The Icelandic Language 'digital extinction' ?

In a world dominated by English-language products and technology, Iceland and its people are fighting to keep their Icelandic language learning relevant.

Most digital devices only work in a handful of languages, for Icelandic to remain relevant online — Big tech needs to be on board and Iceland needs a vocabulary that evolves with modern times. To do this the Icelandic language board of linguists are creating new words from old Icelandic Viking roots.

The Icelandic government efforts could hold lessons for the 3,500 languages set to disappear over the next few generations.

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[psycorea]

Many of the people in the video think young Icelanders, such as myself, just stop talking Icelandic. But I speak Icelandic in real life and English when needed., mostly online. In my opinion the problem is more that English is being used in stores and other services instead of Icelandic. People like my grandfather speak only Icelandic and he goes to stores and people there only speak english and he doesn´t understand it. In my opinion people who have jobs that include talking to Icelandic civilians, should speak the language.

[KTo]

They need to get an Icelandic course onto Duolingo and expand their speaker base.

[roguex]

If the Icelandic language is gone I will be very sad. My best friend (may she rest in peace) was from Iceland and whenever she spoke in her native tongue to her family over Skype I would be so enthralled that I didn't even care if I didn't understand it, I just wanted to keep hearing her speak. I'll learn it for her and keep it alive too! 🙏

[baokachi]

The language and the accent are so magical, lets hope it never goes extinct

[AnnaMaria-zmcv]

I live in Iceland and its close to impossible to speak Icelandic because either people in stores and restaurants are foreigners who do not care about learning Icelandic, or Icelandic people who think to be kind to talk English to you because they do not understand what I try to say (it goes better with that though). Im stuck into my progress, gone through 3 courses up to level 4 or 5 and the speaking part is a huge issue.

[jorgesantell]

Don't let the language disapeard this language is unique as a matter of fact I'm going to learn Icelandic

[narayana]

Not exactly the reason that I’m learning Icelandic but hey, it’s a bonus.

[howser]

As an indigenous Icelandic speaker, I thank you.

[ludwikzamenhof]

I wish other major languages had the same resources put into them for coining new words and modernizing the vocabulary

[barrysteven]

I've been learning Icelandic for a while because I love the country and I feel less like an alien if I can read things and just communicate in shops without having to speak English. I sometimes pretend I don't speak English. My favourite word is 'gluggaveður' (window weather). It means weather that looks fine from inside through the window but isn't so nice to actually go outside into.

[gael]

The same is happening here in Paraguay with Guaraní Language (Avañe'ẽ), people in cities see as an useless language, because of Spanish and Portuguese, even if Guaraní is taught at school.

[emperorpingusmathchannel]

I wish we in Sweden put even half as much care to maintain the language and not let it get taken over by English as it is now. Like literally 50% of our words are english its sad.

[youssefhiggins]

Why aren't there Icelandic subtitles for this video? 🇮🇸

[BigBen]

Since everyone speaks Icelandic in Iceland and the government has control over what languages are taught in school. I have absolutely no worries that Icelandic will go extinct. And I am Icelandic btw

[gudmundurThorNr]

4:10 Iceland isn't even on the map

[SuperTonyony]

The ironic thing is that English is itself a patchwork quilt of other languages.

[牛鬼蛇神-ic]

If only Icelandic wasn't so mind bogglingly difficult!

[michaelhunt]

Damn, Icelanders sound like Scandinavian welsh people, I thought their accents would be more Scandinavian

[blotski]

I think inventing new Icelandic words is less important than making sure educational materials are available in Icelandic. I am a teacher and a linguist and spend a lot of time working with bilingual children. There is a lot of misunderstanding about bilingualism (by which I mean kids who grow up speaking two languages). I won't go into too much detail but bilingual children may well speak both languages correctly and even without an accent but in nearly all cases their vocabulary is better in one of the languages. There will always be things they can say more confidently in one language than the other. The tipping point will come if kids in Iceland use so much English in their education that they end up feeling they can speak about more varied topics in English rather than Icelandic.

[hpenvywirelessinkprinter]

Add it to Duolingo lmao it’s literally that simple