- Iceland 24 - Iceland Travel and Info Guide : History of the Icelandic Language

- Iceland 24 - Iceland Travel and Info Guide : History of the Icelandic Language: We’ll be the first ones to admit it. The Icelandic language is not one of the bigger, more popular languages like English, Spanish or French...

Credit: Baltic Media

What makes the Icelandic language special
Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean situated just below the Arctic Circle. When you look at Iceland on a map, it seems pretty lonely. But this isolation did have a linguistic benefit. Iceland’s location prevented its language from being too diluted or influenced by languages of nearby countries. As a result, Icelandic is the North Germanic language that most closely resembles the Old Norse spoken over a thousand years ago. The Viking Sagas and Eddas written around 800 years ago can still be read today because the language really has not changed that much. Not even English can say that!