[LINK] "The future of the Icelandic language may lie in its past"

[rfmcdonald]

PRI's Patrick Fox took a look at the language policy of Iceland, which aims to produce or at least promote indigenous alternatives to foreign loanwords. He argues that this kind of language management works because of the high degree of linguistic consciousness and national identity among Icelanders.

There’s probably a perfectly good old word that’s maybe fallen out of use. Combine it with another word, make sure it follows Icelandic grammar rules.

And then, try to talk the public into using it.

Here’s an example from knitting: The word "ribbing" — which is often used as edging on sweaters.

"We had a lot of words for this, and some confusion about what to call it," says knitware store owner Guðrún Hannele Henttinen, who’s also on the knitting language committee. “So we found an old word, stuðlar, and we thought maybe that would be good to use that again.”