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Icelandic Language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Iceland. It is considered one of the most conservative of the Germanic languages due to its retention of inflectional grammar like four cases, similar to but more complex than German. Its similarities to Old Norse allow modern Icelanders to read medieval Icelandic literature. The majority of Icelandic speakers live in Iceland, with smaller communities in Denmark, the United States, and Canada, especially in Gimli, Manitoba which was settled by Icelanders in the 1880s. Government organizations work to preserve Icelandic manuscripts and language.

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81 views2 pages

Icelandic Language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Iceland. It is considered one of the most conservative of the Germanic languages due to its retention of inflectional grammar like four cases, similar to but more complex than German. Its similarities to Old Norse allow modern Icelanders to read medieval Icelandic literature. The majority of Icelandic speakers live in Iceland, with smaller communities in Denmark, the United States, and Canada, especially in Gimli, Manitoba which was settled by Icelanders in the 1880s. Government organizations work to preserve Icelandic manuscripts and language.

Uploaded by

Nicholas Peck
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Icelandic language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia!

Icelandic i/aslndk/ ( slenska(helpinfo)) is a North Germanic language,


the language of Iceland. It is an Indo-European language belonging to the
North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it
was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the
colonisation of the Americas. Icelandic, Faroese, Norn, and Western
Norwegian formerly constituted West Nordic; Danish, Eastern Norwegian and
Swedish constituted East Nordic. Modern Norwegian Bokml is influenced by
both groups, leading the Nordic languages to be divided into mainland
Scandinavian languages and Insular Nordic (including Icelandic).!
Most Western European languages have greatly reduced levels of inflection,
particularly noun declension. In contrast, Icelandic retains a four-case
synthetic grammar comparable to, but considerably more conservative and
synthetic than German. By virtue of its being in the Germanic family, which as
a whole reduced the Indo-European case system, it is inappropriate to
compare the grammar of Icelandic to that of the more conservative Baltic,
Slavic, and Indic languages of the Indo-European family, many of which retain
six or more cases, except to note that Icelandic utilises a wide assortment of
irregular declensions. Icelandic also possesses many instances of oblique
cases without any governing word, as does Latin. For example, many of the
various Latin ablatives have a corresponding Icelandic dative. The
conservatism of the Icelandic language and its resultant near-isomorphism to
Old Norse (which is equivalently termed Old Icelandic by linguists) means
that modern Icelanders can easily read the Eddas, sagas, and other classic
Old Norse literary works created in the tenth through thirteenth centuries.!
The vast majority of Icelandic speakersabout 320,000live in Iceland.
There are over 8,000 speakers of Icelandic living in Denmark,[3] of whom
approximately 3,000 are students.[4] The language is also spoken by some
5,000 people in the US[5] and by over 1,400 people in Canada,[6] with the
largest group living in Manitoba, notably Gimli (Gimli being an Old Norse word
for 'heaven'). While 97% of the population of Iceland consider Icelandic their
mother tongue,[7] the language is in decline in some communities outside
Iceland, particularly in Canada. Icelandic speakers outside Iceland represent
recent emigration in almost all cases except Gimli, which was settled from the
1880s onwards.!
The state-funded rni Magnsson Institute for Icelandic Studies serves as a
centre for preserving the medieval Icelandic manuscripts and studying the
language and its literature. The Icelandic Language Council, comprising
representatives of universities, the arts, journalists, teachers, and the Ministry
of Culture, Science and Education, advises the authorities on language

policy. Since 1995, on November 16 each year, the birthday of 19th-century


poet Jnas Hallgrmsson is celebrated as Icelandic Language Day.

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