The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2006, Side 23

Vol. 60 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
65
“foreigner”. And the fact is that the chil-
dren of very few mixed marriages speak
any heritage language. It has simply been
considered too complicated. But it is never-
theless a fact that when Icelandic
Canadians were marrying each other, more
children grew up learning their parents’, or
grandparents’, tongue. And since in the lit-
tle Icelandic communities, like Arborg,
Riverton and Lundar, Icelandic Canadians
did marry each other, the language has
been kept longer in those areas.
Another factor worth mentioning is
the use of mass media. In September 1877
the first Icelandic Canadian newspaper,
Framfari, began publication and since then
the Icelandic Canadian community has
hardly been without its own paper. For the
first several decades, the papers were in
Icelandic, but later English took over there
as well, in parallel with the decision of
Icelandic Canadian parents to stop speak-
ing to their children in Icelandic, and at the
time when fewer Icelandic Canadians
learned the language of their parents or
grandparents.
Ethnic neighbourhoods form the third
factor. In North America it is quite com-
mon that certain areas come to belong to
certain ethnic groups, and in many of the
bigger cities there are Chinese neighbour-
hoods, Italian neighbourhoods, even
Japanese, Irish or Polish neighbourhoods,
and in the prairies of Canada there are
whole towns which are Icelandic,
Ukrainian, Mennonite. Such areas have
more of a chance to keep the language with
the ethnic stores and other services being
provided in the ethnic language. In the case
of Icelandic Canadians and the Icelandic
language, such areas include Gimli,
Arborg, Riverton, Lundar, Baldur etc.
Whereas many Icelandic communities in
Canada didn’t exist as specific groups for
many years, and intergrated earlier with the
other Canadians, the little Icelandic towns
have stayed quite Icelandic although later
people of other ethnic groups started mov-
ing in there. We can, for instance, compare
the towns of Gimli and Arborg. Gimli has
become a popular summer resort with
thousands of retiring Manitobans moving
to the town, making the proportion of
Icelanders smaller every year. Arborg, on
the other hand, has stayed much less
changed, with older people speaking
together in Icelandic when they meet on
streetcorners. It has, no doubt, resulted in
differences in the language spoken,
although Gimli is doing quite well in trying
to keep the connections and having the lan-
guage taught.
“La foi est gardienne de la langue et la
langue gardienne de la foi,” is, apparently, a
saying in Canada (Kelly 1975:25). Many of
the ethnic groups, such as the French,
Ukrainians and Mennonites, have kept
close connections between the language
and the church. That doesn’t mean that the
services have always been held in the ethnic
language, but the churches have for long
served as general meeting places for people
of a certain ethnic origin. The Icelandic
churches in Canada have been many and
have been divided into several different
religions. They have nevertheless for long
kept a certain status in the life of Icelandic
Canadians. In the first years the service was
held in Icelandic but around 1930 English
started coming in more and more, depend-
ing on which pastor could be had. For a
while the services would be in both English
and Icelandic but little by little English
took over, although masses in Icelandic
have been held on occasions until last year
(Isfeld, personal communication). But
although the English language has taken
over the service, the churches still have the
function of being a certain center for peo-
ple of Icelandic origin.
The fifth factor is the workplace. Kelly
(1975:26) points out that “if one can work
in one’s own language, that language is
strengthened, but it is the experience of
most of the ethnic work force that work is
not available in one’s own language, unless
one is in a service industry catering to the
ethnic group. In any case, the language of
work often causes hybridization of lan-
guages by reason of the technical terms that
have to be used, and relationships with
administrators.” In the early years of the
settlement many of the Icelanders worked
together at wood cutting or at the railroads
and, no doubt, communicated in Icelandic.
These opportunities for working with their