Talk:Origin of the name Kven

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[edit] Reasons to have this article

This article should exist separately since:

• Both Kven and Kvens of the past refer to its contents
• Current contents of the article about contemporary Kvens do not really fit together with proto-Germanic etymologies
• Articles styled as "Origin of the name XXX" are commonly used in Wikipedia

--Drieakko 07:59, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that this article should not be merged with the contemporary Kvens article.--Labongo 17:45, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Origin of contemporary term?

I believe this article need a section about the origin of the name Kven for the minority in Northern Norway; if such a theory exists. I don’t think it had anything to do with Kvenland or “woman”.--Labongo 17:53, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Most probably "Kven" was an old name for Finns in some Norwegian dialects already in the Iron Age. Norwegians kept using the name "Kven" for those Finns that started moving to northern Fennoscandia around the 13th century. There was a clear need to have a distinct name for the Finns in the north, since Norwegians, unlike their neighbors, already called the Sami people "Finns" and using the same name for the Finns on the same area would have been confusing. Swedes or Sami people have never recognized or used the name "Kven", only Norwegians. So the simplest theory is that the contemporary "Kven" is a remnant of the name that originally meant all Finns and it was preserved in the north only to separate Finns and Sami people. --Drieakko 19:58, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

About the ancient and contemporary "Kvens" not being connected, I'd say that it is most likely not the case. All mentions of ancient "Kvenland" are Norwegian or Icelandic (and they were mostly Norwegians) and they most probably used it to refer to a Finnish settlement. Contemporary "Kven" is again only used by Norwegians and again it refers to a Finnish group of people. Connection seems quite clear. Very strong arguments would be needed to break it. --Drieakko 20:52, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

OK. But I still think the connection between the ancient and contemporary usage need to be added to the article. As it is now it only explains how it was used in ancient time, and I did not understand if and how Kvenland could be connected to the modern term.--Labongo 04:35, 9 August 2006 (UTC)