Believe you me - it doesn't take non-natives to mangle
the language! The Icelanders are perfectly capable of
doing so themselves. And I dare say native English
speakers can mangle their own language more thoroughly
than most ...

Quite seriously, some of the things you see teenagers
write these days are positively frightening. And I'm told
that the latest generation is finding it hard to read
anything written before the 20th century. I've even heard
plans for "translations" of Old Icelandic texts for school
use (shudder) - hope it doesn't happen in my lifetime ...

E.

--- In norse_course@ yahoogroups. com, "llama_nom" <600cell@... > wrote:
>
>
> > Beware the Internet. They don't have grammar police out there ...
>
> I was hoping that the internet might be a better guide to Icelandic
> usage than it is for English, since there presumably aren't as many
> non-natives out there trying to write in Icelandic. Thanks for the
> warning!
>
> LN
>
>
> --- In norse_course@ yahoogroups. com, "Eysteinn Bjornsson"
> <eysteinn@> wrote:
> >
> > --- "llama_nom" <600cell@> wrote:
> >
> > > Þór drepur smiðinn á helgum stað og þannig er hann uppvís um
tvöfaldan
> > > glæp, drepa á helgum stað og svíkja samninginn.
> >
> > This is grammatically very dubious. "Uppvís um" is hardly
> > correct, and the two infinitives complementing "glæp" are
> > barely permissible. Is this composed by a teenager?
> >
> > Technically, "uppvís" is probably not what the writer
> > meant, "sekur" seems more appropriate here (there was
> > no "discovery" involved). "Tvöfaldan glæp" is a bit odd
> > as well. The infinitives are apparently used, because
> > the writer has a limited vocabulary and can't figure
> > out the nouns to use. For example, a slightly improved
> > sentence might go:
> >
> > "Þór drepur smiðinn á helgum stað og þannig er hann sekur um
> > tvo glæpi, dráp á helgum stað og samningsrof. "
> >
> > Beware the Internet. They don't have grammar police out there ...
> >
> > E.
> >
>