"It's really good if we can get the changes through here - that can be an inspiration for other other countries or other places in the world," says Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir, chair of Samtökin ’78, the national queer organization of Iceland. In 2019, Iceland passed the Gender Autonomy Act, which added an option for people to register their official gender as X; with it, the country's strictly binary-gendered naming laws were suddenly transformed. Other changes, like a new genderfree pronoun, are catching on; but overhauling a whole grammatically gendered language is no easy undertaking.

Find out more about the topics covered in this episode, and a transcript, at theallusionist.org/todaytomorrow2; and browse down your podfeed to listen to Today, Tomorrow part 1 about how Icelandic officially obtains new words, and navigates the challenges of being an old language in the present day; and the episode Name V Law, about the Icelandic Naming Committee and the strict laws before the updates discusssed in this episode.

Sign up to be a patron at patreon.com/allusionist and as well as supporting the show, you get behind the scenes glimpses, bonus etymologies, a trip around Iceland's museums via me, AND a delightful community of Teamlusionists!

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow and instagram.com/allusionistshow. 

Visit theallusionist.org/merch to obtain your Potato Fugue State sweatshirts and multidenominational Wintervalwear.

The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs at palebirdmusic.com or search for Pale Bird on Bandcamp and Spotify, and he’s @martinaustwick on Twitter and Instagram. 

"It's really good if we can get the changes through here - that can be an inspiration for other other countries or other places in the world," says Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir, chair of <a href="https://samtokin78.is/english/">Samtökin ’78</a>, the national queer organization of Iceland. In 2019, Iceland passed the Gender Autonomy Act, which added an option for people to register their official gender as X; with it, the country's strictly binary-gendered naming laws were suddenly transformed. Other changes, like a new genderfree pronoun, are catching on; but overhauling a whole grammatically gendered language is no easy undertaking.
Find out more about the topics covered in this episode, and a transcript, at <a href="theallusionist.org/todaytomorrow2">theallusionist.org/todaytomorrow2</a>; and browse down your podfeed to listen to <a href="theallusionist.org/todaytomorrow1">Today, Tomorrow part 1</a> about how Icelandic officially obtains new words, and navigates the challenges of being an old language in the present day; and the episode <a href="theallusionist.org/icelandic-names">Name V Law</a>, about the Icelandic Naming Committee and the strict laws before the updates discusssed in this episode.
Sign up to be a patron at <a href="http://patreon.com/allusionist">patreon.com/allusionist</a> and as well as supporting the show, you get behind the scenes glimpses, bonus etymologies, a trip around Iceland's museums via me, AND a delightful community of Teamlusionists!
The Allusionist's online home is <a href="http://theallusionist.org/">theallusionist.org</a>. Stay in touch at <a href="http://twitter.com/allusionistshow">twitter.com/allusionistshow</a>, <a href="http://facebook.com/allusionistshow">facebook.com/allusionistshow</a> and <a href="http://instagram.com/allusionistshow">instagram.com/allusionistshow</a>. 
Visit <a href="https://theallusionist.squarespace.com/allusionist/theallusionist.org/merch">theallusionist.org/merch</a> to obtain your <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/mistletoe">Potato Fugue State</a> sweatshirts and multidenominational <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org/winterval">Winterval</a>wear.
The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs at <a href="http://palebirdmusic.com">palebirdmusic.com </a>or search for Pale Bird on Bandcamp and Spotify, and he’s @martinaustwick on Twitter and Instagram.

Adventures in language with Helen Zaltzman. TheAllusionist.org

Adventures in language with Helen Zaltzman

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