{"id":5431,"date":"2017-04-30T14:13:30","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T14:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=5431"},"modified":"2018-04-17T16:17:46","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T16:17:46","slug":"the-magic-of-neologisms-in-icelandic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2017\/04\/30\/the-magic-of-neologisms-in-icelandic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magic of Neologisms in Icelandic"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite parts of learning and speaking Icelandic is creating my own words. It feels empowering, like I’ve autonomously used this incredibly complex language I’ve set myself the task of learning. “Neologisms” are newly created words\/expressions (sometimes, a new usage of an existent word\/expression). And spinning them is my daytime substitute for dreaming in Icelandic , if you will, because, to me, it’s a symbol that\u00a0I’m really getting the hang of it, that I’m absorbing<\/em>\u00a0how certain words are used in an everyday context.<\/p>\n

My ‘creations’ tend to \u2013 as you might imagine \u2013 align with my disciplines: lj<\/em><\/strong>\u00f3\u00f0m\u00f3\u00f0ir<\/strong> (<\/em>a play on lj\u00f3sm\u00f3\u00f0ir,<\/em> <\/strong>a midwife; the neologism meaning \u2018one who delivers poems\u2019). Then there’s \u00a0\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ska<\/em><\/strong> (\u2018translation-ese\u2019: \u00fe\u00fd\u00f0a + the suffix \u201c-sk\u201d + the nominative declension ending \u201ca\u201d). S<\/strong>k\u00edtlenska<\/strong> (<\/em>or, as my Icelandic-speaking compatriot suggested, skr\u00edtlenska<\/strong> <\/em>\u2013 meaning those days when you just can\u2019t speak Icelandic quite right. In the former case, when you speak so poorly you should get a medal. Another greatest-hit: one of my professors in design here at the University suggested \u201ctj\u00e1kn\u201d <\/em><\/strong>[a combination of a\u00f0 tj\u00e1 \u2013<\/em> to express and t\u00e1kn <\/em>\u2013 a symbol] to mean \u201cemoji\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those aren’t exactly exemplars of the types of words that actually enter into the language and become commonly used. Tj<\/em>\u00e1merki<\/em> is the dictionary-official Icelandic term for emoji, though I’ve only heard ’emoji’.<\/p>\n

Examples in English of neologisms in the realm of general speech are \u201cto google\/to facebook\/to Instagram\/to twerk.\u201d \u00a0Of course, when you get right down to it, all words are neologism, since all words were once new. I\u2019ve read arguments in my discipline (poetics) that all words are also clich\u00e9 because they\u2019ve all been overused to the point of losing their original effect and neologism has the ability to sort of renew language.<\/p>\n

In the case of my own neologisms, they\u2019re what one might call \u201caugnablikssamsetningar<\/strong>\u201d (ABS) \u2013 or in-the-moment-compounds. These are commonplace in Icelandic, and they won\u2019t really appear in the dictionary; examples of ABS that aren\u2019t<\/em> of my own making are \u201ctepokat\u00f6ng<\/em>,\u201d and \u201cvinds\u00e6ngurpoki\u201d<\/em> \u2013<\/em> tea bag tongs and air-mattress bag. In my next blog, I\u2019m going to explore compounds words in more detail so that you can make your own<\/em>!<\/p>\n

So \u00a0\u201cn\u00fdyr\u00f0i<\/strong>\u201d (neologism\/s) are the kin of ABS; I’m talking about words that have been recorded in the dictionary, entered common parlance successfully, or failed\/quasi-failed to be adopted in everyday language.<\/p>\n

Advancements in technology (+changes in social media, etc.) tend to\u00a0lead to the creation of neologisms. In Icelandic, there tends to be a lot of discussion about whether the term should be a borrow-word (t\u00f6kuor\u00f0<\/strong>) and remain relatively intact, or if an Icelandic word should be created for the device.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Oh poets and their neologisms…
(c) Meg Matich<\/p><\/div>\n

According to V\u00edsindavefurinn<\/em> at the University of Iceland, there was a big discussion about the word app<\/em> in 2011-2012, with the rise in popularity of smart phones. The Arni Magnusson Institute for Icelandic Studies collected at least 50 Icelandic neologisms that could be used instead of \u201capp\u201d \u2013 but none of them took. App<\/em>arently (couldn’t resist), app\u00a0<\/em>aligns with the Icelandic declension system, and is categorized as a neuter noun.<\/p>\n

And, of course, neologisms reflect sociopolitical changes. Aflandskr\u00f3nur<\/em> (off-shore Icelandic krona, offshore accounts) came about in the last few months, reflecting the offshore accounts of Icelandic politicians involved in the Panama Papers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a neologism competition in Iceland (held intermittently?) \u2013 and the latest winner was the word \u00fatr\u00e9ttur<\/em>: take-out (literally out-food). There\u2019s a whole list of the finalists for the prize<\/a> – see if you can figure out what each word (e.g., hremma, gripill<\/em>) <\/em>means and post your ideas in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n

And, to wrap up this blog, I want to point out that a lot of Icelandic neologisms are direct translations of foreign words \u2013 a few examples are\u00a0deilihagkerfi<\/em>\u00a0(e. sharing economy),\u00a0hatursgl\u00e6pur<\/em>\u00a0(e. hate crime) and\u00a0hefndarkl\u00e1m<\/em>\u00a0(e. revenge porn). The term for this type of neologism is \u201ct\u00f6ku\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ingar<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 itself a neologism built from \u201ct\u00f6kuor\u00f0,\u201d borrow word, and \u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ing<\/em>, translation.<\/p>\n

And just for fun, I give you, Captain Icelandic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Flotti Comics<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

One of my favorite parts of learning and speaking Icelandic is creating my own words. It feels empowering, like I’ve autonomously used this incredibly complex language I’ve set myself the task of learning. “Neologisms” are newly created words\/expressions (sometimes, a new usage of an existent word\/expression). And spinning them is my daytime substitute for dreaming…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":5437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[91175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5431","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5431"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5752,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431\/revisions\/5752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}