From: Hans Aberg (haberg@math.su.se)
Date: Thu Nov 03 2005 - 05:47:29 CST
On 3 Nov 2005, at 07:27, Erkki Kolehmainen wrote:
> Åland is actually not an island. It is an archipelago.
Or "groups of islands" (and a province): sorry I did not think of
that. My Bonnier's Encyclopedia from 1967 suggests that the word
Åland comes from Primitive Norse: either Ahwiland, "land of island",
or "Ahvaland", "land of water". So it has never been considered an
island. The situation can perhaps be compared with that of the
Canaries, or Hawaii. So not only is "island" not a part of the name
Åland, the latter is not even an island! :-)
Hans Aberg
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