Overview
About Islenska
Origins and change
Icelandic developed from the Norse speech brought to Iceland during settlement. It belongs to the North Germanic language family, alongside Faroese, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. The earliest surviving Icelandic writing dates from the twelfth century. Many older grammatical patterns remain recognizable, but the language has changed: pronunciation has developed substantially, and vocabulary has expanded with new technologies, occupations and contacts. Calling Icelandic unchanged since the Viking Age overlooks this history.
Making words for a changing world
Language cultivation has often favoured building new terms from existing Icelandic elements. Familiar examples include sjónvarp for television and tölva for computer. This practice became especially prominent alongside the nineteenth-century independence movement, when language helped express a distinct national identity. Borrowing has nevertheless always been part of Icelandic: Christianity, Danish administration and later international contact each brought outside vocabulary. Preservation and innovation therefore belong to the same continuing language history.
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