On top of that, great efforts have been made to keep the language pure over the centuries, to the point that 12th century texts such as the Sagas can be read and understood by modern speakers. Icelandic remains the closest living relative of Faroese, which along with Old Norwegian, form what is known as the Western Scandinavian languages.
Modern Norwegian, once not dissimilar to Icelandic and Old Norse, has been largely influenced over time by Swedish and Danish, due to its geographical location near Eastern Scandinavian.
This was around the time a serious effort was made to preserve the language from being influenced by foreign words, especially Danish. Along with many poems and texts, he wrote the first orthographical dictating the spelling system of a language dictionary for Icelandic. The linguistic purity movement was ignited and continued to gain momentum over the course of the next few centuries. In particular, it was greatly aided by the rise of Romanticism, which help sparked an interest in Norse mythology.
Government regulation of the Icelandic language began in , when Iceland ceased to be under Danish rule. Linguistic purists hope to maintain the structure of Icelandic while developing the vocabulary. Their aim is to keep the language both true to its ancient roots, and useful for modern conversation. As you can imagine, topics of conversation have changed significantly since medieval times and many new words and phrases have since been coined.
Icelanders have been faced with two options — to adopt foreign words as languages such as English and French have done, or develop their own. They have chosen to get creative and coin new expressions, or alternatively revive old words that can be modernised. So the literal definition of a computer in Icelandic is a witch of numbers! The fact that Icelandic has prevailed for as long as it has, standing the test of both time and foreign influence, proves testament to just how important the language is to the overall identity of this small nation.
Despite the movement to keep the Icelandic language pure, Icelanders recognise the merit in learning multiple foreign languages. This is a country that takes after my own heart! Danish is taught due to its ties with Iceland throughout history. English is the second choice, as it is seen as being the main international language. The inhabitants of these countries shared a common language known as Old Norse. When the roaming seamen settled Iceland in AD, they brought their language, customs, and religion with them.
Important meetings in Thingvellir were conducted in Norse. Ancient Icelandic was essentially the same Norse spoken by our Viking forefathers. And the language really hasn't changed or evolved much since then. We are located on a small Nordic island in the North Atlantic Ocean far away from everyone else. This means our language hasn't really had an influx of foreign influences like other countries in mainland Europe. Something quite interesting from a linguistic point of view is that Icelanders can read the Icelandic sagas in their original language.
The most important work in Icelandic literature was written in the Viking mother tongue old Norse. Understanding an ancient language is surprising, because most languages change and evolve significantly over such a long period of time. Old English, for example, was used until the 12th century and is pretty much indecipherable to modern-day English speakers.
Modern Icelandic hasn't strayed too much from the old Norse Viking settlers spoke over a thousand years ago. Icelandic isn't the only language spoken in Iceland. People in Iceland speak English extremely well. In fact, the only people you'll find who don't really speak English are part of the older generation. English has become the global lingua franca, which means many children are required to study it as part of their compulsory schooling.
Iceland is no exception, and English studies are mandatory for students as part of their curriculum. Additionally, TV shows and movies are shown in English with Icelandic subtitles rather than being dubbed. This helps Icelanders not only have a pretty good ear for the language but also have easily understandable accents.
In addition to studying English, children also have to study Danish or another Scandinavian language. German, Spanish, and French are also popular foreign languages to study. And historically, the early period saw Irish clergymen speaking Gaelic and trade merchants speaking Dutch and Basque.
Certain religious, trade, and nautical words as well as Latin have made their linguistic mark on our somewhat insular language. At the beginning of the 19th century, a movement towards linguistic purism began in tandem with the Icelandic national movement for independence. They wanted to purge foreign words, particularly Danish and now Engish , from the vernacular and come up with Icelandic equivalents. These loanwords from other languages are replaced with new ones that have roots in Old Icelandic and Old Norse.
So there you have it. You're now an expert in the history, pronunciation, and use of the Icelandic language. Armed with some basic phrases, nothing can stop you. Get out there and take over the Icelandic-speaking world. Sep 26, Recent Posts See All. Icelandic is the official language of Iceland.
It is an Indo-European language, belonging to the sub-group of North Germanic languages. It is closely related to Norwegian and Faroese, although there are slight traces of Celtic influence in ancient Icelandic literature. Icelandic is an insular language, and as such, has not been influenced greatly by other languages. As a result, the language has changed very little from when the country was settled in the ninth and tenth centuries.
It did not become makedly different from Norwegian until the 14th century, when Norwegian became increasingly influenced by its neighbouring languages, Swedish and Danish.
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