The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1961, Qupperneq 20

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1961
them moved to Iceland and took some
native Celts with them. Later some of
those who had settled in Ireland cross-
ed over to central England.
The Norman conquest hastened the
intermingling of the various elements
of the population. But, and this is im-
portant, a new language was not im-
posed upon the people, but many new
words were added, mostly in the court
language. We have “sheep”, Anglo-
Saxon and Frisian, “mutton”, Norman
French; “swine”, Anglo-Saxon and
Norse, “pork”, Norman French. This
introduction of new words, Celtic as
well as Norman French, and the inter-
mingling of the people of north and
south, now under one king, continued
for the next three centuries. “It was
not until after the middle of the 14th
century that English obtained official
recognition.” (Opus Cit. p. 592).
Prof. W. A. Packer, graduate of the
University of Toronto, wrote an article
in 1957, when he was Professsor of
German in United College, Winnipeg,
entitled “The Icelandic Anglo-Saxon
Tradition” (Icel. Can., Spring 1957) in
which he summarized the relation be-
tween English and Icelandic as fol-
lows:
“Today the Icelandic language is
a source of pleasure and satis-
faction to scholars and literary
men for a reason which is almost
unique in European linguistic
history. Its history is entwined
with that of English from start to
finish. To begin with, Icelandic
is a branch of the Germanic lan-
guage, just as is English .... we
can consider them sister languages.
Both of them belong to the family
of languages which covers most
of Europe from the French along
the Atlantic to Russian-Slavic
along the Urals. Two thousand
years ago the ancestors of both
English and Icelandic spoke di-
alects of what was the same lan-
guage........The occupation of
aentral and north England by
Scandinavians has left marks on
the English language which still
persist today. Many of our com-
monest words — mine, thine,
bring, come, hear, they, them —
come from Scandinavian. In fact
Old Norse, i.e. Icelandic, was
spoken in the far northern parts
of Scotland until the 17th century.
It is not however this exceeding-
ly close connection between Ice-
landic and English which today
interests the scholars. They are
attracted by features of Icelandic
which distinguish it from all
other Germanic languages. Ice-
landic has changed amazingly little
in the last 1,000 years, so that a
modern Icelander can read materi-
al composed in the early middle
ages without difficulty.. This is a
feat which is impossible in Eng-
lish, French or German. Icelandic
is one of our best sources of in-
formation about the older forms
of all Germanic languages.”
3. Icelandic an Ancestor and a
Modern Language
Icelandic is the only European lan-
guage of which it can be said that
it is both an ancestor and a descendant
language. Even that may not place the
language in its true category. Icelandic
is an ancestor language to which some-
thing has been added, by usage and by
design to make it a living modern
language. Whether the word Nordic
Germanic or Teutonic is used it is the
only one of that ancient group of
languages that has survived. The other
Northern European languages, Swed-
ish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Ger-