From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Tue Nov 08 2005 - 09:49:33 CST
From: "Marion Gunn" <mgunn@egt.ie>
> Scríobh Hans Aberg:
>>
>> 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"....
>
> That makes sense. How interesting! The Irish word for 'river' is 'abha',
> with historical pronunciationa like both 'ahva' and 'ahwa' - until
> now, I had not considered a Norse association for that particular word.
And what is the origin of the name of the "Oland" islands (part of the
Swedish territory, and that has a very similar prununciation, and not very
far to the South of Åland Islands in the Baltic sea) when you know that many
people in Åland speak Swedish preferably to Finnish?
Is there really a difference of pronunciation between Oland and Åland in
Swedish ? May this justify the fact that Ålanders prefer not speaking about
Åland Islands, due to possible confusion with the Swedish Oland Islands in
oral speech ?
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