Animadversiones aliqvot & Paulo Fusior præsentis materiæ explanatio

Hugleiðingar um sótt og dauða íslenskunnar

Abstract

In 1759 Jón Ólafsson (1705-1779) wrote an essay about the state of Icelandic and criticized various aspects of the language of his time. In the first half of the essay, Jón discusses foreign words in Icelandic and from where these words have come; one could say that the essay is a kind of experiment, an overview of foreign influence on Icelandic vocabulary. In the second half of the essay, Jón criticizes the negative influence of Danish and aims his criticism at learned men, especially those who know the law, at clergy, and at those who engage in translating foreign languages into Icelandic. In the conclusion, he offers his opinions about what makes a language a living one, concluding that books, especially printed ones, learned men who have compiled dictionaries and written grammars, poets, and, last but not least, priests do that.