Perceived threats to the future of Icelandic and the importance of language acquisition research

Abstract

Rising public concern regarding the linguistic effects of an increased, digitally mediated English presence in Iceland was one of the factors motivating the research project Modeling the Linguistic Consequences of Digital Language Contact (MoLiCoDiLaCo), in 2016–2019. In public discourse, a causal relationship between digital English input and reduced/incompletely acquired Icelandic had been (and still is) assumed, without scientific evidence. While the MoLiCoDiLaCo project sought to provide evidence for this assumption, the results did not show extensive English input effects on Icelandic linguistic variables. The main results of the project are discussed in the article with reference to a recent shift in the public narrative of perceived threats to the future of Icelandic. The authors show that the focus has in part moved away from digital language contact between English and Icelandic, and toward the rise of English as a lingua franca in the interactions of L1 and L2 speakers of Icelandic. This shift is discussed in terms of recent research on language acquisition, multilingualism, linguistic gatekeeping, and the preservation of globally small languages.