MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • STITCHER • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT
"It's really good if we can get the changes through here - that can be an inspiration for other other countries or other places in the world," says Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir, chair of Samtökin ’78, the national queer organization of Iceland.
In 2019, Iceland passed the Gender Autonomy Act, which added an option for people to register their official gender as X; with it, the country's strictly binary-gendered naming laws were suddenly transformed. Other changes, like a new genderfree pronoun, are catching on; but overhauling a whole grammatically gendered language is no easy undertaking.
Relatedly, listen to Today, Tomorrow part 1 about how Icelandic officially obtains new words, and navigates the challenges of being an old language in the present day; and the episode Name V Law, about the Icelandic Naming Committee and the strict laws before the updates discusssed in this episode.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Genderfree pronouns and grammar come up in No Title, to which I found a SHOCK UPDATE just the other day - read all about it via Twitter/Instagram/Facebook.
About the man named Sigríður.
“Icelandic grammar offers a gender neutral option for personal pronouns. Does that therefore mean that referring to non-binary people is easy and straight-forward? Alas, no.”
Some of the winners of Samtökin ‘78’s neologism contest in 2015.
“We see no easy solution to this complex problem of language, nationalism, and identity.”
A little glossary of queer terms in Icelandic.
Visit theallusionist.org/merch to obtain your Potato Fugue State sweatshirts and multidenominational Wintervalwear.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
deltiologist
deltiologist, noun: a person who collects postcards as a hobby.
CREDITS:
Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir is chair of Samtökin ’78, the national queer organization of Iceland. Find them @samtokin78 on Twitter and Instagram.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com, listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch, and hear more of his composition on the science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.
Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
The Allusionist is an independent podcast. If you’re able and inclined to support the show, head over to patreon.com/allusionist.
