Nordic Countries

The Nordic countries and their territories or dependent areas

Nordic countries, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Norden (“the North”), group of countries in northern Europe consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The designation includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland, which are autonomous island regions of Denmark, and the Åland Islands, an autonomous island region of Finland.

The term is sometimes used interchangeably with Scandinavia, a peninsular region of northern Europe that serves as the geographic core of the Nordic countries. Scandinavia is typically defined more restrictively, however, and refers primarily to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Germanic languages

Most inhabitants of the Nordic region speak North Germanic languages (also called Nordic or Scandinavian languages): Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, as well as Faroese and Icelandic. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are mutually intelligible, especially when written, which has enabled the continual exchange of ideas between the Nordic countries. Faroese and Icelandic, which retain many characteristics of Old Norse, have similar orthographies but are not mutually intelligible. In Greenland the Inuit Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) language is the predominant language, but Danish is often used in administration and education. The population of Finland primarily speaks Finnish, a Finno-Ugric language. However, there is a Swedish-speaking minority, and Swedish serves as one of two official languages of Finland. In the north of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, Sami languages, also members of the Finno-Ugric group but not mutually intelligible, are spoken.