(Scandinavian languages) and the Sámi languages. The majority of the population of Scandinavia (including Iceland and the Faroe Islands) today derive their language from several North Germanic tribes who once inhabited the southern part of Scandinavia and spoke a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse and from Old Norse into Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, and Icelandic. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a dialect continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent. A small minority of Scandinavians are Sámi people, concentrated in the extreme north of Scandinavia. Finland is mainly populated by speakers of Finnish, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. However, Finnish is also spoken as a recognized minority language in Sweden, including in distinctive varieties sometimes known as Meänkieli. Finnish is distantly related to the Sámi languages, but these are entirely different in origin to the Scandinavian languages. German (in Denmark), Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in parts of Scandinavia. More recent migrations has added even more languages. Apart from the Sámi languages and the languages of minority groups speaking a variant of the majority language of a neighboring state, the following minority languages in Scandinavia are protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Yiddish, Romani Chib/Romanes and Scandoromani. North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are traditionally divided into an East Scandinavian branch (Danish and Swedish) and a West Scandinavian branch (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese), but because of changes appearing in the languages since 1600 the East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian branches are now usually reconfigured into Insular Scandinavian (/) featuring Icelandic and Faroese and Continental Scandinavian (), comprising Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The modern division is based on the degree of mutual comprehensibility between the languages in the two branches. The populations of the Scandinavian countries, with common Scandinavian roots in language, can—at least with some training—understand each other's standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television. The reason Danish, Swedish and the two official written versions of Norwegian (Nynorsk and Bokmål) are traditionally viewed as different languages, rather than dialects of one common language, is that each is a well-established standard language in its respective country. Danish,