Re: OT: Finns.

Den 25. feb. 2009 kl. 08.41 skreiv Benct Philip Jonsson:
>
> In Old Norse _Finnr/Fiðr, Finnar (pl.)_ always
> refers to Saami people.
It can refer to dwarfs or other supernatural beings, too. Or any
swarthy person. As a given name, Finnr was often used for boys who
had dark colours.

> Why it was later applied to
> the Suomi people remains a mystery.
Fenni and Fennia were known from classical literature. Perhaps the
geographers looked there when the Swedes began to settle in the 12th
century. The name Finland isn't used until the 12th century, and then
only for a small part of the country.

> As for ON _Kvænir/Kveinir_ it derives from Saami
> _Kuöinu_[^1] which in turn derives from or is
> cognate to Finnish _Kainulaiset_ 'The
> Shore-dwellers', who were the north-westernmost
> Finnish tribe which colonized northern Sweden and
> northern Norway.  The Kainulaiset were thus the
> first and normally only Finnish tribe which the
> old Norse came into contact, and so their name
> was, as often happens, applied by them to all the
> Finns as a whole.
That was informative, and makes sense. This looks too recent for any
pre-Grimm phenomenons, so probably there isn't any connection.

> BTW I suspect that [kainu] > [kQinu] > [kwEinu]
> may have been a spontaneous development in some
> dialect of ON.  The [kwEin] > [kw&:n]  change
> was under the influence of the ON word _kvæn_
> 'womanfolk' (cognate to English _quean_).
They didn't think the Kainulaiset looked very manly? ON has no kai-
word, so it's perhaps natural that it would change. Possibly the word
has arrived to ON via Sami, that would account for some changes.

LEF

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