| Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch
of the Germanic languages.it has
about 300,000 speakers in Iceland,
and there are about 8,165 speakers of Icelandic living in Denmark.
and approximately 3,000 of those are students.
it is also spoken by
about 385 in Canada and 5,112 people in the USA,
The first permanent settlement in Iceland was established by Vikings from Norway and Celts from the British
Isles in 870 AD. The main language
was Old Norse or the Donsk tunga (Danish tongue). A number
of great literary works - the sagas - were written by Icelanders during the 12Th and 13Th centuries. These sagas,
many of which were the work of unknown authors, were written in a language very much like Old Norse. The greatest
known authors from this period were Snorri Sturlson (1179-1241).and Ari the Learned (1068-1148).
From 1262 until the 15Th century, Iceland was governed by Norway, then the Danes took over. During the periods of
Norwegian and Danish rule, Norwegian and Danish were used in Iceland.
In 1944 Iceland gained its independence and Icelandic was revived as an official and literary language. Today there
is a flourishing publishing industry in Iceland and Icelanders are probably the keenest readers and writers in the world. |
