Alphabet Soup: From Alpha to Ö with Marc Daníel Skipstað Volhardt, University of Iceland

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

November 18, 19, 20, 2025

After last year’s successful crash course in Icelandic, Marc has returned with more linguistic tricks up his sleeve! Take a  three-night journey into the written word. From the ancient Greek alphabet to the elegant letters of Latin, Cyrillic, and more, we’ll uncover how Europe’s writing systems evolved, why they look the way they do today, and how they are used across the continent. Along the way, you’ll learn how to pronounce names and cities, and spot the hidden histories in everyday words and letters. Designed for curious minds—no language background needed. 6:00 p.m,- 8:00 p.m., A. B. Ceder Room and Microsoft Teams. Members: $30.00,  Non-Members: $50.00,  Pre-registration is required.

Register online: Alphabet Soup Registration

A link to Microsoft Teams will accompany your registration.

About Marc: Marc Daníel Skipstað Volhardt, is a Danish/Icelandic hybrid both linguistically and personally who has lived the first half of his life in Denmark and the second half in Iceland, and a few other places across the Nordics. Volhardt is a linguist and works for the University of Iceland teaching Icelandic as a second language as well as general and Scandinavian linguistics. Marc has studied abroad at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark as well as the University of Tromsø in Northern Norway. He has done fieldwork on the Otomí language of Central Mexico and has created a written standard for a Western Danish dialect. The most important thing for him is to share his passion for language whether it be in the classroom, on TV, in podcasts, or through adding it to personal Facebook photo posts.