冰岛语（íslenska）属于日耳曼语族的斯堪的那维亚语支（北日耳曼语支），现代冰岛的官方语言。源自古代北欧人亦即维京人使用的语言（或称古诺斯语）。现代冰岛语是与古诺尔斯语离异最少的分支，其发音法（尤其是元音音素），是北日耳曼语支当中改变最少的。自维京人在近一千年前，将古诺斯语带到冰岛并形成冰岛语后，由于冰岛语词汇的拼法同语法变化不大，其标准化的写法基于自古诺尔斯语音位系统、在语义与词汇顺序上细微的拼写差异。所以，现代冰岛人或懂得冰岛语的人不须花太多时间即能方便地阅读及能理解维京时代的古代文学作品或冰岛的古代文学作品。

Icelandic /aɪsˈlændɪk/ ( íslenska ) is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. It is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the colonisation of the Americas. Icelandic, Faroese, Norn, and Western Norwegian formerly constituted West Nordic; Danish, Eastern Norwegian and Swedish constituted East Nordic. Modern Norwegian Bokmål is influenced by both groups, leading the Nordic languages to be divided into mainland Scandinavian languages and Insular Nordic (including Icelandic).