The language of Iceland.
Icelandic is derived from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings who came to Iceland from Norway in the 9th century AD. From 1380 to 1918 Iceland was ruled by Denmark; despite this, Icelandic remained virtually uninfluenced.
The Roman alphabet was introduced with Christianity about the year 1000, but the older ð (eth, or voiced th) and þ (thorn, or unvoiced th ) were retained, as were æ and ö. The conventional vowels may also take acute accents: á , é, í, ó, ú , and ý.
Modern Icelandic is still heavily inflected , unlike the other Nordic languages. Linguistic policy (formulated in the 18th century) generally prevents new words bewing formed from foreign borrowings, so that instead of international scientific and technological terms being adopted, compounds of native Icelandic words are used. Old words tend to be revived and new ones are created based on native roots.
| Name | Where spoken | Language Family | How many (000s) |
| Icelandic | Iceland, USA | Indo-European (Germanic) | 230-250 |
Table source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, David Ctystal, Cambridge University Press
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