Saturday, 12 August 2017

ICELAND AND THE MISSING 'C'


Until today, I didn't know that the Icelandic alphabet does not contain the letter 'c'.  This makes me wonder why they called their island, Iceland, since that name is spelled with a 'c' ! Very peculiar.

So I scratched my head with a finger, wrinkled my nose a few times and then delved into this strange finding.  Lo and behold, we have all made a huge mistake with our atlases and geography books.  We named that rocky outcrop in the north Atlantic, 'Iceland', when, as any 'Icelander' would have told us if we had bothered to ask him, his bleak homeland is actually Island

the surprisingly large 'Island' ( ok, Iceland ) lurking north of the British Isles

The volcanically-challenged island's official name, and the most common one used from a dozen or more alternatives, is ISLAND. Not a 'c' in sight, despite being surrounded by it.

Goodness knows what they ask for to chill their Scotch whiskey; maybe, "Johnnie Walker and IS, my friend ?". Although a grammatical mess, it's the sort of question you'll never tire of hearing should you visit that hospitable country ]


[ Written originally on 27/1/2013, now with aerial view of 'Island' ]