Icelandic is a North Germanic language. It is most closely related to Faeroese. However, Iceland was once part of Denmark, and Danish is taught in Icelandic schools. Unlike Danish, however, Icelandic has fewer loanwords. Here is a list of ten of ten words to illustrate:
(culture) kultur menningu
(elephant) elefant fíl
(geography) geografi landafræði
(literature) litteratur bókmenntir
(museum) museum safn
(organization) organisation skipulag
(radio) radio útvarp
(restaurant) restaurant veitingahús
(robot) robot vélmenni
(telephone) telefon sími
The Danish words are similar to their English equivalents. However, the Icelandic words are not. In the Icelandic words for geography, literature and restaurant, we see the words for land, book and house.
Unlike many languages, Icelandic often uses native words rather than loanwords. In the list, it is clear that the Danish vocabulary is similar to that of many other languages. This is not the case with Icelandic. The policy of discouraging new loanwords from entering the Icelandic language is known as linguistic purism.
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