The Icelandic and Danish languages, while both belonging to the North Germanic language family, exhibit significant differences due to their unique historical and geographical contexts. Icelandic, spoken by a smaller population, has managed to maintain a connection to its Old Norse roots, whereas Danish has evolved and integrated influences from the European continent.
Showcasing distinctions in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, Icelandic and Danish are generally not mutually intelligible without dedicated language study. However, communication between speakers of these languages is still facilitated by the fact that both countries teach English as a second language, and Icelandic schools also teach Danish as a second language due to historical ties between the two nations.
While the Nordic countries – including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – are often considered a cohesive group, their languages showcase the region’s diversity and historical development. The comparison of Icelandic and Danish serves as a fascinating example of the impact of geography and history on language evolution within the Nordic context.
Historical Context
Origins of Icelandic and Danish Languages
Icelandic and Danish languages belong to the North Germanic language group. Icelandic, which is the national language of Iceland, developed from Old Norse, the language brought by settlers from western Norway during the 9th and 10th centuries. Icelandic is closely related to Norwegian and Faroese, both of which belong to the West Scandinavian group of North Germanic languages.
On the other hand, Danish, the official language of Denmark, is an East Scandinavian language. It has strong similarities with Swedish and Norwegian, which are also East Scandinavian languages. Despite these commonalities, Icelandic and Danish gradually became less mutually intelligible over time, as Icelandic started developing independently from other Scandinavian languages between 1050 and 1350.
Political and Cultural Relationships
Historically, Denmark and Iceland have had a closely intertwined relationship. Iceland was a dependency of Denmark following the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, which broke up Denmark-Norway into two separate kingdoms. Iceland eventually achieved home rule in 1874 and became a fully sovereign state in 1918, while still maintaining a common king with Denmark. However, this political relationship did not prevent the Icelandic language from evolving independently from Danish.
Although the Danish language had some influence on Icelandic, especially during the period when Iceland was under Danish rule, this influence was often seen as interference and something to be avoided and prevented. Today, while the Icelandic and Danish languages continue to diverge, the two countries share a strong cultural bond as part of the Nordic countries, along with Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
Language Features
Phonetics and Phonology
Both Icelandic and Danish are North Germanic languages, but they differ significantly in their phonetics and phonology. Icelandic maintains many phonetic features from Old Norse, including a rich inventory of consonants and distinct vowel qualities, such as nasalization and length. On the other hand, Danish phonology has undergone considerable changes, resulting in a larger number of vowel qualities and a smaller consonant inventory.
Icelandic is characterized by its pre-aspiration, where voiceless consonants are followed by an aspirated sound before vowels or sonorant consonants. Danish does not exhibit pre-aspiration, but it is known for its stød, a phonetic feature that helps distinguish certain words by the way they are pronounced. Stød can be described as a glottal stop or a brief interruption of the vocal cords during speech.
Grammar and Syntax
In terms of grammar and syntax, Icelandic is more conservative and tends to preserve the complex inflectional system of Old Norse. This includes four cases for nouns (nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative), as well as three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Verbs in Icelandic are also conjugated for tense, mood, voice, and person, with a rich array of forms.
Conversely, Danish grammar has been simplified over time, with fewer noun cases and less inflection. There are two noun genders (common and neuter), and verbs are conjugated only for tense and mood. Word order in both Icelandic and Danish tends to be subject-verb-object (SVO), but Icelandic allows for more flexibility due to its inflectional richness.
Vocabulary and Borrowing
The vocabularies of Icelandic and Danish have different levels of borrowing from other languages. Icelandic is known for its linguistic purism, which involves the creation of new words from native roots instead of borrowing foreign words. This approach is visible in many technical and scientific terms, where Icelandic uses neologisms or compounds, whereas Danish often borrows words from other languages, such as English.
Despite these differences, both languages share many cognates and similar lexical items due to their common North Germanic heritage. However, Icelandic vocabulary remains closer to Old Norse, while Danish has undergone greater lexical changes and borrowings, leading to differences in their lexicons.
Language Preservation and Education
Icelandic and Danish languages have a complex history of interaction, which can be observed in their respective preservation efforts and educational policies. This section will address the language preservation in Iceland along with the influence of Danish in Icelandic education.
Icelandic Language Policies
Icelandic language preservation efforts began in the early 19th century when the Icelandic national movement sought to replace older loanwords from Danish and other languages. Today, these efforts continue in the form of the Icelandic Language Council (ILC), whose main task is to cultivate the growth and preservation of Icelandic in both its written and spoken forms.
This linguistic purism is widely upheld in Iceland, and it reflects the dominant language ideology for many Icelanders. Their dedication to ensuring the longevity of Icelandic helps maintain a connection to their culture and heritage, serving as an important aspect of identity and communication for Icelanders.
Danish Language Influence in Education
Despite the idea of linguistic purism of Icelandic, Danish has had a notable influence on Icelandic education. English and Danish are the two most commonly taught foreign languages in Iceland, with 99.6% of students learning English and 96.2% learning Danish at the lower secondary level. Iceland is unique in this regard, as it is the only European country aside from Denmark itself where Danish is taught at such a level.
This widespread teaching of Danish in Icelandic schools may be attributed to a combination of historical ties, trade connections, and the possibility for increased cultural exchange. As such, Danish plays a prominent role in Icelandic education, providing Icelandic students with a broader understanding of the diverse linguistic landscape of the region.
Conclusion
In comparing Icelandic and Danish, it’s crucial to understand their linguistic roots and similarities. Icelandic is an Indo-European language and belongs to the group of North Germanic languages, which include Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Faroese. This historical connection implies a certain level of relatedness between the languages in question.
However, Icelandic and Danish have evolved differently over time. Icelandic has retained a more conservative and synthetic grammatical structure, with a four-case synthetic grammar that is comparable to German. On the other hand, Danish has experienced a reduction in inflection and a simplification of certain grammatical aspects. One notable difference in orthography is that almost every letter in an Icelandic word is pronounced, whereas Danish often omits certain sounds and letters, particularly at the end of words.
Despite these linguistic distinctions, it should be acknowledged that Icelandic and Danish remain part of the larger North Germanic language family, sharing certain vocabulary, phonetic, and grammatical features with each other and other languages in the group. Ultimately, while Icelandic and Danish are distinct languages with their unique characteristics, their shared heritage offers a common connection.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark%E2%80%93Iceland_relations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_purism_in_Icelandic
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Icelandic-language-similar-to-Danish-And-can-people-from-each-nation-understand-each-other?share=1
https://www.britannica.com/place/Nordic-countries
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Icelandic-language
https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/20561/when-did-icelandic-stop-being-mutuality-intelligible-with-continental-north-germ
https://www.medievalists.net/2014/07/old-norse-modern-icelandic/
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2019/09/27/most_icelanders_learn_english_and_danish/