If the only word for computer in your language is “computer,” what might you call it instead? 🖥️ 

Hey Y’all ✋→🌊,

There was a similar challenge faced by Sigurður Nordal, an Icelandic scholar who coined the name for the first computer in Iceland, which was acquired by the University of Iceland in 1964. Iceland has held a strong and committed tradition of coining native words in order to preserve the language and the culture of Iceland. This tradition is matched by concerted effort and is held as the reason why Icelandic is one of the few modern languages where readers can still understand ancient scripts.

In case you missed it: This week we released two open data sets. The corpus 📊 opened Monday, gathering all renderings and examples of core vocabulary across natural and programming languages. The Canon ⚖️ followed Wednesday, and is meant to be a centralized standard list of terms that reflects decisions made by native speakers. This then may become a reference to be used downstream by projects such as Legesher, promoting greater collaboration and integration with the rest of the world. Everything in the canon begins as “experimental” as it enters the review process by native speakers. Subscribe to learn more about how you can be a part of this with more information coming next week!

Nordal constructed the word “tölva” which combines the established Icelandic word for number (tala) with a Norse mythological prophet-like figure (völva). The result translates roughly to “prophetess of numbers” or “number oracle,” which is quite a good description for a machine that was built to do calculation at mind-bending speeds.

Today, there is an official mechanism for the creation and propagation of Icelandic words for things such as technological developments. Iceland as a country has a collective devotion to “málrækt” (linguistic cultivation), and this devotion is matched by institutions, systems, and processes all devoted to the preservation of the Icelandic language.

This is the perfect, real-life example of how what we released this week at Legesher can serve entire language communities and technological ecosystems in ways beyond simply the use of Legesher for programming.

Iceland already has a term bank (Íðorðabankinn) for Icelandic words. They have a team of folks devoted to refining and creating words that hold both cultural significance and modern relevance. Iceland even has Almannarómur, a government-funded language technology center, which builds out technology using Icelandic vocabulary. Interestingly enough, even with all of this infrastructure, programming vocabulary’s reserved words remain in English.

We imagine that Legesher can take the framework of what has already been accomplished by linguists in Iceland and provide the necessary processes and ease of application so that the curated words find their way into everyday life.

Further, with regard to coined words vs usage, there was a recent survey (Tinna Frímann Jökulsdóttir et al., 2019) that studied how Icelanders actually use their language when describing technology. It was found (in my own words) that younger generations tend to use more borrowed words to describe technologies that arrived swiftly to the world. For example, the English word “hashtag” #️⃣ is more likely to be used by Gen Z than, say, millennials.

Perhaps Legesher is the missing link to take the efforts of these official processes and allow future generations to not just be familiar with them but to really use these words in their daily life by integrating them into modern tech usage. I wonder what effect on language preservation might be seen once software engineers in Iceland, who currently can discuss and learn programming in Icelandic, are able to code in their language, and finally remove the English artifacts that so often find their way into human & tech interactions around the world.

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It’s my hope that the words that emerge from our datasets and review processes carry the same durability, usability, and creativity that “tölva” has had in Icelandic.

all the best,
Josh