Icelandic language

Icelandic is the language spoken by the people of Iceland.

Icelandic
íslenskacode: is is deprecated
Pronunciation	[is(t)lɛnska]
Native to	Iceland Norway Denmark United States Canada Brazil Sweden Poland Australia Germany Finland
Native speakers	320,000  (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic West Scandinavian Icelandic
Writing system	Latin (Icelandic alphabet) Icelandic Braille
Official status
Official language in	Iceland Gimli, Canada
Recognised minority language in	Canada Denmark Norway United States
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.

Icelandic Language Media

• LandnamabokManuscriptPage.jpg

  A page from the Landnámabókcode: is is deprecated , an early Icelandic manuscript

• Icelandic vowel chart.svg

  Vowel chart of the 8 monophthongs

• Icelandic Text Extract.jpg

  Photograph taken from page 176 of Colloquial Icelandic

• Icelandic Patronyms.svg

  A simple family tree showing the Icelandic patronymic naming system.

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  Eyjafjallajökullcode: is is deprecated , one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, situated to the north of Skógarcode: is is deprecated and to the west of Mýrdalsjökullcode: is is deprecated , is Icelandic for "glacier of Eyjafjöllcode: is is deprecated ", in turn "glacier of island mountains".