Minister of Education Illugi Gunnarsson all but promised this week that Icelandic would become usable in communication with smart devices of the future, no matter the cost, RÚV reports. If that isn’t done, he said, we can’t be sure the next generation makes Icelandic its mother tongue.
Grammar Professor Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson and Chairman of the Icelandic Language Technology Fund Hrafn Loftsson, have relentlessly stressed the importance of Icelandic becoming usable when it comes to smart devices. Currently, smart devices, which play an ever larger role in our lives, don’t understand Icelandic. A language, they say, must be able to follow its nation into the world of computers.
Eiríkur and Hrafn were interviewed on news program Kastljós on RÚV Wednesday night where they stressed the urgency of the matter. They said they were not crying wolf, because the danger is real that our language be lost. In their opinion, what happens in the next five years determines the future of the language.
