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Icelandic is an Indo-European language and belongs to the North Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Icelandic is further classified as a West Scandinavian language. [8] Icelandic is derived from an earlier language Old Norse, which later became Old Icelandic and currently Modern Icelandic.
Icelandic language, national language of Iceland, spoken by the entire population, some 330,000 in the early 21st century. It belongs (with Norwegian and Faroese) to the West Scandinavian group of North Germanic languages and developed from the Norse speech brought by settlers from western Norway.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Scandinavian languages, group of Germanic languages consisting of modern standard Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Dano-Norwegian and New Norwegian), Icelandic, and Faroese. These languages are usually divided into East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) and West Scandinavian (Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese) groups.
Feb 5, 2022 · In the Nordic region as a whole, there are a total of six main languages spoken: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic, Faroese. There are also several minority languages spoken, such as Sami, Greenlandic, Kven, Karelian, and Meänkieli. Finnish, Sami, Kven, and Karelian are all part of the Uralic languages (of which Estonian, Livonian ...
Icelandic and Norwegian trace their roots back to Old Norse, the language spoken throughout Scandinavia and parts of the British Isles during the Viking Age (circa 793–1066 AD).
The 12th-century Icelandic lawbook Grágás (Grey Goose) states that Icelanders, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians all spoke the same language – called dönsk tunga (Danish tongue) there. It was also called norrænt mál (northern speech). Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian were closely related and formed together what was called Old West Norse.
The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, and the extinct Norn language of Orkney and Shetland; the descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish.
