Language

One of the tour guides in Reykjavik told me that Icelandic is a very old language.  By looking at labels on products I can see that it's similar to Norwegian and Swedish so imagine my surprise when the 3 men at the next table, an Icelandic, a Norwegian and a Swedish man, were communicating in English.  English is learned as a second language in Iceland so everybody speaks it rather well.

This is Teodor from Iceland, Erik from Norway, and Gunner from Sweden at the Gamli Bauker Restaurant in Husavik Harbor, photo below.

Here's my understanding of how it went based on speaking with both the tour guide and Teodor.

Iceland was settled in the 800's by Vikings from now Norway who spoke in a Germanic tongue (the root of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Germany and even English.  Europe at that time was primarily writing their history in Latin while the illiterate masses developed their own tongues to communicate within their isolated communities, which in turn developed into different languages.  However in Iceland they wrote their history through sagas (an English word that comes from Icelandic) in that original language, as well as their laws.  They were taught to write by Celtic scribes.  That along with extreme isolation meant the language has pretty much remained the same throughout the years. So Icelandic is closest to the original language from which developed all Germanic languages.

During the Danish conquest, they learned to speak Danish as well, still do today.  However following their independence from Denmark in 1944, they formed a committee to "purify" the language for lack of a better term.  It's a language police in Iceland just like we have in Quebec.  The universities teach the old Icelandic and they learn the sagas in school.

The committee comes up with new words as per modern things such as a telephone or automobile for example.