`` Scandinavia '' is more useful as a linguistic term , rather than geographic , however , because it also refers to the area where Scandinavian languages ( North Germanic languages ) are spoken . The Scandinavian languages ( Swedish , Norwegian , Danish , Icelandic and Faroese ) are closely related , and many Scandinavians are able to understand some of the other languages , though with difficulty . The Danish , Faroese , Icelandic , Norwegian and Swedish languages are linguistically classified as North Germanic languages ( also called Scandinavian languages ) , while the Finnish and Sami languages are classified as members of the Finno-Lappic group of the Uralic lingual family , not related to the Scandinavian languages .