Any language that has awesome words and concepts like:
Any language that has awesome words and concepts like:
Hundslappadrífa (and its friend, Grásleppudrífa)
Gluggaveður
Sólarfrí ("When staff gets an unexpected day or afternoon off to enjoy a particularly sunny and warm day.")
Needs to be preserved. Of course, I live somewhere those words would be useful.
I also like that the word for midwife translates as "mother of light" (ljósmóðir) and nipple translates as "spear wart" (geirvarta). I'm sure it doesn't technically work this way, but I feel like it would be kind of fun to change the opening line of Beowulf to:
Hwæt! We Geirvartadena in geardagum, etc. [How we nipple Danes in days of yore, etc.)
(The original is We Gardena, we spear Danes.)
http://mashable.com/2017/04/23/iceland-language-at-risk-computers/#r8zWLuXHRPqh
http://mashable.com/2017/04/23/iceland-language-at-risk-computers/#r8zWLuXHRPqh
Hundslappadrífa (and its friend, Grásleppudrífa)
Gluggaveður
Sólarfrí ("When staff gets an unexpected day or afternoon off to enjoy a particularly sunny and warm day.")
Needs to be preserved. Of course, I live somewhere those words would be useful.
I also like that the word for midwife translates as "mother of light" (ljósmóðir) and nipple translates as "spear wart" (geirvarta). I'm sure it doesn't technically work this way, but I feel like it would be kind of fun to change the opening line of Beowulf to:
Hwæt! We Geirvartadena in geardagum, etc. [How we nipple Danes in days of yore, etc.)
(The original is We Gardena, we spear Danes.)
http://mashable.com/2017/04/23/iceland-language-at-risk-computers/#r8zWLuXHRPqh
http://mashable.com/2017/04/23/iceland-language-at-risk-computers/#r8zWLuXHRPqh
Re: solarfri, there is a close cognate in American "Snow Day" or Dutch "IJsvrij". Just, you know. In reverse.
ReplyDeleteNah. Snow Day means the weather was so bad you have to close schools. It doesn't at all mean you have to close businesses. I mean, for kids who get out of school there's a sense of 'day off to enjoy not being in school', so sort of similar, but this is the US, land of the protestant work ethic There's no excuse to not be working! Idle hands are the devil's playground!
ReplyDeleteI wish we had the concept that a business could say, hey, the weather is so amazing that we are just going to close. Go have fun, people will totally be on board with this and come back another day.