[gothic-l] Toponym

[Eric T Sasse]

   I recently stumbled across this possible Gothic vestige in a place
name. The Oland islands, which are part of Finland, though culturally and
linguistically Swedish, are called Aaland in Swedish and Ahvenamaa in
Finnish, although I have also found the spelling Ahvanamaa. The Swedish
name means literally river-land, aa-land, whereas the Finnish name is
probably water-land, ahva-(na)-maa. The Finnish word for land is the
'maa' bit, and behold the part for water AHVA, which if memory serves, is
one Gothic word for the stuff, akin to aqua. I can not explain the middle
bit -na-, though I suspect is may be a particle. Could this possibly too,
also be another instance of Finnish retaining an ancient germanic loan in
its earlier form? Given it's proximity to the other Gothic lands, such as
Goetland itself, I would not be suprised if it is that word. What do you
think?



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