Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

On Mon, 21 Aug 2000 16:57:39 GMT Oskar Gudlaugsson <hr_oskar@...>
writes:
> It's not the attitude to foreign languages; it's the image presented
> to
> young students of Icelandic as some kind of wonder-language. That
> it's one
> of the oldest languages around, that we're so special 'cause we can
> read our
> old texts, that Icelandic and Old Norse are just the same, and that
> therefore all the people of the north practically used to speak
> Icelandic
> (but then, it is implied, they lost it, ending up with their silly
> Danish,
> and the others). That our language is our most precious inheritance,
> and it
> is the duty of all Icelandic people to maintain an excellent quality
> of
> grammar, pronunciation, and lexis (with quality referring simply to
> what is
> old and rooted). Scholars write regularly in the newspapers,
> teaching
> "correct" language, nit-picking on this and this usage in the media
> Oskar
-

Sounds somewhat similar to what people have said about Hebrew (although
from my experience they're not nearly as obnoxious about it as what
you're describing) - so special because "one of the oldest languages
still spoken", "can read ancient texts", "most precious inheritance",
etc.
I don't really mind, since it is pretty much true :-) .
But i haven't encountered much extreme-swelled-headness based on it.
Just a little prescriptivism designed to slow down language change *in
order* to be able to continue reading ancient texts.

I have, on the other hand, encountered more than a few times people of
various different jewish subcultures claiming that their pronounciation
is more authentic (and therefore a very childish kind of "naa naa, i'm
better than you are!" junk) than everyone else's.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."