Paragraph 1: Most languages have changed considerably over the centuries, but Icelandic, spoken on the island of Iceland, is an exception. Its history goes back to the ninth century, when Iceland was settled by speakers of Old Norse. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Icelandic authors wrote the magnificent prose narratives known as the sagas. Extraordinarily, present-day Icelanders can still read these stories, and many do. Not “read” as in “decipher” but actually read for enjoyment. Compare it to reading nineteenth-century English novels: some words and phrases are quaint but understandable for English speakers today. That’s how close modern Icelandic is to its early form.
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