News reports have been flying around over the past 24 hours of increased seismic activity near the South Iceland volcano of Katla.
Newsreaders across the globe are heaving a sigh of relief in advance that, when Katla erupts, they won’t have to torture their tongue with the likes of Grímsvötn, Bárðarbunga or – eek! – Eyjafjallajökull.
‘At least we can all pronounce Katla!’ seems to be the optimistic buzz on social media at the moment. But can you really?
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The word involves a linguistic feature known as pre-aspiration, in this case affecting the consonant group ‘tl’. In simple terms, an ‘h’ sound should be inserted before the ‘tl’ – it’s not (kat-la), but (kaHt-la).
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2016/08/30/how_to_pronounce_the_name_of_iceland_s_latest_volca/Their real test will be the glacier at the volcano:
Considerable seismic activity has continued under Mýrdalsjökull glacier today, after strong quakes – the strongest in decades – in the early hours of this morning.
Following tremors of magnitude 4.5 and 4.6 earlier today, the South Iceland glacier – which covers the mighty Katla volcano – saw another significant quake, of magnitude 3.3, just after 3pm this afternoon, local time, according to Iceland national broadcaster RÚV (link in Icelandic).
“It is not a question of whether Katla will erupt, but when,” warns Kristín Jónsdóttir, Earthquake Hazards Coordinator at the Icelandic Met Office.
“We mustn’t forget that Katla is a very active volcano. Looking back, there have been sixteen known eruptions since Iceland was settled,” she said, speaking on Icelandic radio today.
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature_and_travel/2016/08/29/katla_eruption_not_if_but_when/
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