Icelandic might die out because smartphones and fridges do not ”speak it”
Linguists warn that the Icelandic language is in danger of disappearing because of an unexpected reason: smartphones, fridges and other smart devices around us do not ”speak it”, so the 400,000 inhabitants of the small nation are using more and more English.
Another reason is the prevalence of the English language in Icelandic tourism, according to The Independent.
Asgeir Jonsson, professor of Economy at the University of Iceland, compares this phenomenon to the ”brain exodus” from cities towards metropolises. He says that the problem is emphasized by the fact that devices such as smartphones, fridges, robots and other similar ones do not ”speak” Icelandic.
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Eirikur Rognvaldsson, a linguist at the same university, says that Icelandic children are not using the language enough. “The less useful Icelandic becomes in people’s daily life, the closer we as a nation get to the threshold of giving up its use,” Professor Rognvaldsson said.
The good news is that Icelanders are descendants of the Vikings, just like the Norwegians and the Danes. Since the three languages are very similar, they are likely to survive.
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