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The Allusionist

147. Survival: Today, Tomorrow part 2

The Allusionist

Helen Zaltzman

Arts, Education, Words, Linguistics, History, Entertainment, Helen Zaltzman, Etymology, Society & Culture

4.73.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"It's really good if we can get the changes through here - that can be an inspiration for other other countries or other places in the world," says Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir, chair of Samtökin ’78, the national queer organization of Iceland. In 2019, Iceland passed the Gender Autonomy Act, which added an option for people to register their official gender as X; with it, the country's strictly binary-gendered naming laws were suddenly transformed. Other changes, like a new genderfree pronoun, are catching on; but overhauling a whole grammatically gendered language is no easy undertaking.

Find out more about the topics covered in this episode, and a transcript, at theallusionist.org/todaytomorrow2; and browse down your podfeed to listen to Today, Tomorrow part 1 about how Icelandic officially obtains new words, and navigates the challenges of being an old language in the present day; and the episode Name V Law, about the Icelandic Naming Committee and the strict laws before the updates discusssed in this episode.

Sign up to be a patron at patreon.com/allusionist and as well as supporting the show, you get behind the scenes glimpses, bonus etymologies, a trip around Iceland's museums via me, AND a delightful community of Teamlusionists!

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow and instagram.com/allusionistshow.

Visit theallusionist.org/merch to obtain your Potato Fugue State sweatshirts and multidenominational Wintervalwear.

The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs at palebirdmusic.com or search for Pale Bird on Bandcamp and Spotify, and he’s @martinaustwick on Twitter and Instagram.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, shake languages belly like a bowlful

0:08.4

of jelly.

0:09.6

This episode is the second of a two-parter about the Icelandic language, how it navigates

0:13.7

the challenges of being an old language in the 21st century and how it obtains new words.

0:18.8

You don't have to have heard part one for this episode to make sense, but when you do want

0:22.4

to listen, you will find it right next door to this one wherever you get your podcasts,

0:26.9

speaking of which, podcasters get their own Spotify wrapped that offers data about such things

0:33.9

as when people listen to your podcast and I learned you listen to the illusionist at the

0:38.2

turn of new year.

0:39.4

This is very pleasing to me, you're my kind of people, either you'd listen to a podcast

0:44.0

at a party in order to hide from the party or you'll stay home all together to listen

0:48.7

to podcasts.

0:49.7

Well done.

0:51.7

Come on with the show.

0:59.4

In 2018, I made an episode of the illusionist about the Icelandic naming committee and

1:04.0

the laws governing what Icelanders can be named.

1:07.0

The spirit of the law is to preserve the old tradition of Icelandic name system.

1:16.4

You first have your name, your personal name in your case, Helen.

1:24.0

And after that, the main rule is to use your father or mother's name, adding some in

1:33.7

your case, daughter to your father or mother's name.

1:38.6

And your father is called Pals, you would be Pals, daughter and your brother would be

1:46.7

Pals, son.

...

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