The official language of Iceland is "Icelandic," and most of its residents speak this language. Britannica states, "It belongs (with Norwegian and Faroese) to the West Scandinavian group of North Germanic languages and developed from the Norse speech brought by settlers from western Norway in the 9th and 10th centuries. Old Icelandic, usually called Old Norse, is the language in which the Eddas, sagas, and skaldic poems were written in the Middle Ages". The last paragraph shows us that this language has been around for a very long time. It was very interesting how Icelandic came together from several different languages. In the following paragraphs, I will review a bit about each foreign language and how it came to be (Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia. (2022, September 26).
Old Icelandic, also known as Old Norse, is a language that comes from Germany. From reading the short article, I understand that Old Norse is a language that has been around for the past 673 years. Older generations have cherished this language since it has stayed traditional, and most vocabulary and grammar aspects have stayed the same in the past two hundred years. Most people in Iceland have kept archives collections of these unique written formats, and to most people Icelanders. These scriptures per se mean so much to them and hold so much historical value compared to other scriptures within this region. A great example would be the language of Scandinavian. The Old Norse language is the central part of why all three languages came together in the first place.
The Norwegian language is a language that initially came from Northern Germany. The Norwegian’s written scriptures were established way before Denmark took over, which only lasted until the 15th century. After that, most of the traditional artifactual scripts were removed from the language since Denmark wanted nothing to do with that, and they tried to establish it there. Demark wished to introduce their language, which they called “Dano- Norwegian” As I mentioned before, when Denmark took over Norway, they complained about their language with Denmark, and it lasted for a period which was from 1380 to 1814. I want to add the following quote “All Norwegians learn to read and write New Norwegian, but only about 20 percent use it as their primary written language. It has been cultivated by many excellent authors and has a quality of poetic earthiness that appeals even to nonusers. Its norm has changed considerably since Aasen’s time in the direction of spoken East Norwegian or written Dano-Norwegian” (. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia. (2023, February 1).
The Faroese language can be written the way that I presented and this way as well Føroysk. Like the previous one, this language also comes from Northern Germany, which was also part of a group named West Scandinavians. The Faroese language came from a small island that's nearby Iceland. This small Island's original language was Danish, but over time, they took in Icelandic since most of their residents would travel to Iceland and viscera. "By 1912, Faroese was authorized for use in some schools and churches, and the establishment of home rule in 1948 led to the introduction of Faroese as the primary language taught in the schools." (Danish is now taught beginning in the third grade and English in the fifth.) According to Faroese Language article Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia. (2007, November 14).
I would have to say that lingua franca is something to do with something with language because lingua means tongue in Spanish. This is where it gets tricky. In my first blog post, I mentioned that English was the 2nd known language taught in Iceland, and most of their residents speak English. They know the language very well, and I know I can communicate with them, but after learning that’s their actual language before knowing English. I want to say that I won’t struggle with the English portion, but I would like to learn the Icelandic language. Even though the whole vocabulary and alphabet order is slightly different from ours, I would like to note that they use some similar vowels that we employ in Spanish. An article by an Icelandic magazine says this is the most challenging language compared to any other language out there, and it’s known for being the most challenging language for Americans to learn. I looked up the following words and translated them from English to Icelandic. Hello! à
Halló!, Yes à
já, No
à
Nei, Please à Gerðu það, Thank you. à Takk fyrir, Can you help me? à
Getur þú hjálpað mér?, I
don’t understand à Ég skil ekki, I don’t Speak Icelandic
à Ég tala ekki íslensku and My
name isà Ég heiti
The previous words were challenging to pronounce, and I didn't know what I was saying. It would be essential to learn the basic terms of any language if you are planning to travel to that country. That way, the individual will be able at least communicate and get from point A to point B. I couldn't find a complete paragraph in Icelandic; I could only find short sentences but not paragraphs. I found this website that will be providing the link below.
References:
Britannica, T. Editors of
Encyclopaedia. (2007, November 14). Faroese language. Encyclopædia
Britannica. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Faroese-language
Britannica, T. Editors of
Encyclopedia. (2022, September 26). Icelandic language. Encyclopædia
Britannica. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Icelandic-language
Britannica, T. Editors of
Encyclopedia. (2023, February 1). Norwegian language. Encyclopædia
Britannica. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Norwegian-language
Britannica, T. Editors of
Encyclopedia. (2023, February 23). Old norse language. Encyclopædia
Britannica. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Old-Norse-language
Choose your English to
Icelandic Translation Service. Translate English to Icelandic online |
Translate.com. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.translate.com/english-icelandic
McMahon, S., Kaldal, J.,
Eliason, M., Sigurþórsdóttir, S. K., Staff, Gunnarsson, O. Æ., & Helgason,
M. S. (n.d.). Icelandic rated among the most difficult languages to learn
for English speakers. Icelandmag. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://icelandmag.is/article/icelandic-rated-among-most-difficult-languages-learn-english-speakers#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20Icelandic%20has%20been,%2C%20first%2C%20pronouncing%20the%20words.
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