The Icelandic language

The Icelandic language

The Icelandic Language Day is held every year today, 16 November, on the poet and scholar’s Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807-1845) birthday. The aim is to remind people of the importance of the Icelandic language and rejoice and celebrate its history, present and future. The Icelandic Language Day is one of Iceland’s flag days. Icelandic is a West Nordic language and has changed less than other Nordic languages. Icelandic is closely related to Faroese and Norwegian, and unlike other Western European languages, Icelandic has a detailed inflectional system. The inflectional system is almost unchanged from the Viking Age when Norwegians came to Iceland with their Nordic language more than a thousand years ago.

I met this farmer this morning outside the Viking village in Hafnafjörður.

Hafnarfjörður 16/11/2021 09:21 – A7C : FE 2.5/40mm G

Photo and text: Páll Stefánsson