The official language of Iceland is Icelandic (íslenska), which remains very similar to although not quite the same as 13th-century Norse. Icelandic writing uses the Latin alphabet, but with two unusual characters long ago lost from English: eth (Ð, ð), pronounced like the voiced th of "them", and thorn (Þ, þ), pronounced like the unvoiced th of "thick". Materials in English often substitute "dh" and "th" respectively, so eg. Fjörður is written Fjordhur and þingvellir is written Thingvellir. Loanwords are shunned and new words are regularly made for concepts like computers, known as tölva ("number-prophetess"). Speakers of Scandinavian languages like Danish, Norwegian or Swedish will be able to puzzle out many written words, but are unlikely to understand the spoken language.

Most Icelanders speak English, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of your 'please and thank you' to make things go a little more smoothly. Many people have basic knowledge of German, the Scandinavian languages (Danish in particular) and some Spanish and French too. At college level, Icelandic students choose a "second language" to study, often between Spanish, German, French or Italian for example. Many students also opt to study a third language. Danish and English are taught at an elementary school level.