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Glite Dictionary
North Germanic language

North Germanic language

7.6
A language spoken in Scandinavia and Iceland, like Swedish or Danish
  • noun
translation icon : lengua germánica del norte
  • Icelandic is a North Germanic language still spoken today.

Examples

  • Scholars study the origins and differences among the North Germanic languages of Scandinavia.

  • Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are all classified as North Germanic languages.

  • Swedish is a North Germanic language.

  • Icelandic is one of the oldest North Germanic languages still in use.

  • Swedish is a North Germanic language that shares many similarities with Danish and Norwegian.

  • Icelandic, a North Germanic language, has changed very little since the Viking Age.

  • Many students in Scandinavia learn a North Germanic language as their first language in school.

Synonyms

Scandinavian language
vsNorth Germanic language
5.3

A language spoken in northern Europe, for example Swedish or Danish

means the same but prefers the label without the word northern

Surface Forms

North Germanic language singular
North Germanic languages plural

Morphology

north + Germanic + language

The phrase is fully compositional: 'north' indicates a geographic region, 'Germanic' specifies the language family, and 'language' labels it as a language, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it refers to Germanic languages spoken in the north (e.g., Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese). This follows common cross-linguistic naming patterns for language groups, making the meaning transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

North Germanic language comes from the words North (where they are spoken) and Germanic (the big language family they belong to). It refers to the group of Germanic languages that grew in 'Scandinavia' and 'Iceland', so today it means languages like Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.