Introduction

The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages. Derived from Proto-Norse and Old Norse, they are spoken in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and (to some extent) Greenland, as well as by a significant Swedish minority in Finland and by immigrant groups mainly in North America and Australia.

Old Norse languages

This map shows the geographic distribution of Old Norse languages around AD900.


Red: Old West Norse, light-red: Old East Norse, blue: Gothic, green: other Germanic languages

Language Family Tree

Indo-European > Classical Indo-European > Germanic > Northwest Germanic > North Germanic

Languages Sorted Alphabetically