
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Some Icelanders are becoming unsettled by this existential question: Will their language still be spoken in the future? Comedian and former Reykjavik mayor Jón Gnarr is convinced that this uniquely archaic-yet-modern language will one day die out. He says his children express themselves beautifully in English but speak limited Icelandic. Give it a couple more generations, and who knows? For Gnarr and many others, speaking Icelandic is an essential part of being Icelandic. Without the language, Iceland's patriotic anthem "Land, Nation and Tongue" would lose its meaning. Among Iceland's multitude of avid book-readers though, the language is showing few signs of disappearing. For now at least, Icelandic authors are committed to writing in their mother tongue.
This is part two of our reporting on Icelandic. Listen to the first part, Icelandic, the language that recycles everything.
In addition to Jón Gnarr, we hear from novelists Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and Sverrir Norland, as well as literary translator Larissa Kyzer, linguist Ari Páll Kristinsson, and Ethiopian-born restaurant owner Azeb Kahssay.
Music in this episode by Luella Gren, Hysics, Medité, Farrell Wooten, J.S. Bach/Eric Jacobsen, Jon Björk, and Trabant 33. The photo is of a poster in Reykjavik celebrating the Icelandic language.
Read a transcript of the episode here. Sign up for Subtitle’s newsy, nerdy, fortnightly newsletter here.
4.8
647647 ratings
Some Icelanders are becoming unsettled by this existential question: Will their language still be spoken in the future? Comedian and former Reykjavik mayor Jón Gnarr is convinced that this uniquely archaic-yet-modern language will one day die out. He says his children express themselves beautifully in English but speak limited Icelandic. Give it a couple more generations, and who knows? For Gnarr and many others, speaking Icelandic is an essential part of being Icelandic. Without the language, Iceland's patriotic anthem "Land, Nation and Tongue" would lose its meaning. Among Iceland's multitude of avid book-readers though, the language is showing few signs of disappearing. For now at least, Icelandic authors are committed to writing in their mother tongue.
This is part two of our reporting on Icelandic. Listen to the first part, Icelandic, the language that recycles everything.
In addition to Jón Gnarr, we hear from novelists Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and Sverrir Norland, as well as literary translator Larissa Kyzer, linguist Ari Páll Kristinsson, and Ethiopian-born restaurant owner Azeb Kahssay.
Music in this episode by Luella Gren, Hysics, Medité, Farrell Wooten, J.S. Bach/Eric Jacobsen, Jon Björk, and Trabant 33. The photo is of a poster in Reykjavik celebrating the Icelandic language.
Read a transcript of the episode here. Sign up for Subtitle’s newsy, nerdy, fortnightly newsletter here.
465 Listeners
9,064 Listeners
3,757 Listeners
302 Listeners
312 Listeners
90,791 Listeners
1,252 Listeners
38,132 Listeners
913 Listeners
11,589 Listeners
32,073 Listeners
910 Listeners
2,851 Listeners
54 Listeners
8,146 Listeners
2,986 Listeners
6,567 Listeners
59,380 Listeners
629 Listeners
319 Listeners
1,875 Listeners
676 Listeners
1,499 Listeners
15,347 Listeners