Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a geographical area in northern Europe. Typically, Scandinavia is considered to consist of the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. If Scandinavia is defined strictly by the geographical limits of the Scandinavian peninsula, Denmark is excluded. Finland is oftentimes included in Scandinavia, because it has very extensive cultural ties with the rest of the Scandinavian countries; Iceland is often included, for similar reasons.

Although there are distinct differences, the Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages are quite similar; citizens of some Scandinavian countries are able to understand each other quite well. Finnish is not mutually intelligible with the other languages; indeed, Finnish is not even in the Indo-European language family. Finnish is generally considered to be part of the Finno-Ugric family.

It is also noticeable that the national flags of the Scandinavian countries display the scandinavian cross.