LINGUIST List 16.884
Wed Mar 23 2005
Media: Houston Chronicle: Icelanders on a mission...
Editor for this issue: Megan Zdrojkowski
<meganlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Karen
Chung,
Houston Chronicle: English in Icelandic
Message 1: Houston Chronicle: English in Icelandic
Date: 23-Mar-2005
From: Karen Chung <karchung
ntu.edu.tw>
Subject: Houston Chronicle: English in Icelandic
The Houston Chronicle March 19, 2005, 8:18PM
Icelanders on a mission: Fighting English invasion
Can proud people preserve their ancient language?
By WILLIAM ECENBARGER
The Los Angeles Times
...Language preservation worked nicely for centuries because Icelanders
lived diphthongs apart from the rest of the world, but in recent decades
the cultural floodgates have been opened. English is everywhere ¡X on
televisions, VCRs, the Internet and commercial products. ...
I left Iceland pessimistic. Everywhere I went, I heard English spoken.
Although a written language can be purged of foreign words and phrases,
policing how people speak is another matter. Many young Icelanders cannot
be bothered with a language that is a minefield of subjunctive, inflections
and gender (the number 2 has three genders). ...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3092847 Karen Chung
http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/ http://lists.topica.com/lists/phonetics/
Linguistic Field(s):
Anthropological Linguistics
Sociolinguistics
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