Language notes from the slopes of E-15.

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Jun 25 17:16:42 UTC 2010


At 6/25/2010 12:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>I forgot. Icelanders by law have been required to bear a surname that
>reflect their father's (rarely their mother's) given name. Women do not
>change their surnames at marriage. Thus, "Jon Magnusson" must be the son of
>Magnus somebody, and the daughter of Jon and his wife would be, say, "Gudrun
>Jo'nsdottir," even if she married Olaf Olafsson.

It was fun a few years ago (1995, I think) to watch the Iceland
women's national soccer team in an international match.

Joel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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