What language do Icelanders speak?

The official language of Icelanders is Icelandic, the official language of Iceland, which belongs to the northern branch of the Indo-European, Germanic language family (also known as the Scandinavian branch).

The ancestors of Icelanders were immigrants from western Norway in the 9th to 10th centuries. Due to Iceland's distance from the European continent, Icelandic has always maintained the characteristics of the western dialect of ancient Norwegian, and its vocabulary has rarely been influenced by foreign languages.

Some linguists call it one of the "most conservative" languages in Europe. Icelandic has absorbed words from Danish, Celtic, Latin and Romance languages, but after the 19th century these foreign words gave way to Icelandic words as a result of the purist movement.

Extended information:

Icelandic cultural traditions:

1. Religion

Eighty-five percent of the population of Iceland is affiliated with the Christian Lutheran Church.

2. Art

Iceland's best-known classical literature is the "Icelandic Sagas", a kind of prose epic written during the time when people began to settle in Iceland, which consisted mainly of heroic stories and family sagas. The most famous of these are the Brennu-Njáls saga, the Njáls saga, and Grænlendinga and Eiríks, which describes the discovery and colonization of Greenland and Finland.

3. Customs

Icelanders are friendly and straightforward with foreigners. Icelanders usually greet each other, including friends and strangers, by their first names, and sometimes make a face-to-face salute on welcome occasions. Icelanders have a strong sense of time, and Icelanders generally need to make an appointment before meeting. It is more common in Iceland than in other countries to invite guests to your home rather than to a restaurant. Icelandic law allows gays and lesbians to register as couples.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Iceland