Talk:Provinces of Sweden

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The basic templates for each of the province articles are covered in two WikiProjects: WikiProject Swedish provinces and WikiProject historical provinces in Finland. -- Mic 08:02 18 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Why are you using the outdated Latinized forms of the province names, names never used and only to be found in age-old official Swedish documents? In English, or any other non-Swedish, literature you will only find the Swedish names or transcripts thereof (Scania-Skåne being the sole exception). And when the Latinzed forms are nothing but transcripts themselves why not use the normal Swedish/English names that, not surprisingly, actually are used by all other sources?: Matle 15:54, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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[edit] These 'landskap' are not archaic!

The English Wikipedia gives the impression that the Swedish Provinces are some archaic division of Sweden no longer used and very much written in the past tense (and for some reason even uses the old latin names). This is completely wrong. The provinces may not have anything to do with the current governance of the the country, but they are still very much used as geographic regions, and identity for the people who live in them. Wikipedia in this instance has even posioned Google's Index so if you for example do a Google search for Smalandia nearly all of the top links can be traced back to Wikipedia.

I would like to hear any objections to moving these provinces to their modern names, and arguments against doing so. --pflodo 14:23, 2004 Sep 25 (UTC)

I will continue my discussion to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Swedish provinces, as that is a more logical place --pflodo 10:14, 2004 Sep 27 (UTC)

Well, of course this division is in some way archaic. It is still used in many contexts, but it is has no administrative or political significance. --Muniswede 19:42, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
I agree pflodo, in school we never learned the names of the "Län" we learned the "Landskap". Chandlertalk 14:48, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Past tense for Österlanden

Please use the past tense at least for Österlanden as this part of (historical) Sweden doesn't exist anymore. The usage of the past tense would be more in accordance with international usage dealing with historical issues. This is one of the confusions arising when trying to write more articles about one geographical area. It is funny that the problem with Swedish areas, provinces and regions seems to arise only in the English wikipedia version.

(posted by anonymous, signed by Peter Isotalo 03:32, 4 August 2005 (UTC))

Thank you for your input. This is largely because these articles have been initiated and mostly written by Mic, who's ideas about Swedish geography and history leave much to be desired. Please help out by correcting the mistakes. There's a lot of them to correct.
Peter Isotalo 03:32, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
This name is never used. I think 99% (or more) of the Swedes have never ever heard of Österland(en) in connection with Finland. For most people "österland" means "the orient", and so is also described in many encyclopaedias. --Muniswede 13:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Skåne

There is no reason for Skåne to have their latin name (Scania) next to it. If not any oppose we could delete it. Litany

Scania is a common English name for Skåne. / Fred-Chess 10:39, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
No, Scania is the common English and Latin name for Skåneland, that is Skåne+Halland+Blekinge. There is no english translation of Skåne province, for that it is too recent an invention. Carewolf 20:07, 9 January 2006 UTC
While "Scania" may refer to Skåneland, I have yet to see that it may not refer to Skåne in particular. My English-Swedish dictionary says that Skåne translates to Scania. I don't understand why you say that Skåne/Scania is a recent invention. Suecia Scaniae Insigne Ducatus 1712.jpg Here is a coat of arms from 1712 of Skåne, with the inscription Insigne Ducatus Scaniae. / Fred-Chess 10:05, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
In English the term Scania normally is used for the province Skåne (and of course even more for the trucks/lorries by that make). Nobody really talks about "Skåneland". That is a term reserved for historians, never used by the public. --Muniswede 13:07, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History provinces according to lands??

Quoting the current article, "Sweden was historically divided into the four lands."

This is not particularly correct, rather confusing. This partition is a modern idea, and the term "land" historically applied to the landskap (ie, Sweden was historically divided into 20+ lands). Norrland, Svealand, Götaland have always been collective terms and not a historical division. Part of the confusion lies in that the official Sweden makes a rather curious translation of landskap into province. "Land" would be a more proper translation, since not only has it been synonymous with "landskap" in Swedish: as opposed to 'province' it has also the same meaning and use in English. It's surely too late for such a correction, but the part about Sweden consisting of four lands need to be revisioned. It would be interesting to know from where the author got this idea about the quartering though.

I don't know who wrote that, or when, but that's quite correct, except in one topic: it's never too late to change, the article should be moved to lands of Sweden, and this provinces of Sweden be updated to contain modern regions only. (With reservations for changing my mind.) Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 06:37, 15 June 2007 (UTC)
Nope, I referred to the dictionary (Norstedts Engelska Ordbok 1997, ISBN 91-7227-000-4), which supported the current structure of en.wikipedia. I'll do no changes. Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 06:41, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Move some sections to articles about provinces in Finland

This article should concentrate on Sweden within its present-day boundaries. Of course it could be mentioned that Finland once was a part of Sweden. But I think it is a bit "too much" in this arrticle. Finland was lost 200 years ago and has been an independent republic since 90 years. The article name is after all "Provinces of Sweden". --Muniswede (talk) 11:56, 7 December 2007 (UTC)