Scandinavia

== Etymology ==
[[File:Original meaning of Scandinavia.svg|thumb|left|Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to [[Scania]], a formerly Danish region that became Swedish in the 17th century.]]
[[File:Nordic Bronze Age.png|thumb|left|The original areas inhabited (during the Bronze Age) by the peoples now known as Scandinavians included what is now Northern Germany (particularly [[Schleswig-Holstein]]), all of Denmark, southern Sweden, the southern coast of Norway and [[Åland]] in Finland while namesake [[Scania]] found itself in the centre.]]

The term ''Scandinavia'' in local usage covers the three [[constitutional monarchy#Modern constitutional monarchy|kingdom]]s of [[Denmark]], [[Norway]], and [[Sweden]]. The majority national languages of these three belong to the Scandinavian dialect continuum, and are [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] [[North Germanic languages]].<ref>John Harrison, Michael Hoyler, ''Megaregions: Globalization's New Urban Form?'' (p. 152), [[Edward Elgar Publishing]], 2015</ref>

The words ''Scandinavia'' and ''[[Scania]]'' (''Skåne'', the southernmost province of Sweden) are both thought to go back to the [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] {{lang|gem-x-proto|Skaðin-awjō}} (the ''[[eth|ð]]'' represented in Latin by {{lang|la|t}} or {{lang|la|d}}), which appears later in [[Old English]] as {{lang|ang|Scedenig}} and in [[Old Norse]] as {{lang|non|Skáney}}.<ref>Anderson, Carl Edlund (1999). ''[http://www.carlaz.com/phd/cea_phd_abstract.pdf Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322014704/http://www.carlaz.com/phd/cea_phd_abstract.pdf |date=22 March 2021 }}''. PhD dissertation, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (Faculty of English), University of Cambridge, 1999.</ref> The earliest identified source for the name ''Scandinavia'' is [[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', dated to the 1st century AD.

Various references to the region can also be found in [[Pytheas]], [[Pomponius Mela]], [[Tacitus]], [[Ptolemy]], [[Procopius]] and [[Jordanes]], usually in the form of ''[[Scandza]]''. It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] origin, originally denoting Scania.<ref>Haugen, Einar (1976). ''The Scandinavian Languages: An Introduction to Their History.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976.</ref> According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as {{lang|gem-x-proto|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/skaþô|skaðan-]]}}, meaning "danger" or "damage".<ref name="Helle">{{cite book| author = Knut Helle| title = The Cambridge History of Scandinavia: Prehistory to 1520| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PFBtfXG6fXAC| year = 2003| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-47299-9| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 2 February 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230202171909/https://books.google.com/books?id=PFBtfXG6fXAC| url-status = live}}</ref> The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as {{lang|gem-x-proto|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/awjō|awjō]]}}, meaning "land on the water" or "island". The name ''Scandinavia'' would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to refer to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania.<ref name="Helle"/> [[Skanör med Falsterbo|Skanör]] in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem ({{lang|sv|skan}}) combined with -{{lang|sv|ör}}, which means "sandbanks".

Alternatively, ''Sca(n)dinavia'' and {{lang|non|Skáney}}, along with the [[Old Norse]] goddess name {{lang|non|[[Skaði]]}}, may be related to Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/skadwaz|skaðwa-]]}} (meaning "shadow"). John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests that the goddess Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld.<ref name="MCKINNELL63">{{cite book| author = John McKinnell| title = Meeting the other in Norse myth and legend| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=P2x2x3neFywC| year = 2005| publisher = Ds Brewer| isbn = 978-1-84384-042-8| page = 63 }}</ref>

Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the pre-Germanic [[Mesolithic]] people inhabiting the region.<ref name="Giorgio">{{cite book|author=J. F. Del Giorgio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxEnAAAACAAJ|title=The Oldest Europeans: Who Are We? Where Do We Come From? What Made European Women Different?|date=24 May 2006|publisher=A J Place|isbn=978-980-6898-00-4|access-date=23 April 2023|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423131708/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxEnAAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> In modernity, Scandinavia is a peninsula, but between approximately 10,300 and 9,500 years ago the southern part of Scandinavia was an island separated from the northern peninsula, with water exiting the [[Baltic Sea]] through the area where [[Stockholm]] is now located.<ref>Uścinowicz, Szymon (2003). [http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2 "How the Baltic Sea was changing"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212134140/http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2|date=12 December 2007}}. Marine Geology Branch, Polish Geological Institute, 9 June 2003. Retrieved 13 January 2008.</ref>

=== Appearance in medieval Germanic languages ===
The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in medieval Germanic texts. In Jordanes' history of the [[Goths]] (AD 551), the form {{lang|la|[[Scandza]]}} is the name used for their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4).<ref>[[Jordanes]] (translated by [[Charles Christopher Mierow]]), [http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html ''The Origins and Deeds of the Goths''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424044148/http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |date=24 April 2006 }}, 22 April 1997</ref><!---According to recently published notes by [[Jūrate Statkutė de Rosales]]{{Verify credibility|date=November 2010}}{{Lopsided|date=November 2010}}---><!---The arguments for or against various interpretations of Jordanes are better suited for the article about him/or about Getica. the various nationalistic and scholarly discussions about whether Jordanes referred to Lithuania, Sweden, Poland et cetera, as the true "home of the Goths" are too involved and wide-ranging to be relevant to this article. One such section (about a Baltic origin theory) has been removed. It is sufficient to state that the name appear in Jordanes, or this debate could easily swamp the article when all sides have their say.---> Where Jordanes meant to locate this quasi-legendary island is still a hotly debated issue, both in scholarly discussions and in the [[nationalism|nationalistic]] discourse of various European countries.<ref>Hoppenbrouwers, Peter (2005). ''Medieval Peoples Imagined''. Working Paper No. 3, Department of European Studies, University of Amsterdam, {{ISSN|1871-1693}}, p. 8: "A second core area was the quasi-legendary 'Isle of Scanza', the vague indication of Scandinavia in classical ethnography, and a veritable 'hive of races and a womb of peoples' according to Jordanes' Gothic History. Not only the Goths were considered to have originated there, but also the Dacians/Danes, the Lombards, and the Burgundians—claims that are still subject to debate."</ref><ref>Goffart, Walter (2005), "Jordanes's Getica and the disputed authenticity of Gothic origins from Scandinavia". ''Speculum''. A Journal of Medieval Studies 80, 379–98</ref> The form {{lang|la|Scadinavia}} as the original home of the [[Lombards|Langobards]] appears in [[Paul the Deacon]]' ''Historia Langobardorum'',<ref>[[Paul the Deacon]], [http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost08/PaulusDiaconus/pau_lan1.html Historia Langobardorum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923091528/http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost08/PaulusDiaconus/pau_lan1.html |date=23 September 2021 }}, ''Bibliotheca Augustana''</ref> but in other versions of ''Historia Langobardorum'' appear the forms {{lang|la|Scadan}}, {{lang|la|Scandanan}}, {{lang|la|Scadanan}} and {{lang|la|Scatenauge}}.<ref>[http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/001.php History of the Langobards], ''Northvegr Foundation'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100406031959/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/001.php |date=6 April 2010 }}</ref> Frankish sources used {{lang|frk|Sconaowe}} and [[Æthelweard (historian)|Aethelweard]], an Anglo-Saxon historian, used {{lang|ang|Scani}}.<ref>{{cite book| author = Erik Björkman| title = Studien zur englischen Philologie| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wKUMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA99| year = 1973| publisher = Max Niemeyer| isbn = 978-3-500-28470-5| page = 99| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423131728/https://books.google.com/books?id=wKUMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA99| url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="North">{{cite book| author = Richard North| title = Heathen gods in Old English literature| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X_LKUIqNvPQC&pg=PA192| year = 1997| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-55183-0| page = 192| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423131712/https://books.google.com/books?id=X_LKUIqNvPQC&pg=PA192| url-status = live}}</ref> In ''[[Beowulf]]'', the forms {{lang|ang|Scedenige}} and {{lang|ang|Scedeland}} are used while the [[Alfred the Great|Alfredian]] translation of [[Orosius]] and [[Wulfstan of Hedeby|Wulfstan]]'s travel accounts used the [[Old English]] {{lang|ang|Sconeg}}.<ref name="North" />

=== Possible influence on Sámi languages ===
The earliest [[Sámi languages|Sámi]] [[joik]] texts written down refer to the world as {{lang|se|Skadesi-suolu}} in [[Northern Sámi]] and {{lang|sms|Skađsuâl}} in [[Skolt Sámi]], meaning "[[Skaði]]'s island". Svennung considers the Sámi name to have been introduced as a [[loanword]] from the [[North Germanic languages]];<ref name="Svennung">{{cite journal|author-last=Svennung |author-first=J. |date=1963 |title=Scandinavia und Scandia |language=de |trans-title=Scandinavia and Scandia |journal=Lateinisch-nordische Namenstudien |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell/Harrassowitz |pages=54–56}}</ref> "[[Skaði]]" is the [[jötunn]] stepmother of [[Freyr]] and [[Freyja]] in [[Norse mythology]]. It has been suggested that Skaði to some extent is modelled on a Sámi woman. The name for Skaði's father [[Þjazi]] is known in Sámi as {{lang|smi|Čáhci}}, "the waterman"; and her son with Odin, [[Sæmingr]], can be interpreted as a descendant of {{lang|se|Saam}}, the Sámi population.<ref name="Mundel">{{cite book|author-last=Mundel |author-first=E. |date=2000 |url=http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/346-mundal.pdf |title=Coexistence of Saami and Norse culture – reflected in and interpreted by Old Norse myths |publisher=[[University of Bergen]], 11th Saga Conference Sydney 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040706090209/http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/346-mundal.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Steinsland |author-first=Gro |author-link=Gro Steinsland |date=1991 |title=Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi. En analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljóð |language=no |trans-title=The sacred wedding and Norse royal ideology. An analysis of the hierogamy myth in Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal and Hyndluljóð |location=Oslo |publisher=Solum}}</ref> Older joik texts give evidence of the old Sámi belief about living on an island and state that the wolf is known as {{lang|smi|suolu gievra}}, meaning "the strong one on the island". The Sámi [[toponymy|place name]] {{lang|smi|Sulliidčielbma}} means "the island's threshold" and ''[[Saariselkä|Suoločielgi]]'' means "the island's back".

In recent [[substratum (linguistics)|substrate]] studies, Sámi linguists have examined the initial cluster {{lang|smi|sk}}- in words used in the Sámi languages and concluded that {{lang|smi|sk}}- is a [[phonotactics|phonotactic]] structure of alien origin.<ref name="Aikio_2004">{{cite book|author-last=Aikio |author-first=A. |date=2004 |chapter-url=http://www.geocities.com/lappmark/Aikio2004.pdf |chapter=An essay on substrate studies and the origin of Saami |title=Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen: Festschrift für Jorma Koivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag. Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 63 |trans-title=Etymology, borrowings and developments: Festschrift for Jorma Koivulehto's 70th birthday. Memoirs of the Neophilological Society of Helsinki 63 |editor-first1=Irma |editor-last1=Hyvärinen |editor-first2=Petri |editor-last2=Kallio |editor-first3=Jarmo |editor-last3=Korhonen |location=Helsinki |pages=5–34 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216031912/http://www.geocities.com/lappmark/Aikio2004.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2008 |quote=On the basis of Scandinavian loanwords it can be inferred that both {{IPA|sk-}} and {{IPA|-ʃ-}} were adopted in the west during the early separate development of the Saami languages, but never spread to Kola Saami. These areal features thus emerged in a phase when Proto-Saami began to diverge into dialects anticipating the modern Saami languages.}}</ref>