Dú jú spík æslandik?

Úven æ em at úvirk æ mít mení næs pípul. Somtæms þey spík engliss, þen æ spík engliss alsó. And þen somtæms æ tók tú pípul hú spík æslandik, and þen æ úvil spík æslandik úviþ þem. Buht mæ æslandik iss noht purfikt and æ somtæms meik misteiks úven æ em spíking. Só som pípul úvil bí werí helpfúl bekass æslandik iss só werí werí diffikuhlt lankúvidj and spík engliss úviþ mí:

Raunveruleg dæmi:

Bláfinna. (útskýrir ýmis atriði á íslensku)
Íslendingur. Já hvaaaðan ert þúúú - where are you from?

Íslendingur. Hæ.. talar þú ekki íslensku?
Bláfinna. Já já já*
Íslendingur. I was looking..

Íslendingur. (spurning)
Bláfinna. (hugsar um málið)
Íslendingur. (enska)
Heilinn hennar Bláfinnu. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

*hrikaleg málvilla

(taugarnar hafa verið aðeins farnar í..)

English summary: a tip for all you would-be-Icelandic speakers.. The best way to learn Icelandic is sometimes to be the last surviving speaker of an obscure non-Indo-European language from a remote uncharted desert island.

The Sock Issue

This blog entry will be devoted almost entirely to a sock - my very first me-made sock, to be precise. Normally a person would wait to knit two socks before making such an announcement, but as my mitten projects have shown in the past, the future is a very uncertain thing one can never be too sure of, which is to say I may get lazy and sock #2 may never get made..

But on to the sock. For such a beautiful sock it is, only *ever so slightly deformed*, fits like a glove [can one say that about socks?] - is in short very, ehm, socklike.

And Harry Potter comes out in Iceland tomorrow!
.
.
Sock love!

Things my dictionary taught me

Have you always wanted to say, "the bacterium is one of the chief causal factors in gastritis" in Icelandic.. but just couldn't?

Well, weep no more, thanks to the online Icelandic-English dictionary:

bakterían er einn aðalþátturinn í myndun magabólgu

Reindeer in my ear

Christmas just around the corner. Sparkly red and green things lurking in wait in malls around the world. The smell of burning plastic. Jingle bells.

So it would stand to reason that the song stuck in my head should probably be along the lines of "Deck the gloria with hallelujah" or "Santa Claus, snow and home for Christmas fa la la la". Or possibly one of those cheery old Icelandic standards, along the approximate lines of "I haven't been eaten by an oversized cat yet, but O woe is me I probably will". But neibbs, I am happy to announce that instead, I have somehow managed to stick in there a happy little song in Sami about happy little reindeer in the mountains - to the tune of that beloved Canadian camp song, "My paddle", best sung in a canoe. Better yet, in a canoe in a canoe! (for those who understand the sentance..)

Dangerously catchy. Probably a conspiracy by Rudolph.


In the meanwhile, since I don't really know what I'm singing and thus cannot translate it for readers of this blog, may we present..

A traditional Icelandic Christmas Carol
loosely translated by LBD:

I haven't been eaten by an oversized cat yet
(but woe is me, I probably will)

I haven't been eaten by an oversized cat yet
but woe is me, I probably will -
The child-eating troll, on the other hand,
now she is as dead as a doornail.
It would make me almost happy,
but I can't afford a doornail
and thus don't quite know what it is.
La la la la la Icelaaaand -
O how unhappy I am.

Samviskunámskeið

Eins og minnast var í næstsíðustu bloggfærslunni ætlar Bláfinna* að byrja að læra samísku. Reyndar búin að byrja í kvöld og mælir tvímælalaust með tungumálinu - það hefur ð og aðblástur og áherslun á fyrsta atkvæðinu og allt alveg eins og í íslensku. Já samíska rokkar víst feitt.

En því miður er samíska ekki þekktasta tungumálið í heiminum enda halda flestir sem Bláfinna hefur talað við um þetta að hún hyggist fara í samviskunámskeið. Hugsanlega til þess að læra að hjálpa eldriborgurum fara yfir götuna og að borga skatt og allt þetta.

Í samískutímanum hitti ég fyrrverandi bekkjasysturina mína Outi. Kom þá í ljós að hún hafði lent í alveg nákvæmlega sömu vandræðum.

* Eins og allir útlendingar þurfti Little Blue Duck náttúrulega að taka að sér íslenskt nafn þegar hún kom til landsins.

Cave insectem

CAUTION: the following pictures are not for the faint of heart. Viewer discretion is advised.

These are only two of the many horrifying images of aphid brutality to be found, the brutishness of which seems to know knows no bounds. This morning I discovered that the aphids infesting my dill have spread to my spider plant, who has been my windowsill companion since she was only a little sprout in a styrofoam cup. But we shall not let the cruel aphids conquer the window! Now, just as soon as I find the Icelandic word for insecticidal soap....

The Me, in summary

Things the Duck has done recently or will do very soon and would like to share with you:

1) Went to a real live concert. Mozart's and Fauré's Requiems, it was incredibly beautiful and also somewhat practical as Duck's choir will also be singing a requiem this spring - in fact she believes it will be Mr. Mozart's himself. The boy soprano was the same as sung with Blue Duck & kór two years ago and his voice is still just as amazing if not more. Unfortunately missed concert on Saturday Duck would have also badly liked to have seen, but instead (being ignorant of the concert)..

2) Went to see penguins marching. Lots of 'em. In French, with Icelandic subtitles. Très bien eða hvað? Ironically, at the same time this idyllic movie was playing, in France, cars were burning.

3) To the growing list of languages Duck doesn't speak, she hopes to be soon adding Samíska. (and should you live in Reykjavík and have a dream to speak Samíska, you too can sign up at Norræna félagið and start on Tuesday!)

4) Duck's adopted baby the spider plant is in danger of aphids. The little green monsters were hiding in a rose she had in her room, which she threw away after it withered and died, but they seem to have spread to her dill plant as well. The spider plant is only a metre or so away from the dill, and she is disturbed by the thought of ravenous bugs munching away at its innocent little leaves, especially as it is at the moment in a very delicate state - it is having babies, approximately 16 of them so far, with more likely on the way. ACK ACK! Advice, anyone?????????

Mind's eye

(The following blog entry will be mostly in Icelandic because I was thinking in Icelandic at the time I was writing it, though the quality of the Icelandic is likely quite iffy and should be no means be used as instructional material should the sight of so many pretty ðs inspire the would-be-reader to enroll in the nearest available Icelandic class)

Leynifangelsi lýðræðisins

Það er erfitt fyrir önd að verða hneyksluð. Önd sem býr í miðtjörninni í höfuðborg Íslands sér nú mikið furðulegt í vatninu um leið - aðallega brauð og plastpoka, en stundum bekki og ruslatunnur. Jafnvel innkaupakerrur. En þessi önd varð nú mjög hneyksluð samt þegar hún las þetta: "Fangar leynilega í haldi" og þá er auðvitað átt við haldi bandarísku leyniþjónustunnar.

Svo las hún þetta (á ensku, reyndar) og varð ennþá hneykslaðari:

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

Although the CIA will not acknowledge details of its system, intelligence officials defend the agency's approach, arguing the successful defence of the United States requires the agency be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the U.S. legal system or even by the military tribunals established for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

HAAAAAA??

Hver var sá brilljantinn sem datt svona kerfi í huga - já frábært, til þess að vernda frelsi og lýðræði gegn ófreskjunum högum okkur eins og ófreskjur? Eða hvað um, heeeeeej krakkar, las þessa frábæra bók um helgina 1983 eða 1984-eitthvað, og mér datt í huga.. Auðvitað er það rangt þegar aðrir gera það, en við vitum betur. C'mon, everybody's doing it..

Af því að við vitum betur. Ein af hættulegustum setningum í heiminum. Hvað varð af "do unto others.."? Fór hún í sama rassgatið og "innocent until proven guilty"?