This map shows the regions
of the world where Icelandic is commonly spoken (red circle).
Iceland was settled by Norwegian vikings about 874 CE. Icelandic
descends from Old Norse. It is closely related to Norwegian
and Faroese. It is somewhat
more distantly related to Danish
and Swedish. It descends
from the North Germanic sub-branch of the Germanic branch of
Indo-European languages. The forty Icelandic sagas and the Eddas
were written in this language.
| Daniel M. Short originally created this
map and the other Indo-European language charts for his website at http://www.danshort.com/.
I reproduce these images here with the author's permission, but they are
copyrighted by Daniel Short as of 2002. These charts should not be reproduced
or reused without Mr. Short's approval. You may contact him at danshort@gte.net
for more information. These images are not public domain. |