Icelandic, the official language, is a a Nordic language and it is beleived to have changed very little from the Norse spoken by the settlers coming from what is now known as Norway in the period 870-930 AD. The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around 1100 AD. Many of them are actually based on material like poetry and laws, preserved orally for generations before being written down. English and Danish are widely spoken and understood on Iceland.