The official and national language spoken in Iceland is Icelandic. It is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European family, closely related to Western Norwegian and Faroese, and has changed very little since the island was settled in the 9th and 10th centuries
. Icelandic is spoken by about 314,000 people, essentially the entire population of Iceland, and is recognized by law as the official language since 2011
. In addition to Icelandic, Icelandic Sign Language is also officially recognized as a minority language with constitutional rights, used by the Icelandic deaf community
. While Icelandic is the dominant language, many Icelanders are multilingual. English and Danish (or another Scandinavian language) are mandatory subjects in schools, so a large majority of Icelanders speak English fluently, and Danish is spoken by a smaller minority due to historical ties
. Other immigrant languages such as Polish, Lithuanian, German, Portuguese, and Filipino are also present but spoken by small percentages of the population
. In summary:
- Official language: Icelandic
- Sign language: Icelandic Sign Language
- Widely spoken second languages: English, Danish
- Other minority/immigrant languages: Polish, Lithuanian, German, Portuguese, Filipino, Thai, Latvian
Icelandic remains a linguistically conservative language, intentionally preserved with minimal foreign influence, making it unique among European languages
