Scandinavia
Scandinavian (Norwegian and Finnish. Skandinavia, dates. And a Swede. Skandinavien) – a historical and cultural region in the north of Europe, centered on the Scandinavian peninsula. It covers a territory of Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark have traditionally been considered part of Scandinavia. In addition, in Scandinavia, often include Iceland and Finland, as well as the Faroe Islands, bringing together this term to the concept of Northern Europe. Some interpretation extends the concept of Scandinavia, even in regions such as Karelia, Murmansk and Leningrad Oblast, Russia.
History
Nordic region was colonized by North German tribes in the second half of the 1 st millennium AD. Scandinavian states have repeatedly merged into political alliances, most of which was of the Kalmar Union (1397-1523), united under one crown of all the Scandinavian kingdoms (Denmark and Norway) with dependent territories – Finland, Iceland and Greenland.
The modern usage of the term Scandinavia is related to the Danish-Prussian war of the mid-XIX century in Schleswig and the emergence of national-political movement for the unification of Denmark and Norway into a single state.
Languages
Major Scandinavian languages have evolved from the Old Norse language and belong to the northern branch of the Germanic language group. Most dialects of Norwegian, Danish languages are mutually intelligible. Icelandic and Faroese languages are also descended from Old Norse, but retained more archaic features.
The Finnish language belongs to a completely different language family – Finno-Ugric languages. At the same time, in Finland, home to a significant minority of Swedish and Swedish is one of the official languages.
In addition, in the extreme north of Scandinavia live Sami languages.