Linguistic purism in Icelandic
Encyclopedia
Linguistic purism in Icelandic is the sociolinguistic
phenomenon of linguistic purism
in the Icelandic language
. Its aim is to substitute loanword
s with the creation of new words from Old Icelandic and Old Norse
roots and prevent new loanwords entering the language. In Iceland
, linguistic purism is archaising, trying to resuscitate the language of a golden age of Icelandic literature. It is an effort, beginning in early 19th century, at the dawn of the Icelandic national movement, to replace older loanwords, especially from Danish
, and it continues today, targeting English
words. It is widely upheld in Iceland and it is the dominant language ideology
. It is fully supported by the Icelandic government
through the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
, the Icelandic Language Council, the Icelandic Language Fund and an Icelandic Language Day
.
The first signs of the Icelanders’ pre-occupation with their mother tongue dates back to the mid-12th century with the First Grammatical Treatise
(Fyrsta málfræðiritgerðin), which undertook to design an alphabet for the language and proposed separate (non-Latin) letters for the distinctive Icelandic phoneme
s. It was, in a way, an attempt to give the young Icelandic people a language of their own. Also significant was the early-started genuine Icelandic
historiography
, reaching from Ari Þorgilsson
’s Íslendingabók
, through the Landnámabók
(book of colonization), to Snorri Sturluson
’s Heimskringla
. Especially the prose of the sagas of the Icelanders and Snorri
’s skaldic poetry are a clear sign of an appreciation of the native language.
By 1300, after the Icelanders had joined in union with the Norwegian crown
, Icelandic
had developed several characteristics that distinguished it from the dialects of the Norwegian
districts from where many had centuries earlier emigrated to Iceland
.
By the 16th century, the language was so differentiated from the other languages spoken in Nordic lands
that Icelanders coined the term íslenska to denote their native tongue. A serious effort to preserve the now quite distinct Icelandic from the "corrupting" influences of foreign words, especially by the Danish and German merchants who dominated Iceland
’s trade, began in the early seventeenth century thanks to Arngrímur Jónsson
.
(hreintungustefna) as it is today was Eggert Ólafsson
(1726–1768). Between 1752 and 1757 he accompanied his friend Bjarni Pálsson on an expedition through Iceland
. In his report, he described the situation of the Icelandic language
as lamentable. This inspired him to write the poem Sótt og dauði íslenskunnar, in which he personifies his mother tongue as a woman, who has fallen mortally ill through an infection with too many foreign words
. She sends her children to look for good and pure Icelandic
that can cure her, but uncontaminated language is nowhere to be found, and she dies. At the end of the poem he urges his compatriots to defend their language and reminds them of the great esteem in which Icelandic
is held abroad and how well it has been preserved by their forefathers.
Eggert Ólafsson
was very well-read in Old Icelandic literature and this was noticeable in his writings. This interest in the old language brought him into contact with other Icelandic students in Copenhagen
, where he joined a secret society called Sakir (1720–1772). This was the beginning of the use of Old Icelandic as a key feature in the Icelandic national awakening. Eggert wrote the first orthographical
dictionary (Réttritabók Eggerts Ólafssonar) in which he proposed orthographic
and phonetic
rules. The influence of the book was considerable, and Ólafur Olavius, originator of the Hrappseyjarprentsmiðja, the first privately owned printing shop in Iceland
, followed Eggert’s rules to a significant extent.
Eleven years after Eggert’s death, the Íslenska lærdómslistafélag (Icelandic Art-Learning Society) was founded in Copenhagen with Jón Eiríksson, administrative director at the Danish Ministry of Finance, as its president. The society published annual writings from 1781 to 1796, which dealt with practical subjects like trade and business, but also with varied scientific topics about which little had been read until then. This brought along a flood of new Icelandic
terminology
, which was generated from purely Icelandic
lexical stock.
In Denmark
, the rise of Romanticism
brought with it a greater interest in Norse mythology
. This opened the eyes of Icelanders with regard to their cultural importance and increased their self-confidence. The Danish linguist Rasmus Rask (1787-1832) learnt Icelandic in his youth and it became his favorite language. He compiled the first real Icelandic grammar, which was, in comparison with earlier attempts, a huge step forward. He refused to accept the differences between Old and Modern Icelandic and was afraid that a too great difference between the two would decrease the interest in the land and its culture. This attitude gave rise to an even more increased tendency toward language archaisation. On Rask’s initiative the Icelandic Literary Society
, Hið íslenska bókmenntafélagið was founded. Its goal was “to preserve the Icelandic language and literature and therewith the culture and the honour of the land”. An important publication was Almenn jarðarfræða og landaskipun eður geographia (1821–1827), which contains much new genuine Icelandic terminology. It gave the opportunity to show the validity of Rasmus Rask’s vision that the Icelandic language had, above most languages, an “endless neologistic generating capability”.
During the 19th century, the movement of linguistic purism
is inextricably connected with the magazine Fjölnir
(published from 1835 to 1839 and from 1844 to 1847). The magazine was published in Copenhagen by four young Icelanders: Konráð Gíslason, Jónas Hallgrímsson
, Brynjólfur Péturson and Tómas Sæmundsson. The most important of these four was Jónas Hallgrímsson, who also translated literary work from Heine
and Ossian
. His translation of a textbook about astronomy
(Stjörnufræði, 1842) became exemplary for later translations of scientific literature. Many of the neologisms he coined have become an integral part of present-day Icelandic terminology: aðdráttarafl – gravity, hitabelti - tropics
, sjónauki – telescope
, samhliða - parallel. Konráð Gíslason (1808–1891), professor in Old Scandinavian languages at the University of Copenhagen
, published the first Danish-Icelandic dictionary in 1851.
With sovereignty in 1918, the governmental regulation of language matters began. Initially, as with some other preservation attempts noted above, the focus was on orthography, but regulation of language matters grew steadily and became more formalised. Early in the 20th century, the third element in Icelandic preservation, ordinary speakers, especially those in modernising sectors, also began to contribute to language preservation efforts. For instance, in 1918 the Association of Engineers (Verkfræðingafélagið) began a systematic approach to neologisms. In 1951, a Dictionary Committee of the University of Iceland (Orðabókarnefnd Háskólans) began publishing lists of new words marking the beginning of formal government sponsorship of neologisms.
In 1965, a ministerial decree of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
(Menntamálráðuneytið) established the Íslenzk málnefnd (Icelandic Language Committee) to “guide government agencies and the general public in matters of language on a scholarly basis”. This group however, comprised only three members and simply could not keep up with the task it was given, even after the addition of two more members in 1980. To remedy this situation, in 1984 the Althing
passed legislation which ratified the five person membership and also established a permanently functioning secretariat, the Íslensk málstöð (Icelandic Language Institute
). The Council was enlarged to fifteen members in 1990, appointed by and from a number of sectors in the society. Thus, the Council paralleled its counterparts elsewhere in Scandinavia
.
Day to day operations are the province of the Institute. Occupying a suite of offices on Neshagi, a street near the University, and previously the site of the American Embassy’s cultural center, the Institute today is headed by Ari Páll Kristinsson and has only four employees who give advice on language and usage matters to public authorities and the broadcasting service
(Ríkisútvarpið) and answer questions from the society at large. In September 2006, the Institute was merged into the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
.
of the Icelanders
. The main focus of linguistic purism in Icelandic is to maintain the structure of the language (as a heavily declined
language compared to other West-European Indo-European languages
, such as English
or French
), and to develop its vocabulary particularly, so the language can be used to speak about any topic—no matter how technical—which, in turn, contributes to keep the language up-to-date. Since Icelandic has been made the official language
of Iceland, the Icelanders
have developed new words in all fields to keep the language alive.
propose and use new technical lexis
, which diversifies the Icelandic lexicon
as a whole. When trying to introduce words for new or modern concepts, it is common to revitalise old words that have fallen into disuse that have a similar meaning or are in the same semantic field
. For example, the word sími, an old word for ‘wire’, was brought back with a new meaning—‘telephone
’. Alternatively, new compound words such as veðurfræði (‘meteorology
’) can be formed from old words (in this case veður ‘weather’, and fræði ‘science’). Because of this, it is easy for speakers of Icelandic to deconstruct many words to find their etymologies
; indeed compound
words are very frequent in the Icelandic language. This system also makes it easier for new words to fit in with existing Icelandic grammatical rules: the gender
and declension
s of the compound word can easily be extracted from its derivatives, as can pronunciation
s. In recent years, the government has promoted an interest in technology
and efforts to produce Icelandic language software and other computer
interface
s have also taken place.
s are still entering the language. Some of these loanwords have been adapted and moulded to fit in with Icelandic grammatical rules, like the aforementioned inflection
and pronunciation
. For example, the word bíll (“a car”) comes from the word ‘automobile
’ via the Danish
shortened version bil. Sapir and Zuckermann
(2008) demonstrate how Icelandic camouflages many English words by means of phonosemantic matching
. For example, the Icelandic-looking word eyðni, meaning "AIDS", is a phonosemantic match of the English acronym AIDS, using the pre-existent Icelandic verb eyða (“to destroy”) and the Icelandic nominal suffix -ni. Similarly, the Icelandic word tækni (“technology”, “technique”) derives from tæki (“tool”) combined with the nominal suffix -ni, but is, in fact, a phonosemantic match of the Danish (or international) teknik (“technology”, “technique”). This neologism was coined in 1912 by Dr Björn Bjarnarson from Viðfjörður in the East of Iceland. It had been little in use until the 1940s, but has ever since become highly common, as a lexeme and as an element in new formations, such as raftækni (“electronics”) literally meaning “electrical technics”, tæknilegur (“technical”) and tæknir (“technician”). Other phonosemantic matches discussed in the article are beygla, bifra – bifrari, brokkál, dapur – dapurleiki - depurð, fjárfesta - fjárfesting, heila, guðspjall, ímynd, júgurð, korréttur, Létt og laggott, musl, pallborð – pallborðsumræður, páfagaukur, ratsjá, setur, staða, staðall – staðla - stöðlun, toga – togari, uppi and veira.
Icelandic has grammatical case
s: an example of adaptation of a foreign word is "Israeli" (same meaning as in English, as a noun), which in Icelandic has the plural Israelar, like with native Icelandic words such as the poetic gumi (“a man”) and bogi (“a bow”).
s in Iceland
is heavily emphasized, and the learning of English
and Danish
in school is compulsory. Danish is taught as Iceland was a dominion of Denmark until 1918 (sharing the king until 1944). English is learnt as the main international language
, especially due to the internationalization of the economy of Iceland
with the intensive trade and capital flows to and from the outside world. Entering a gymnasium
students are also usually required to choose a third foreign language. Traditionally that was either German
or French
, but in recent years Spanish
has also been offered, at least in some gymnasia. Other languages are sometimes added as an option but then usually in the context of choosing a language-heavy study at the cost of an education in the natural sciences. Students in elementary schools who have lived in other Nordic countries or for whatever reason have an understanding at some level of other Nordic languages are sometimes offered to continue their study of other Nordic languages instead of Danish.
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
phenomenon of linguistic purism
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
in the Icelandic language
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
. Its aim is to substitute loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s with the creation of new words from Old Icelandic and Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
roots and prevent new loanwords entering the language. In Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, linguistic purism is archaising, trying to resuscitate the language of a golden age of Icelandic literature. It is an effort, beginning in early 19th century, at the dawn of the Icelandic national movement, to replace older loanwords, especially from Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, and it continues today, targeting English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
words. It is widely upheld in Iceland and it is the dominant language ideology
Language ideology
In sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, a language or linguistic ideology is a systematic construct about how particular ways of using languages carry or are invested with certain moral, religious, social, and political values, giving rise to implicit assumptions that people have about a...
. It is fully supported by the Icelandic government
Cabinet of Iceland
The Cabinet of Iceland is the chief executive body of the Republic of Iceland. It consists of the Prime Minister of Iceland and the cabinet ministers....
through the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies is an institute of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland which conducts research in Icelandic and related academic studies, in particular the Icelandic language and Icelandic literature, to disseminate knowledge in those areas,...
, the Icelandic Language Council, the Icelandic Language Fund and an Icelandic Language Day
Icelandic Language Day
Icelandic Language Day is celebrated on 16 November each year in Iceland. This date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of the Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson....
.
Early innovations
First Grammatical Treatise
The First Grammatical Treatise is a 12th-century work on the phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language. It was given this name because it is the first of four grammatical works bound in the Icelandic manuscript Codex Wormianus...
(Fyrsta málfræðiritgerðin), which undertook to design an alphabet for the language and proposed separate (non-Latin) letters for the distinctive Icelandic phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s. It was, in a way, an attempt to give the young Icelandic people a language of their own. Also significant was the early-started genuine Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
, reaching from Ari Þorgilsson
Ari Þorgilsson
Ari Þorgilsson was Iceland's most prominent medieval chronicler. He is the author of Íslendingabók, which details the histories of the various families who settled Iceland...
’s Íslendingabók
Íslendingabók
Íslendingabók, Libellus Islandorum or The Book of Icelanders is an historical work dealing with early Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally existed in two different versions but only the younger one has come...
, through the Landnámabók
Landnámabók
Landnámabók , often shortened to Landnáma, is a medieval Icelandic written work describing in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.-Landnáma:...
(book of colonization), to Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
’s Heimskringla
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
. Especially the prose of the sagas of the Icelanders and Snorri
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
’s skaldic poetry are a clear sign of an appreciation of the native language.
By 1300, after the Icelanders had joined in union with the Norwegian crown
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
had developed several characteristics that distinguished it from the dialects of the Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
districts from where many had centuries earlier emigrated to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
.
By the 16th century, the language was so differentiated from the other languages spoken in Nordic lands
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
that Icelanders coined the term íslenska to denote their native tongue. A serious effort to preserve the now quite distinct Icelandic from the "corrupting" influences of foreign words, especially by the Danish and German merchants who dominated Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
’s trade, began in the early seventeenth century thanks to Arngrímur Jónsson
Arngrímur Jónsson
Arngrímur Jónsson the Learned was an Icelandic scholar and an apologist. His father was Jón Jónsson, who died in 1591...
.
18th and 19th centuries
The first real instigator of Icelandic linguistic purismLinguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
(hreintungustefna) as it is today was Eggert Ólafsson
Eggert Ólafsson
Eggert Ólafsson was an Icelandic explorer, writer and conservator of the Icelandic language.He was the son of a farmer from Svefneyjar in Breiðafjörður. He studied natural sciences, Classics, Grammar, Law and Agriculture at the University of Copenhagen.Ólafsson wrote on a wide range of topics...
(1726–1768). Between 1752 and 1757 he accompanied his friend Bjarni Pálsson on an expedition through Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. In his report, he described the situation of the Icelandic language
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
as lamentable. This inspired him to write the poem Sótt og dauði íslenskunnar, in which he personifies his mother tongue as a woman, who has fallen mortally ill through an infection with too many foreign words
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
. She sends her children to look for good and pure Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
that can cure her, but uncontaminated language is nowhere to be found, and she dies. At the end of the poem he urges his compatriots to defend their language and reminds them of the great esteem in which Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
is held abroad and how well it has been preserved by their forefathers.
Eggert Ólafsson
Eggert Ólafsson
Eggert Ólafsson was an Icelandic explorer, writer and conservator of the Icelandic language.He was the son of a farmer from Svefneyjar in Breiðafjörður. He studied natural sciences, Classics, Grammar, Law and Agriculture at the University of Copenhagen.Ólafsson wrote on a wide range of topics...
was very well-read in Old Icelandic literature and this was noticeable in his writings. This interest in the old language brought him into contact with other Icelandic students in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, where he joined a secret society called Sakir (1720–1772). This was the beginning of the use of Old Icelandic as a key feature in the Icelandic national awakening. Eggert wrote the first orthographical
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
dictionary (Réttritabók Eggerts Ólafssonar) in which he proposed orthographic
Icelandic orthography
Icelandic orthography is the way in which Icelandic words are spelt and how their spelling corresponds with their pronunciation.-Function of symbols:...
and phonetic
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
rules. The influence of the book was considerable, and Ólafur Olavius, originator of the Hrappseyjarprentsmiðja, the first privately owned printing shop in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, followed Eggert’s rules to a significant extent.
Eleven years after Eggert’s death, the Íslenska lærdómslistafélag (Icelandic Art-Learning Society) was founded in Copenhagen with Jón Eiríksson, administrative director at the Danish Ministry of Finance, as its president. The society published annual writings from 1781 to 1796, which dealt with practical subjects like trade and business, but also with varied scientific topics about which little had been read until then. This brought along a flood of new Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
terminology
Terminology
Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...
, which was generated from purely Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
lexical stock.
In Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, the rise of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
brought with it a greater interest in Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
. This opened the eyes of Icelanders with regard to their cultural importance and increased their self-confidence. The Danish linguist Rasmus Rask (1787-1832) learnt Icelandic in his youth and it became his favorite language. He compiled the first real Icelandic grammar, which was, in comparison with earlier attempts, a huge step forward. He refused to accept the differences between Old and Modern Icelandic and was afraid that a too great difference between the two would decrease the interest in the land and its culture. This attitude gave rise to an even more increased tendency toward language archaisation. On Rask’s initiative the Icelandic Literary Society
Icelandic Literary Society
The Icelandic Literary Society , founded in 1816, is a society dedicated to promoting and strengthening Icelandic language, literature and learning....
, Hið íslenska bókmenntafélagið was founded. Its goal was “to preserve the Icelandic language and literature and therewith the culture and the honour of the land”. An important publication was Almenn jarðarfræða og landaskipun eður geographia (1821–1827), which contains much new genuine Icelandic terminology. It gave the opportunity to show the validity of Rasmus Rask’s vision that the Icelandic language had, above most languages, an “endless neologistic generating capability”.
During the 19th century, the movement of linguistic purism
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
is inextricably connected with the magazine Fjölnir
Fjölnir
In Norse mythology, Fjölnir, Fjölner, Fjolner or Fjolne was a Swedish king of the House of Yngling, at Gamla Uppsala. Fjölnir appears in a semi-mythological context as the son of Freyr and his consort Gerðr...
(published from 1835 to 1839 and from 1844 to 1847). The magazine was published in Copenhagen by four young Icelanders: Konráð Gíslason, Jónas Hallgrímsson
Jónas Hallgrímsson
Jónas Hallgrímsson was an Icelandic poet, author and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835...
, Brynjólfur Péturson and Tómas Sæmundsson. The most important of these four was Jónas Hallgrímsson, who also translated literary work from Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
and Ossian
Ossian
Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...
. His translation of a textbook about astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
(Stjörnufræði, 1842) became exemplary for later translations of scientific literature. Many of the neologisms he coined have become an integral part of present-day Icelandic terminology: aðdráttarafl – gravity, hitabelti - tropics
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
, sjónauki – telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
, samhliða - parallel. Konráð Gíslason (1808–1891), professor in Old Scandinavian languages at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
, published the first Danish-Icelandic dictionary in 1851.
20th century onwards
In 1965, a ministerial decree of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Iceland)
The Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is a cabinet-level ministry divided into three departments: the Department of Education, the Department of Science and the Department of Cultural Affairs. Since 1 February 2009, the minister is Katrín Jakobsdóttir of the Left-Green Movement....
(Menntamálráðuneytið) established the Íslenzk málnefnd (Icelandic Language Committee) to “guide government agencies and the general public in matters of language on a scholarly basis”. This group however, comprised only three members and simply could not keep up with the task it was given, even after the addition of two more members in 1980. To remedy this situation, in 1984 the Althing
Althing
The Alþingi, anglicised variously as Althing or Althingi, is the national parliament of Iceland. The Althingi is the oldest parliamentary institution in the world still extant...
passed legislation which ratified the five person membership and also established a permanently functioning secretariat, the Íslensk málstöð (Icelandic Language Institute
Icelandic Language Institute
The Icelandic Language Institute , founded in 1985, was responsible for the planning and preservation of the Icelandic language...
). The Council was enlarged to fifteen members in 1990, appointed by and from a number of sectors in the society. Thus, the Council paralleled its counterparts elsewhere in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
.
Day to day operations are the province of the Institute. Occupying a suite of offices on Neshagi, a street near the University, and previously the site of the American Embassy’s cultural center, the Institute today is headed by Ari Páll Kristinsson and has only four employees who give advice on language and usage matters to public authorities and the broadcasting service
RÚV
Ríkisútvarpið is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization.Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the country, the service broadcasts a variety of general programming to a wide audience across the whole country via radio...
(Ríkisútvarpið) and answer questions from the society at large. In September 2006, the Institute was merged into the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies is an institute of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland which conducts research in Icelandic and related academic studies, in particular the Icelandic language and Icelandic literature, to disseminate knowledge in those areas,...
.
Purpose
The Icelandic language is a basic element of the national identityNational identity
National identity is the person's identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one's citizenship status....
of the Icelanders
Icelanders
Icelanders are a Scandinavian ethnic group and a nation, native to Iceland.On 17 June 1944, when an Icelandic republic was founded the Icelanders became independent from the Danish monarchy. The language spoken is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and Lutheranism is the predominant religion...
. The main focus of linguistic purism in Icelandic is to maintain the structure of the language (as a heavily declined
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
language compared to other West-European Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, such as English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
or French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
), and to develop its vocabulary particularly, so the language can be used to speak about any topic—no matter how technical—which, in turn, contributes to keep the language up-to-date. Since Icelandic has been made the official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
of Iceland, the Icelanders
Icelanders
Icelanders are a Scandinavian ethnic group and a nation, native to Iceland.On 17 June 1944, when an Icelandic republic was founded the Icelanders became independent from the Danish monarchy. The language spoken is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and Lutheranism is the predominant religion...
have developed new words in all fields to keep the language alive.
Creation of new words
Organisations and individuals in many specialist areas together with the Icelandic Language InstituteIcelandic Language Institute
The Icelandic Language Institute , founded in 1985, was responsible for the planning and preservation of the Icelandic language...
propose and use new technical lexis
Lexis (linguistics)
In linguistics, a lexis is the total word-stock or lexicon having items of lexical, rather than grammatical, meaning. This notion contrasts starkly with the Chomskian proposition of a “Universal Grammar” as the prime mover for language...
, which diversifies the Icelandic lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
as a whole. When trying to introduce words for new or modern concepts, it is common to revitalise old words that have fallen into disuse that have a similar meaning or are in the same semantic field
Semantic field
A semantic field is a technical term in the discipline of linguistics to describe a set of words grouped by meaning in a certain way. The term is also used in other academic disciplines, such as anthropology and computational semiotics.-Definition and usage:...
. For example, the word sími, an old word for ‘wire’, was brought back with a new meaning—‘telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
’. Alternatively, new compound words such as veðurfræði (‘meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
’) can be formed from old words (in this case veður ‘weather’, and fræði ‘science’). Because of this, it is easy for speakers of Icelandic to deconstruct many words to find their etymologies
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
; indeed compound
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
words are very frequent in the Icelandic language. This system also makes it easier for new words to fit in with existing Icelandic grammatical rules: the gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
and declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
s of the compound word can easily be extracted from its derivatives, as can pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
s. In recent years, the government has promoted an interest in technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and efforts to produce Icelandic language software and other computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
interface
Interface (computer science)
In the field of computer science, an interface is a tool and concept that refers to a point of interaction between components, and is applicable at the level of both hardware and software...
s have also taken place.
Loanwords
However intensive the efforts for linguistic purification, loanwordLoanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s are still entering the language. Some of these loanwords have been adapted and moulded to fit in with Icelandic grammatical rules, like the aforementioned inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
and pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
. For example, the word bíll (“a car”) comes from the word ‘automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
’ via the Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
shortened version bil. Sapir and Zuckermann
Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Ghil'ad Zuckermann is an Israeli-Italian-British-Australian linguist, expert of language revival, contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity...
(2008) demonstrate how Icelandic camouflages many English words by means of phonosemantic matching
Phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root....
. For example, the Icelandic-looking word eyðni, meaning "AIDS", is a phonosemantic match of the English acronym AIDS, using the pre-existent Icelandic verb eyða (“to destroy”) and the Icelandic nominal suffix -ni. Similarly, the Icelandic word tækni (“technology”, “technique”) derives from tæki (“tool”) combined with the nominal suffix -ni, but is, in fact, a phonosemantic match of the Danish (or international) teknik (“technology”, “technique”). This neologism was coined in 1912 by Dr Björn Bjarnarson from Viðfjörður in the East of Iceland. It had been little in use until the 1940s, but has ever since become highly common, as a lexeme and as an element in new formations, such as raftækni (“electronics”) literally meaning “electrical technics”, tæknilegur (“technical”) and tæknir (“technician”). Other phonosemantic matches discussed in the article are beygla, bifra – bifrari, brokkál, dapur – dapurleiki - depurð, fjárfesta - fjárfesting, heila, guðspjall, ímynd, júgurð, korréttur, Létt og laggott, musl, pallborð – pallborðsumræður, páfagaukur, ratsjá, setur, staða, staðall – staðla - stöðlun, toga – togari, uppi and veira.
Icelandic has grammatical case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
s: an example of adaptation of a foreign word is "Israeli" (same meaning as in English, as a noun), which in Icelandic has the plural Israelar, like with native Icelandic words such as the poetic gumi (“a man”) and bogi (“a bow”).
Foreign language learning
Linguistic purification does not imply limitations or neglect for foreign language learning. Teaching of foreign languageForeign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
s in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
is heavily emphasized, and the learning of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
in school is compulsory. Danish is taught as Iceland was a dominion of Denmark until 1918 (sharing the king until 1944). English is learnt as the main international language
World language
A world language is a language spoken internationally which is learned by many people as a second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers , but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in international organizations and in diplomatic relations...
, especially due to the internationalization of the economy of Iceland
Economy of Iceland
The economy of Iceland is small and subject to high volatility. In 2007, gross domestic product was US$12.144bn in total and $38,400 per capita, based on purchasing power parity estimates...
with the intensive trade and capital flows to and from the outside world. Entering a gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
students are also usually required to choose a third foreign language. Traditionally that was either German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
or French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, but in recent years Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
has also been offered, at least in some gymnasia. Other languages are sometimes added as an option but then usually in the context of choosing a language-heavy study at the cost of an education in the natural sciences. Students in elementary schools who have lived in other Nordic countries or for whatever reason have an understanding at some level of other Nordic languages are sometimes offered to continue their study of other Nordic languages instead of Danish.