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Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. It is an Indo-European language belonging to the North
Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior
to the colonisation of the Americas. Icelandic, Faroese, Norn, and Norwegian formerly comprised West Nordic; Danish and Swedish
comprised East Nordic. The Nordic languages are now divided into Insular Nordic and mainland Scandinavian languages, as Norwegian
Bokmål became influenced by the latter two languages. Most Western European languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, Italian,
French, etc. ) have greatly reduced levels of inflection, particularly noun declension. In contrast, Icelandic retains a four-case
synthetic grammar comparable to, but considerably more conservative and synthetic than, German. It is inappropriate to compare
the grammar of Icelandic to that of the more conservative Baltic, Slavic, and Indic languages of the Indo-European family,
many of which retain six or more cases, except to note that Icelandic utilises a wide assortment of irregular declensions.
Icelandic also possesses many instances of oblique cases without any governing word, as does Latin. For example, many of the
various Latin ablatives have a corresponding Icelandic dative. However, despite its arguable baggage, the remarkable conservatism
of the Icelandic language and its resultant near-isomorphism to Old Norse (which is equivalently termed Old Icelandic by linguists)
means that, to their delight, modern Icelanders can easily read the Eddas, sagas, and other classic Old Norse literary works
created in the tenth through thirteenth centuries. The vast majority of Icelandic speakers—about 320,000—live in Iceland.
There are about 8,165 speakers of Icelandic living in Denmark, of whom approximately 3,000 are students. The language is also
spoken by 5,112 people in the USA and by 2,170 in Canada, indeed, the word 'Gimli' is itself the Icelandic for 'heaven'. 97%
of the population of Iceland consider Icelandic their mother tongue, but in some communities outside Iceland the use of the
language is declining. Icelandic speakers outside Iceland represent recent emigration in almost all cases except Gimli, which
was settled from the 1880s onwards. The state-funded Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies serves as a centre for
preserving the medieval Icelandic manuscripts and studying the language and its literature. The Icelandic Language Council,
comprising representatives of universities, the arts, journalists, teachers, and the Ministry of Culture, Science and Education,
advises the authorities on language policy. Since 1995, on November 16 each year, the birthday of 19th century poet Jónas
Hallgrímsson is celebrated as Icelandic Language Day. |
Names (more)[af] Yslands[am] አይስላንድኛ [ar] الأيسلاندية [an] Idioma islandés [az] İsland dili [be] Ісландская мова [bn] আইসল্যান্ডীয় ভাষা [bs] Islandski jezik [br] Islandeg [bg] Исландски език [ca] Islandès [cs] Islandština [ce] Iselandhoyn mott [cv] Исланд чĕлхи [kw] Islandek [co] Lingua islandesa [cy] Islandeg [da] Islandsk [de] Isländisch [dz] ཨ་ཡིས་ལེན་ཌིཀ་ཁ [el] Ισλανδικά [en] Icelandic language [eo] Islanda lingvo [et] Islandi keel [eu] Islandiera [ee] icelanɖgbe [fo] Íslendskt mál [fa] آیسلندی [fi] Islannin kieli [fr] Islandais [fy] Yslânsk [gd] Innis-Tìlis [ga] An Íoslainnis [gl] Lingua islandesa [gv] Eeslynnish [gu] આઇસલેન્ડિક [ha] Yaren mutanen Iceland [sh] Islandski jezik [he] איסלנדית [hi] आइसलैण्डिक भाषा [hr] Islandski jezik [hu] Izlandi nyelv [hy] Իսլանդերեն [io] Islandana linguo [ia] islandese [id] Bahasa Islan [is] Íslenska [it] Lingua islandese [ja] アイスランド語 [kl] Islandimiusut [kn] ಐಸ್ಲಾಂಡಿಕ್ [ks] آیِسلینڈِک [ka] ისლანდიური ენა [kk] Исланд тілі [km] ភាសាអាយឡែន [rw] Igisilande [ky] исландча [kv] Исленска кыв [ko] 아이슬란드어 [lo] ອິສລັງ [la] Lingua Islandica [lv] Īslandiešu valoda [li] Ieslandjs [lt] Islandų kalba [lb] Islännesch [ml] ഐസ്ലാൻഡിക് [mr] आईसलँडिक [mk] Исландски јазик [mt] Iżlandiż [ms] Bahasa Iceland [ne] आइसल्यान्डिक [nl] IJslands [nn] Islandsk [nb] islandsk [no] Islandsk [oc] Islandés [or] ଆଇସଲାଣ୍ଡିକ୍ [om] Ayiislandiffaa [os] Исландиаг æвзаг [pl] Język islandzki [pt] Língua islandesa [ps] أيسلېنډي [qu] Islandya simi [rm] islandais [ro] Limba islandeză [ru] Исландский язык [si] අයිස්ලන්ත [sk] Islandčina [sl] Islandščina [se] Islánddagiella [so] Ayslandays [st] Se-iceland [es] Idioma islandés [sq] Gjuha islandeze [sr] Исландски језик [sv] Isländska [ta] இசுலேன்சுக மொழி [tt] Исланд теле [te] ఐస్లాండిక్ [tg] Забони исландӣ [th] ภาษาไอซ์แลนด์ [ti] አይስላንደኛ [to] lea fakaʻaisilani [tn] Icelandic [ts] hi xi Iceland [tr] İzlandaca [ug] ئىسلاندىيە تىلى [uk] Ісландська мова [ur] آئس لینڈ کا باشندہ [vi] Tiếng Ai-xơ-len [xh] Isi-Icelandic [yo] Èdè Icelandic [zh] 冰岛语 [zu] isi-Icelandic |
Language type :
Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Icelandic. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-1 : isISO 639-2B : ice ISO 639-2T : isl ISO 639-3 : isl Linked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/islhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:isl http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-1/is http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/ice More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: islFreebase ISO 639-3 : isl GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |