Wikibooks: Icelandic/Introduction

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Faroe Islands; Iceland
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Icelandic/Introduction

Icelandic contents Inngangur Introduction Welcome to the world of Wikibooks language guide in learning the Icelandic language. You are here either because you have an interest in learning this wonderful ancient and modern language you are either Icelandic or have Icelandic blood you have a passion for Scandinavian or Nordic languages you are connected somehow to Iceland you want to fully grasp the Icelandic sagas in its original language you will take a trip to Iceland soon and want to communicate with the locals or you just want to learn a language for fun. Whatever the reason may be for wanting to learn the language you are here now and we are here to help you learn the language. Velkomin! (Welcome) Icelandic is the mother tongue of about 320 000 people in the world. It is the only official language of the Republic of Iceland. The language has existed for a very long time though called different names (such as Old Norse). Icelandic is one of the most unchanged and purest languages in the world. It is said that a speaker of Icelandic would be able to talk with a Viking hundreds of years ago without much difficulty. A speaker of Icelandic can also read the sagas without much difficulty either. The Icelandic language belongs to the Western Scandinavian language group along with [[Faroese]] the language of the Faroe Islands. It is possible to see many connections between the other Scandinavian languages too such as [[Norwegian]] [[Danish]] and [[Swedish]]. If you are familiar with any other Scandinavian language learning Icelandic shouldn t be a problem for you. The most difficult aspect to grasp in Icelandic would be the complex grammar. There is a case system like in [[German]] and [[Latin]] that might frustrate English speakers or those who are not familiar with grammatical cases. This means that words will change form or have endings depending on what function of the sentence they have. Even names will change. If you have studied Latin before you might be able to see some similarities between the grammar ...