Icelandic Language: North Germanic language mainly spoken in Iceland
Icelandic is the language spoken by the people of Iceland.
| Icelandic | |
|---|---|
| íslenska | |
| Pronunciation | [is(t)lɛnska] |
| Native to |  Iceland Norway Denmark United States Canada Brazil Sweden Poland Australia Germany Finland |
Native speakers | 320,000 (2011) |
Indo-European
| |
| Latin (Icelandic alphabet) Icelandic Braille | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Iceland Gimli, Canada |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in an advisory capacity |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | is |
| ISO 639-2 | ice (B) isl (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | isl |
| Linguasphere | 52-AAA-aa |
It is a Germanic language. It comes from the Old Norse language, the language spoken by the Vikings. Because Iceland is far away from other countries, the language has not changed much. Icelandic people can still read words from hundreds of years ago.
Icelandic uses four characters that are not used in English: þ (thorn), (like 'th' in thin), ð (edh), (like 'th' in this), æ (pronounced like I) and ö (pronounced like the French U). It can also be said that ð is a "softer" version of þ.
Some linguists say there are only two Nordic languages, Eastern-Nordic and Western-Nordic, which includes Icelandic and Faroese because of their similarity.
Icelandic is also one of the most difficult languages to learn.
References
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