"Love, Lissy"

Yesterday I sent my Danish house guest an email, and signed it "Love, Lissy." I have always liked that this same word in English can have a huge range of meanings, all very context dependent and open to interpretation. Icelandic, on the other hand, like Greek, has three specific verbs that are used in codified contexts. The one I thought was the closest equivalent to English love is "elska", but in fact this has the most selected use, and is only for the deepest relationships. I eventually realized this, and stopped telling my female first cousins "Ég elska þig."

Comments

Iris said…
I remember my Finnish professor who was just amazed by the fact that Germans would say "I LOVE pizza" or "I LOVE chocolate". For her using the word "love" meant deep felt emotions from the heart. I think she was a bit disturbed...
September 11, 2008 at 2:31 AM
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