[lg policy] Protectionist Language Policies in the Face of the Forces of English. The Case of Iceland

[Harold Schiffman]

According to A. M. Hilmarsson-Dunn, ", 2006:

    The Icelandic Government has reacted to the threat of English by
implementing a protectionist language policy, the two cornerstones of
which are preservation and enhancement of the Icelandic language. This
policy covers such areas as education, the media and information
technology. Despite such efforts, however, English is on the rise.

The author also explains that

    Language planning in Iceland probably began as the result of
hostility to the Danish language. Although the Icelandic Language
Council was established by act of parliament as recently as 1964, the
pure language movement (hreinraektarstefnan) had been active in
Iceland for 300 years in trying to rid the language of Danish words.
This movement gained momentum in the fight for independence from
Denmark.

[Moderator's note: this is part of a longer blog on Language Log on
the topic of historical linguistics.  HS]

-- http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2835
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list