Scandinavian

Scandinavian, or North Germanic, began as Proto-Norse, from which came Old Norse, the common language of the Viking Age. Norse settlers carried it to Iceland and the Faroes around 800 and, as Norn, to Orkney and Shetland.

Medieval speakers still called it the Danish tongue, and it was written in the Latin alphabet in manuscripts holding the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda and the Icelandic sagas. West and East Norse gradually diverged, giving Norwegian and Icelandic on one side and Danish and Swedish on the other.

The Reformation brought printed Bible translations, while political unions, from the Swedish break with the Kalmar Union in 1523 to the end of Denmark–Norway in 1814, sharpened the separate standards. Norn died out around 1700, while Icelandic kept closest to the ancient tongue.