[rescue] Digital server 7000r

[Sheldon T. Hall]

"Chad Fernandez" <fernande at internet1.net> said

> Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> > Not to mention that rather fewer people speak Icelandic than speak
English.
> >
> > On the other hand, unlike English, Icelandic has hardly changed in the
last,
> > oh, 1000 years or so.  A modern Icelander has a lot easier time reading
the
> > Sagas that we Anglophones do reading Chaucer.
>
> I didn't know there is an Icelandic language!  I thought there heritage
> was mostly Viking?  I watched something on Discovery about Iceland.....
> maybe I waan't paying enough attention.

You're partially right.  Icelanders are all descended from a very small
number of Viking families who settled in Iceland in, I dunno, the 800s AD.
They had a Parliament (still in operation) by 930 AD.

Being a bit isolated, they continued to speak the same language for the next
1000 years, while their cousins in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, under the
influence of other languages around them, developed their individual modern
versions of the Norse language.

There are only about 300,000 Icelandic speakers in the world, so it's not
something you run across every day.  Every Icelander I've ever met has
spoken very good English, so learning Icelandic wouldn't be particuarly
useful unless you planned to settle there, or work at Katy's Restaurant in
Carmel, California....

-Shel