Hi everyone!

I've just realised that I haven't introduced myself yet. So, better late than never:

I'm from Wales originally, though we live in Weybridge, near London, now. Growing up with 2 languages spoken around me must have influenced me deeply, as I've been a professional linguist for the last 15 years (before that I spent years abroad teaching English to support myself while learning various languages). Right at the moment, though, I'm between jobs.

My interest in Icelandic started in my last job, which involved translating the company's web site into the so-called "BIG 4" languages, i.e. German, French, Spanish and Italian. The company web site was also in Swedish and Dutch, so they asked me to learn these languages too. I therefore decided to go deeply into the Germanic languages, looking at their historical forms as well. In "The Time Machine", HG Wells says that time is the fourth dimension, and that's certainly true of language-learning - if you learn about the history of a language or language family, it really gives you another dimension in the fullest sense of the word. And, of course, Icelandic/Old Norse is truly fascinating as it is both an ancient language and a modern language at the same time! So I'm now well and truly hooked on the language!

Cheers,

Simon

PS Incidentally, Welsh has changed relatively little since the sixth century, although the rate of change is slightly faster than the changes undergone by Icelandic over the last thousand years. Certainly, it has speeded up in the last 50 years.