 Iceland has been a very isolated and linguistically homogeneous island historically, but has nevertheless been home to several languages. Gaelic was the native language to many of the early Icelanders. Although the Icelandic or Norse language prevails, northern trade routes brought German, English, Dutch, French and Basque to Iceland. Some merchants and clergymen settled in Iceland throughout the centuries, leaving their mark on culture, but linguistically mainly trade, nautical, and religious terms. Excluding these and Latin words, Icelandic has been altered remarkably little since settlement. Icelandic is not only the national language, but is now “the official language in Iceland” by virtue of Act No 61/2011, adopted by parliament in 2011.[1] Icelandic Sign Language was also officially recognised by law in 2011 as a minority language with constitutional rights and the first language of the Icelandic deaf community. During the time of Danish rule, Danish was a minority language in Iceland.[2] Studying English and Danish (or another Scandinavian language) is mandatory for students in compulsory schools[3] and also part of many secondary-level study programmes, so knowledge of the two languages is widespread. Other foreign languages frequently studied include German, Spanish and French. A telephone poll in 2011 indicates that 88% of Icelandic people hear English every day, and 65% hear English more than one hour a day.[4] Temporary visitors and residents often make up a large portion of the population, especially in the capital Reykjavík. See also[edit]
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You’ll notice that this article is titled “What Language Is Spoken In Iceland,” not “Which Languages Are Spoken In Iceland.” That’s because Iceland is by and large a monolingual country, even if most Icelanders can speak multiple other languages beyond their official tongue. The official language of Iceland is Icelandic, which is spoken by at least 300,000 of the 336,000 people who live there (if not more). Iceland has a 100 percent literacy rate, and according to a semi-official source, about 97 percent of Icelanders speak Icelandic as their mother tongue. Secondarily, there are also about 200 deaf people in Iceland as of 2005 (or less than 1 percent of the population). Icelandic Sign Language is another language that’s recognized by law. Insular IcelandicIcelandic is a rather idiosyncratic language, and this is somewhat by design. It’s an insular language, and not just because it developed in geographic isolation from other languages. It has also been intentionally preserved through language purism efforts to keep the language from absorbing foreign influences. Icelandic comes from the Indo-European language family, belonging to the same North Germanic branch as Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. It’s also related to Faroese. However, the similarities end at a distinct point because Icelandic is pretty much the same language that it was when Iceland was settled in the 9th and 10th centuries (which is to say, somewhat similar to the Norwegian of the time). Norwegian eventually went on to absorb characteristics of Swedish and Danish, but Icelandic stayed nearly the same. The linguistic purism movement arose in the 19th century, when Iceland was climbing out from under Danish rule. Iceland won home rule in 1874, and it became sovereign in 1918, at which point its efforts to conserve its independence became fully established. Many borrowed words from Celtic, Danish, Latin and Romance languages were replaced with Icelandic versions. Other Languages Spoken In IcelandWhen it comes to Icelandic, what you see is pretty much what you get. Iceland isn’t a big country, and there aren’t really any distinct dialects of Icelandic, though there are some soft regional differences you might encounter. In Reykjavík, you might hear more soft consonants, for example, as opposed to aspirated stops after a long vowel in the northeast. While just about all Icelanders speak Icelandic, they also tend to be a fairly multilingual bunch. The majority of Icelanders can speak fluent English, in addition to other languages like Danish, German, Spanish and French. That’s because it’s mandatory for students to study English and another Scandinavian language in school. Danish is spoken by enough people to count as a minority language in Iceland, but there are only about 1,000 “true” Danish speakers in Iceland. Interestingly enough, Polish is a significant minority language as well, spoken by 2.71 percent of the population. Other languages you might hear spoken in Iceland include Lithuanian, Portuguese, Filipino, Thai and Latvian. Do people in Iceland also speak English?English is taught as a second language in Iceland and almost every Icelander speaks the language fluently. And more so, most Icelanders speak several other languages including Danish, German, Spanish and French and welcome the opportunity to practice their language skills. Hope to see you soon in Reykjavík.
How many languages do they speak in Iceland?There can only be one Icelandic.
What language is similar to Iceland?A. Icelandic is an Indo-European language, belonging to the group of North Germanic languages, to be specific. This group also includes Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Faroese. Of those languages, Norwegian and Faroese (spoken in the Faroe Islands) are the most closely related to Icelandic.
What English is spoken in Iceland?So – does everyone speak English in Iceland? The simple answer is yes. While not everyone in the country of Iceland speaks fluent English, the majority of Icelandic citizens do.
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What language they speak in iceland
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