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)[1]
Indo-European
Latin (Icelandic alphabet)
Icelandic Braille
Official status
Official language in
 Iceland
Canada Gimli, Canada
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byÁrni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in an advisory capacity
Language codes
ISO 639-1is
ISO 639-2ice (B)
isl (T)
ISO 639-3isl
Linguasphere52-AAA-aa
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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 change