Research grant of ISK 21 million

A research project under the direction of Finnur Friðriksson, associate professor at the University of Akureyri Faculty of Education, and Ásgrímur Angantýsson, professor at the University of Iceland Faculty of Icelandic and Culture, was recently awarded ISK 21 million in the form of a Rannís research grant. The grant amounts to a total of ISK 65 million for a period of three years.

The aim of this project is to investigate how individuals change their speech habits during their lifetime and how conscious and unconscious attitudes to language affect such linguistic change. Individual current data on the development of phonological variation form the foundation of the research which is anticipated to map the present position of local dialects in Iceland in such a way that the results can be compared to the outcomes of three earlier survey projects of a similar genre.

“We plan to investigate the impact of attitudes on individuals’ internal language with regard to local language customs and try to understand whether and if so, how the pronunciation of individuals alters during their lifetime and at the same time we hope to be able to assess the situation and viability of Icelandic pronunciation dialects,” says Finnur Friðriksson.

The project is divided into two main sections. In the first section, 3000 participants aged 12 to 95 from all over the country will be asked to undergo a pronunciation test, listen to people who speak a different dialect (with a different accent) from the their own and react to this experience as well as responding to a questionnaire focusing on their attitude to their own dialect. In the second section, there will be 300 respondents and, in this part, the main focus will be on people who participated in the RMI project (Research into Modern Icelandic) during the final decade of the 20th century, as well as a group of youths from several dialect areas; this additional component is expected to lay the groundwork for continuing research in this context.

“We are delighted to have been awarded this grant and I look forward to launching the project in question with my colleagues and the doctoral and postgraduate students who will be enrolled in this undertaking and are going to complete their final dissertations within its framework,” says Finnur Friðriksson. Actual data collection regarding the project is expected to commence by the middle of this year, after necessary preparations have been concluded.