norðurgermanskra

Norðurgermanskra refers to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It encompasses the languages spoken in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, along with their diasporic varieties. The group traces back to Proto-North Germanic, which developed from Proto-Germanic in northern Europe during the early centuries CE. Old Norse, spoken during the Viking Age, evolved into the modern North Germanic languages in the medieval period.

Within the North Germanic branch a common division is into East Nordic and West Nordic. East Nordic consists of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian; West Nordic comprises Icelandic and Faroese. Norwegian is often grouped with Danish and Swedish as East Nordic, though it has its own written standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk.

Orthography and phonology show diversity. All North Germanic languages use the Latin script. Icelandic orthography preserves archaic spellings and letters such as þ and ð, while Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Faroese use the standard Latin alphabet with various diacritics (for example æ, ø, å).

Grammatical complexity varies: Icelandic and Faroese retain significant inflection, with four noun cases and consonant mutations in some paradigms. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have largely reduced inflectional systems, though they retain gender (common/ neuter) and definite suffixes on nouns; verbs show robust but simplified conjugation patterns.

As of today, the North Germanic languages are official in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Together they have around 22 million native speakers. Mutual intelligibility is highest within the East Nordic group (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian) and within the West Nordic pair (Icelandic, Faroese).