Does anyone know if people in Iceland use British ways of speaking? I’m reading a book called Reykjavik: A Crime Story and have confirmed that it was translated from the original language into English. The book is set in 1986 with some background taking place 1956. I’m 60% through and have noticed that it sounds exactly like a British novel would sound. It’s not just the words they use (knickers, lorry, etc) but also just the general feel of it is very British. I tried googling it and I’m not getting much information on it.
But it’s really throwing me for a loop.
Has anyone else experienced this with a book set in Iceland? Do they tend to speak like Brits in real life, or is this a translation issue?
by teddybonkerrs
2 Comments
Do you have examples of how it “feels” British? Icelandic is the most beautiful language on the planet and notoriously hard to learn both in difficulty of language for English natives and availability of resources and classes. The Icelandic language book I got is I believe British in origin FWIW.
My guess is the translator was British and was translating it for a British audience.
I read a lot of books in English by authors from non English speaking countries, the translator and who they are translating for has an impact on the words and phrases they use.