Icelandic language

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/icelandic-language

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the estimated speaker population?Approximately 390,000
2. What is the geographic distribution?Primarily Iceland; significant diaspora communities in Denmark, USA, and Canada
3. What is Icelandic?Icelandic is a language spoken mainly in Iceland, about 390,000 people use it, and it is the country's official language.
4. Why does Icelandic sound like an old Viking story?Icelandic has kept many words and grammar from Old Norse, so it sounds very similar to the language used in medieval sagas.

Old Norse: The North Germanic language spoken in Scandinavia and its colonies from about the 8th to the 14th centuries.
Synthetic Language: A language that uses inflection (changes in word endings) to express grammatical relationships.
Neologism: The creation or adoption of new words or expressions.
Inflection: The modification of a word to express grammatical distinctions such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and case.