Aland/åland Isles/islands

[+Divine]

Like many autonomous or self-governing areas in the world, also Åland has it's own listing in Geocaching.com. I'm fully ok with that, but began to think if Aland Isles is the correct name for the area.

 

First I looked what MOT dictionaries have to say on the matter:

  MOT Englanti 4.0 suomi-englanti said:

Ahvenanmaa s, Åland / Aland (Islands)

  MOT Enteka Englanti-Suomi 3.0 said:

Åland Islands Ahvenanmaa (maant).

  MOT Enteka Suomi-Englanti 3.0 said:

Ahvenanmaa Åland Islands

The dictionary consensus was with Islands instead of Isles. In addition, it seemed that Åland could well be spelled with capital Å instead of A, which, however, should be fully ok too.

 

I also tried comparing, which is more popular in the internet, islands, or isles:

  Googlefight said:

"aland isles"

(120 results)

 

versus

 

"aland islands"

( 15 600 results)

Finally, I compared the capital letter:

  Googlefight said:

"Åland islands"

( 15 900 results)

 

versus

 

"Aland islands"

( 15 600 results)

So it seems that Islands should be preferred, and it wouldn't hurt to use capital Å either.

 

And no, this all isn't very important.

[+PekkaR]

In their own (official?) web pages, they use name "The Åland Islands".

Edited March 16, 2004 by PekkaR

[+canadazuuk]

Wow, and I thought I was obscure for knowing what the Faroe Islands were...?

 

Very interesting!!