@ in Icelandic

[L oki]

Calling @ a snail is certainly graphic, but how does that correlate with
e-mail vs. snail-mail? Maybe, with the bursts of technology, some day not
to far in the future snail mail will include the current concept of
e-mail communic at ion?

On Sat, 14 Jul 2001Barry Popik <bapopik at HOTMAIL.COM> writes:
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@ IN ICELANDIC

 From GUEST INFORMATION ICELAND 2000:

   In a world where technology and employment are constantly changing,
Icelanders do not adopt international words. Instead, they have
passionate discussions about various solutions. Instead of a computer,
for example, they use the word tolva (from tala and volva; a digit and a
witch), and a new slang word for @ is snigill (a snail). Not too bad, is
it? But the best words are transparent or they describe themselves. One
such word is bergml instead of echo. Berg means a cliff and ml has many
meanings, like a language and a measure. So the word simply means a
cliff's language.

 From ICELANDIC--WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS THAT? (tourist pamphlet):

telephone: simi (originally: wire)
radio: utvarp (literally: broadcast)
computer: tolva (a pun on _tala_=number and _volva_=soothsayer)
software: hugbunadur (literally: thought-equipment)
...
   I was told that Iceland wants to act European, so English (which most
people learn quite early) is taught from British textbooks. Hence the
British spellings.
   A visit to an American-style pizza place (Pizza 67--"Make Pizza, Not
War") had these:

AMERICANA--cheese, sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes
SAN FRANSISCO--cheese, sauce, pepperoni, onions, olives
GRENMETISPIZZA--cheese sauce, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions
SJAVARRETTAPIZZA--cheese, sauce, shrimp, mussels, tuna
PEARL HARBOUR--cheese, sauce, shrimp, smoked salmon, mussels

(It's Pearl HARBOR!! How does the movie play in England?--ed.)
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