Icelandic language

Icelandic
íslenska
Pronunciation	[is(t)lɛnska]
Native to	Iceland, Norway
Native speakers	320,000  (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic West Scandinavian Icelandic
Writing system	Latin (Icelandic alphabet) Icelandic Braille
Official status
Official language in	Iceland
Regulated by	Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in an advisory capacity
Language codes
ISO 639-1	is
ISO 639-2	ice (B) isl (T)
ISO 639-3	isl
Linguasphere	52-AAA-aa

Icelandic is the language spoken by the people of Iceland.

It is a Germanic language. It comes from the Old Norse language, the language spoken by the Vikings. Because Iceland is far away from other countries, the language has not changed much. Icelandic people can still read words from hundreds of years ago.

Icelandic uses four characters that are not used in English: þ (thorn), (like 'th' in thin), ð (edh), (like 'th' in this), æ (pronounced like I) and ö (pronounced like the French U). It can also be said that ð is a "softer" version of þ.

Some linguists say there are only two Nordic languages, Eastern-Nordic and Western-Nordic, which includes Icelandic and Faroese because of their similarity.

Icelandic is also one of the most difficult languages to learn.