Icelandic

The roots of the Icelandic language can be traced back to around 9th century Scandinavia and, in particular, the Viking settlement in what is now considered Iceland. These Viking settlers brought Old Norse to the region, and the isolation of the region from other Nordic communities would lead this version of Old Norse to diverge from versions in Nordic regions. More specifically, mainland counterparts would begin to shift and evolve, while Icelandic Norse would remain relatively unchanged.

This isolated language would eventually evolve into Icelandic proper, and the 19th century would see standardization efforts across grammar and spelling. The language and the culture around the language would remain conservative into the modern day, as efforts are made to resist influence from other languages like English. Some international vocabulary has been absorbed, but efforts are generally made to introduce new Icelandic-based words rather than bothering from other languages.

Translation can be quite a tricky practice for a variety of reasons, perhaps the most important of these being the reality that languages aren’t just the same linguistic structure with different words. Languages form from their own contexts and their own populations to describe specific phenomena. This means that, not only might one concept in one language be difficult to describe in another language, but the target language might not have the adequate words or ideas at all.

This is what makes cultural understanding a crucial component of accurate translations. It is not enough to know direct word-for-word translations in the corresponding languages, but it will be important to understand the appropriate concepts and phrases that will more precisely express the message being conveyed.