Reykjavík Grapevine - aug. 2022, Side 6

If you’re looking for an Icelandic meal to
give you food poisoning this summer, boy
do we have the article for you! A piece
ran in RÚV recently with the headline “Sex
Sjúklegar Íslenskar Sumarplötur,” or “Six
Sickly Icelandic Summer Plates,” so we
can only imagine what kind of recipes the
national news is recommending. Maybe
some svið (boiled sheep head)? Or a little
hákarl (fermented shark)?
But wait! Why is this article filed un-
der RÚV’s “Tónlist” or “Music” section? Why
would anyone want to listen to “sickly
plates”? Did RÚV mix up when categoris-
ing the article—or did Google Translate
mess up once again?
Fortunately for those of us with weak
stomachs, the article has nothing to do
with food sickness and everything to do
with great albums. Damn it Google! We
thought we could trust you this time.
The word “sumarplötur” actually means
“summer albums,” not summer plates. This
resolves the article categorisation confu-
sion. While Google was correct that “sjúkle-
gar” means “sick,” it was incorrect with
the usage. Google believed the author is
saying the summer album has an illness
or is sickly. In reality, the author is saying
the album is cool or rad.
Turns out RÚV just wanted to share
some sick summer albums for our listening
pleasure. Feel free to check out these
recommendations or better yet, bypass
the translation confusion and check out
the Grapevine’s own music recs, already
in English…
But wait. When we went to grab a
screenshot of the mistranslated title,
it suddenly corrected itself to the right
wording, defeating the purpose of this
entire article. Google: 1, Grapevine: 0. AE
All through the last week of July and
the first week of August, southwest
Iceland began experiencing a series of
earthquake swarms clustered around
Fagradalsfjall and Reykjaneshrygg, both
of them on fault lines and the former of
which, as you likely know, is already the
site of a volcanic eruption.
These quakes began to increase in
both frequency and intensity as the
first week of August drew on, giving
many people, including Iceland’s earth
scientists, the impression that another
volcanic eruption was coming.
And then, in the afternoon of August
3rd, Meradalir erupted in a curtain of
lava.
There’s a lot that’s the same about
this eruption and the previous one at
Fagradalsfjall. For one, it’s also a fissure
eruption, meaning a curtain of some
very pretty lava is spewing into the air,
but with little to no ash (fortunately).
What makes it different is that there’s a
lot more lava than there was at Fagrad-
alsfjall.
What does this mean for us? Well,
the good news is it’s far away from
infrastructure and residences, so no
one is in any immediate danger. The
bad news is, more lava means more
gas–deadly gas, like sulphur dioxide,
which even at non-lethal levels is not
good for your lungs and very irritating.
Not much of a problem when there’s
wind–and if there’s one thing Reykjanes
Peninsula has a lot of, it’s wind–so long
as you’re upwind of the volcano.
That said, Civil Defense is advising
people that no matter how pretty the
volcano is, it is still a dangerous, poten-
tially deadly site. Caution is very much
advised.
So dress warmly, head out early,
bring food and a fully-charged phone.
And when you approach the site, stay
upwind and a bit further away than
you would think might be absolutely
safe (which, frankly, is probably further
away than you’ll see a lot of people
being).
The wonder and majesty of a volcano
is indisputable, but there have already
been injuries there, and the eruption is
barely 24 hours old at the time of this
writing. Live to enjoy the memories. Do
it for us.
ASK AN EXPERT
Q: Why Do Icelanders
Switch Their ‘W’s And
‘V’s In English?
Words: Asha Edmondson
Photo: Kristinn Ingvarsson
If you’ve spent time speaking English
with an Icelander, you may have no-
ticed some of their letters get mixed
up. Somehow ‘vikings’ become ‘wik-
ings’ and ‘west’ becomes ‘vest.’ We
were curious if there is a scientific–or
better yet, linguistic–answer to this
consonant switching madness. We
sought out the help of linguist Hanna
Óladóttir, an Assistant Professor at
the University of Iceland, to answer
our question.
“First of all, we don’t have [‘w’] sound
in our sound system,” Hanna explains.
“When you’re learning or speaking
a second language, the sound sys-
tem of your native language can take
over.”
Hanna adds that the consonant
confusion is so prominent that Eng-
lish teachers make a point to address
it in courses.
“I remember our English teacher
used to make us say ‘very’ and ‘visit,’
so we wouldn’t pronounce them in-
correctly. We don’t have the sound
for ‘w’ in Icelandic, so you might hear
Icelanders say ‘wery’ instead of ‘very’
because we start to confuse them!”
Hanna says.
The ‘w’ and ‘v’ switch does not
happen with every word, instead it’s
almost like an overcompensation due
to confusion of which consonant to
use.
Hanna also clarifies that words which
have recently come into mainstream
discussion—such as ‘vaccines,’—may
be more at risk of having their conso-
nants swapped.
“[Vaccine] is a new word. It’s a
word that you’re not used to using
and then suddenly, because of the
pandemic, everybody is using it. And
people think ‘ah okay it’s an English
word, it probably has a ‘w’ instead of
a ‘v’!’” Hanna says. “If you know you
should be attentive to something, you
question yourself and get confused.”
Here We Go Again!
Yet another volcano
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine
Photo:
Art Bicnick
First
LOST IN GOOGLE TRANSLATION
Music Sickness?
6The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2022
SMASHED BURGERS
AND NASHVILLE-STYLE
HOT CHICKEN IN
DOWNTOWN
REYKJAVÍK
HAFNARSTRÆTI
101 REYKJAVÍK