Idunn E. Høvde and Frida A. Kvarsvik start to laugh. They have never heard of Bjørn Wirkola. The name Brå rings a bell, but they don’t know who he is. – To jump after Wirkola? No, I’ve never heard that before, says Janne Johansen (17), who is a student at Charlottenlund primary school. Because it is not a given that today’s 17-year-olds will remember back to when Toralf Engan had to jump after Bjørn Wirkola in Skuibakken in 1965. Or that Oddvar Brå broke the pole during the men’s relay in the WC in Holmenkollen in 1982. Janne Johansen (17) has no idea who Bjørn Wirkola (80) is. Photo: Trond Odin Myhre Johansen / news – I really like the expression “jumping after Wirkola”, because I do remember Wirkola. But many do not. That’s what author and linguist Helene Uri says. She says she has heard the variation “jumping for arugula”. Uri believes that some people say that in nonsense, but that it is also about our urge to make something known out of something unknown. – Wirkola is, after all, a man who jumped on skis before many of those alive today had even thought of it. But you still want to understand. After all, arugula rhymes with Wirkola. Did you know who Bjørn Wirkola was before you read this case? Linguistic images Everywhere in language we find expressions where young people may not fully understand the reference. Today, very few people “hang up” when they have finished a phone call. The expression still lingers in the language. Hanging up the phone can also mean that someone has expired, i.e. died. That was the definition the journalist got when he visited Charlottenlund upper secondary school. Author and linguist Helene Uri has heard “owls in the bog” turn into “fish in the bog”. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB – I also thought of the expression “to hit the thread”. We still say that when we call someone. – Will we still say these things in the future? – I imagine that hanging up the phone has a fairly good foothold in the people. There is only one thing that will determine whether we continue to say this in the coming generations: that the expressions are used. Skeuomorphism The references to something a little “old” are thus found in the language. Whether it concerns a person, or something we did before. After all, we say that we will call the shots, even though no one does it anymore. These references are also found in the things around us. This is where “skeuomorphism” wins, which is not as advanced and scary as it might sound. Many of the app icons you have on your phone are “skeuomorphs”. It’s really about the app icon illustrating the thing or service that the app is supposed to replace. Illustration: Trond Odin Myhre Johansen / news You press a letter when you want to send an e-mail, an old phone when you want to call and a note when you want to write down a small note. The floppy disk is an icon you often see digitally, but as a young person you have no idea what it is. – Have you seen it in word? An icon similar to that? Idunn and Frida light up. – Yes actually! Such a save button. Illustration: Trond Odin Myhre Johansen / news When referring to the document editing program Word, the floppy disk was no longer so unknown. This is what Idunn E. Høvde and Frida A. Kvarsvik say. Photo: Trond Odin Myhre Johansen / news Running after Ingebrigtsen But do the next generations need to find a new variant of expressions like “jumping after Wirkola”? – I think running after Ingebrigtsen is a very good idea, so we just have to introduce that to the young people. Perhaps Jakob Ingebrigtsen is one of the sports stars who will be remembered long afterwards, because he has become part of the language? And by the way. Jumping after Wirkola means coming after someone who has done very well. Hello! Thank you for reading the matter! Earlier I also wrote a case about how difficult it is for people at the Pole to guess how old someone is. Are you good at guessing people’s ages? Press the link here to test. And if you are young and know expressions that the elderly do not understand, or are one of the elderly and have heard young people use expressions you have not heard: send me an e-mail!
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