Íslenska

Íslenska, or Icelandic, is the official language of Iceland and belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It descends from Old Norse and, owing to Iceland’s isolation and a long tradition of literacy, has preserved many features of medieval Icelandic. The language is highly inflected, with four noun cases and extensive verb conjugation and adjective agreement, which gives it a distinctive grammatical character compared with other modern Scandinavian languages.

Íslenska uses the Icelandic alphabet, which includes the letters þ (thorn), ð (eth), and the characters æ and ö, as well as diacritics such as á, í, ó, ú and ý. The orthography is conservative, with spelling typically reflecting historical pronunciation. The standard written form is used in education, media and government, while regional dialects remain present in speech. Icelandic continues to coin new terms in the language to describe modern concepts, and language resources are maintained by institutions such as the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. The government supports language policy and education to sustain Icelandic vitality. Mutually intelligibility with Norwegian, Danish or Swedish is limited, so Icelandic speakers generally require study to understand speakers of those languages. The language is spoken by virtually all residents of Iceland and by Icelandic communities abroad.