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Island words, island worlds : the origins and meanings of words for ‘Islands’ in North-West Europe

This paper proposes the notion that words mirror ideas, perspectives and worldviews. Etymologies and meanings of general words for ‘islands’ in a number of languagesin North and West Europe are then discussed. Here, islands are shown to be etymologicallyconstituted by the interplay between land and water, and which of these two is emphasizedvaries. In the third section, a number of Swedish island words are surveyed, in an attemptto illuminate the principle of linguistic relativity. Finally, the implications of these findingsfor island studies are discussed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hgo-338
Date January 2009
CreatorsRonström, Owe
PublisherHögskolan på Gotland, Avdelningen för Samhällsgeografi och etnologi, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada : Institute of Island Studies
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle in journal, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationIsland Studies Journal, 1715-2593, 2009, 4:2, s. 163-182

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