Language Nerds Do Earth

Episode 28: Icelandic

Icelandic Language

Iceland — is it in North America or Europe? Is it a land, or made of ice? Why doesn’t Björk seem to have a last name? These are all questions. Do we answer them? Maybe. But we definitely talk about the Icelandic language: an anomaly among languages, this baby has been consistent for forever (OK, a millenium, but that’s basically forever). Tune in to find out a bit about the history of Iceland and why the language is a step back in time to when the Vikings ruled the high seas. We also listen to a brief audio clip of what Nordic peoples think of each other, which you can find here. We also dive into the culture a bit and how the Icelanders connect to their language.

Also on the agenda today: are emojis universal? Not exactly. While a smiley or a frownie face (or a tree) is pretty obvious, there are some signals that can be VERY misconstrued between members of different cultures. We explore what you should probably watch out for when sending emojis to people in different cultures!

Here are the resources for this episode:

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