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Today, there are around 340,000 speakers of Icelandic in Iceland. The language is unique in that it is one of the smallest 鈥渘ation-state鈥� languages in the world. Icelandic is used at all levels of society: in government, education, commerce and everyday life.

Because of its small number of speakers, Icelandic has long been considered under threat of extinction from other languages: originally Danish owing to Iceland鈥檚 former status as a Danish colony, but these days English. Alarmists often overplay the possibility of Icelandic dying out 鈥� most probably because their language is Icelanders鈥� most tangible evidence of their distinct cultural heritage and national identity.

Let鈥檚 find out more about what exactly it is that makes this language so special.

1. Icelanders coin their own words

One of the most distinctive features of Icelandic compared to its mainland cousins is its strong tradition of聽尘谩濒谤忙办迟听or 鈥渓anguage cultivation鈥�. This semi-official policy, which finds its roots in the Icelandic nationalist movement, means that Icelandic usually creates its own words for foreign concepts rather than importing a loanword.

Oft-cited examples include聽迟枚濒惫补听鈥渃omputer鈥�, which is a blend of聽迟补濒补听鈥渘umber鈥� 补苍诲听惫枚濒惫补听鈥渟eeress鈥�, 补苍诲听蝉铆尘颈听鈥渢elephone鈥�, a revival of a disused word that meant 鈥渢hread鈥�. These words have themselves spawned neologisms as new concepts emerged:聽spjald迟枚濒惫补听鈥渢ablet computer鈥� is a compound with聽蝉辫箩补濒诲-听鈥渢ablet, card鈥�, for example, while聽snjall蝉铆尘颈听鈥渟martphone鈥� adds the prefix聽蝉苍箩补濒濒-听鈥渟mart, clever鈥� to聽蝉铆尘颈.

If these words are considered by Icelanders to be functional enough, then they often enter into widespread use. There have been many well-meaning suggestions that have fallen by the wayside, though. One word where the jury鈥檚 still out is聽蹿濒测驳颈濒诲颈听鈥渄rone鈥�, made up of the prefix聽flyg-聽鈥渇light鈥� 补苍诲听-ildi, an ending analogical with聽蹿颈冒谤颈濒诲颈听鈥渂utterfly鈥�. For now, it seems most Icelanders just say聽诲谤贸苍颈.

2. The alphabet is unique

No other language in the world shares Icelandic鈥檚 unique collection of unusual letters. Unique to Icelandic is聽脼 镁, or聽thorn, often confused with聽P p聽by non-Icelandic speakers. This letter represents an unvoiced 鈥渢h鈥� sound, as in聽bath.

Its counterpart is eth, written聽脨 冒, which represents a voiced 鈥渢h鈥� sound, as in聽bathe. This letter is also used in Faroese, although it doesn鈥檛 represent one particular sound there, and in Elfdalian (a highly conservative Swedish dialect).

Other Icelandic letters include聽脝 忙听补苍诲听脰 枚聽and a full range of accented vowels which represent various different sounds:聽脕 谩,听脡 茅,听脥 铆,听脫 贸,听脷 煤听补苍诲听脻 媒.

3. It has a lot of 鈥済rammar鈥�

Another stand-out feature of Icelandic is its complex grammar. What most people mean by this is a complex聽morphology, i.e. lots of word endings. Icelandic verbs conjugate for person, number, tense and mood (if you studied French at school, then bad memories of learning the subjunctive may come flooding back). There is also a middle voice in addition to the more familiar active and passive.

Nouns and adjectives are no walk in the park either. Nouns are declined in four cases: the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive (e.g.聽丑别蝉迟耻谤听鈥渉orse鈥� has three additional forms:聽hest,听丑别蝉迟颈听补苍诲听hests), as well as for number and definiteness. Adjectives also decline in these four cases, as well as for definiteness and gender.

This is probably the hardest aspect of the language to grasp for English and Scandinavian speakers, although if your native language is Finnish, Polish or Russian, for example, you鈥檒l have a head start.

4. It has a fantastic literary heritage

The language is truly the jewel in the Icelandic cultural heritage crown. The relative isolation of Icelandic means that medieval Icelandic sagas or聽脥蝉濒别苍诲颈苍驳补蝉枚驳耻谤听are easily accessible to almost any native speaker, although Icelanders鈥� ability to fully comprehend the sagas as they were written without any formal training is often slightly exaggerated.

The rich literary heritage of the sagas has been kept alive over the centuries. Icelanders have always been great wordsmiths: what they lack in classical architecture they make up for in the written word. This small nation still publishes over a thousand books a year, spanning all genres from crime fiction to poetry to recipe books and translations of foreign bestsellers.

Technology is leaving Icelandic behind

One of the greatest existential threats to Icelandic is, and always has been, the advent of new technology. The language has proven to be surprisingly resilient: an official committee comes up with names for new car parts, to name but one example.

However, the pace of innovation and change today is starting to overtake that of Icelanders鈥� ability to preserve their language. Consumption of English-language media, both new and old, is just as widespread as in the other Nordic countries, if not more so.

Compared to their Nordic cousins, Icelanders are at a disadvantage in that a lot of widely-used operating systems, software and services are not available in their language, let alone voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Things have improved slightly in this regard in recent years, however.

The Icelandic government is taking steps to rectify the issue through its Icelandic Language Technology Fund, although it is yet to be seen what lasting impact this will have on the status of the language. The fact remains that a lot needs to be done to ensure this warm language thrives and survives for future generations.