Abstract
The present study deals with language planning and language policy in the Scandinavian countries and aims to sketch their peculiarities. The investigation is both diachronic und synchronic, using the historical-comparative method and making use of the research results of linguistic disciplines as language history, sociolinguistics, etc. Language planning and language policy in the Scandinavian countries are very powerful. In spite of the strong resemblances between the Scandinavian languages and the strong pan-Scandinavian tendencies, the language planning and the linguistic policy of each individual Scandinavian country show differing tendencies. Most consequently, language planning is carried out in Iceland. In Icelandic, purism has gone the furthest. Danish is the most conservative language, but it is also most tolerant towards the foreign words.