Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

From:Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Date:Tuesday, August 22, 2000, 0:16
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."