceded the eruption of
early 2021.
A wiggly world
It wasn’t just the quakes that were
making scientists sit up and take notice.
Initially, they chalked the tremors up to
the lateral movement of magma. But
subsequent GPS measurements of the
land surface told a
different story.
These measure-
ments showed that,
in the words of an update posted on the
official site of the Icelandic Met Office,
there was a surface deformation “very
similar to deformation observed in the
end of February this year when a dike
intrusion was starting near Fagradals-
fjal.”
Scientists began talking to the
press, and they all appeared to be on
the same page.
What do the experts say?
Björn Oddsson, a geophysicist with the
Civic Protection Agency, told report-
ers: “There is a lot of activity in the area
that is being measured in earthquakes
and changes to the land surface, that
indicate that magma is gathering.
We’re just preparing for an eruption
that could happen at any time.”
!or vald ur !ór"ar son, a professor
of volcanology and petrology at the
University of Iceland, told RÚV: “If you
look at the pattern
of seismic activity,
it’s very similar to
that which happened
before the March 19th
eruption. Both in the
number of quakes
and the power being
released due to the
quakes. But it’s a lot
less; it’s maybe a
tenth of what we saw
earlier this year. So
this is all just a bit
calmer.”
Salóme Jór unn Bern-
h ar"sdótt ir, a natural
disasters specialist
at the Icelandic Met
Office, gave MBL a
similar assessment, saying: “Last time,
the more powerful quakes decreased,
and then an eruption came rather
quickly to the surface. We can expect
the same thing to happen now, or see
all new behaviour.”
All this said, volcanoes are noto-
riously unpredictable. An eruption
could go off by the time you read this,
or within the next hundred years, give
or take. We will keep doing what we
always do: waiting to see what happens
next.
ASK AN
Expert
Q: What Is The Future
Of The Icelandic
Language?
Words: Reetta Huhta
Photo: Art Bicnick
Relative to the global population, Ice-
landic is spoken by only a handful of
people. As English continues to prop
up its status as the lingua franca of
the West, we at The Grapevine were
wondering what the future of Icelan-
dic looks like.
We sought an answer to this question
from Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson, professor
emeritus in Icelandic Language and
Linguistics.
Eiríkur told us that since Icelandic is
used in all the domains of society, (for
example in government and adminis-
tration, education, media and cultural
life), it’s on firm footing in Iceland and
should therefore be safe. However,
during the last decade, Iceland has
gone through dramatic societal and
technological changes that have led
to a massive increase in the use of
the English language in the commu-
nity, which has in turn increased the
external pressure on the Icelandic
language.
According to Eiríkur, the survival of
Icelandic depends entirely on its us-
ers. The language community needs to
value Icelandic by raising awareness
of its cultural importance. It is also
vital to put more e!ort into teaching
Icelandic to immigrants.
If the language community doesn’t
continue using Icelandic in all do-
mains of society and teaching it to
foreigners, the language might lose
its position and become endangered.
However, Eiríkur points out that English
is not the enemy, and that Icelanders
should respect people’s right to speak
it if they haven’t learned Icelandic.
If the community continues valuing
Icelandic, it can have a prosperous
future. °
Geldin!adals!os 2.0?
This is startin! to look familiar
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine

Photo:
Art Bicnick
First 6 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01— 2022
LOST IN GOOGLE TRANSLATION
We've seen this kind of thing somewhere before...
Old Sluts Taking
Over
“All this said,
volcanoes are
notoriously
unpredictable.
An eruption
could go off
by the time you
read this, or
within the next
hundred years,
give or take.”
watch GRAPEVINE ON YOUTUBE
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