Icelandic language fending off an English takeover

REYKJAVIK - Two centuries ago experts predicted that Icelandic would be a dead language by now. But the doomsayers can eat their words: Icelandic is alive and kicking despite an onslaught of English brought on by modern technology.

Currently spoken by the 355,000 inhabitants of the North Atlantic island, Icelandic has repeatedly come under threat through the ages - following migrations, invasions by Norway and Denmark from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, and the Industrial Revolution.

But it has always survived, with the written language little changed since the 11th century.