Language

The principal language of Iceland is Icelandic, a highly inflected North Germanic language closely related to Old Norse and Old English. Linguistic purism is strongly supported in Iceland in an attempt to prevent loanwords from entering the language. Instead, neologisms are coined from Icelandic roots, creating compound words to describe new concepts. It is often the case that old words which are no longer used are recycled with a new meaning. It should be noted, however, that some loanwords persist in Icelandic, and many more, the majority Anglicisms, are used in everyday speech.

In terms of etymology, the Icelandic language is the closest to Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Experts claim them to be virtually identical even though the Viking civilisation disappeared about 800 years ago. Today it has two letters of its own, Þ (Th) and ð (d). While most European languages have greatly reduced the extent of inflection, particularly in noun declension, Icelandic retains an inflectional grammar. Today, the closest language still in existence to Icelandic is Faroese. In education, the use of Icelandic Sign Language for the Deaf in Iceland is regulated by the National Curriculum Guide.

Danish and English are widely spoken. Studying both these languages is a mandatory part of the school curriculum. Other commonly spoken languages are Swedish, Norwegian and German. Danish is mostly spoken in a way largely comprehensible to Swedes and Norwegians - it is often referred to as "Scandinavian" in Iceland.