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Guinea is a traditional name for the region of West Africa that lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the forested tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. == Etymology == The etymology of "Guinea" is uncertain. The English term ''Guinea'' comes directly from the Portuguese word ''Guiné'', which emerged in the mid-15th century to refer to the lands inhabited by the ''Guineus'', a generic term for the black African peoples south of the Senegal River (as opposed to the 'tawny' Zenaga Berbers, north of it, whom they called ''Azenegues'' or ''Moors''). The term "Guinea" is extensively used in the 1453 chronicle of Gomes Eanes de Zurara.〔Zurara titled his 1453 chronicle of the Henrican discoveries as the "conquest of Guinee", (e.g. (p.1 )) and although Zurara starts off using the term "Guinea" loosely to include the Western Sahara coast, he eventually ((p.153 )) corrects himself and notes that the term "Guinea" really applies only the lands of the ''Guineus'', the black people south of the Senegal River.〕 King John II of Portugal took up the title of ''Senhor da Guiné'' (Lord of Guinea) from 1483. It is believed the Portuguese borrowed ''Guineus'' from the Berber term ''Ghinawen'' (sometimes Arabized as ''Guinauha'' or ''Genewah'') meaning "the burnt people" (analogous to the Classical Greek ''Aithiops'', "of the burned face").〔Rogado Quintino (1965) "O problema da origem dos termos «Guiné» e «Guinéus»", ''Boletim Cultural da Guiné portuguesa'', vol. 20, no.78, p.117-45.〕 The Berber terms "aginaw" or "Akal n-Iguinawen"〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Guinea: Overview )〕 mean "black" or "land of the blacks." A competing theory, first forwarded by Leo Africanus in 1526, claims that 'Guinea' is derived from Djenné, the great interior commercial city on the Upper Niger River.〔Leo Africanus (written 1526, pub.1550) ''The History and Description of Africa: and of the notable things therein'' (p.79 ))〕 Djenné dominated the gold and salt trade across West Africa, from the 11th century (fall of Ghana) until the 13th century (when the Mali invasion disrupted its routes and redirected trade to Timbuktu, hitherto just a small Djenné outpost). It is during the period of Djenné dominance that the term ''Genewah'' really comes forward into usage in Arab sources (''al-Sudan'' - Arabic for "blacks" - is used more commonly before).〔W. D. Cooley (1841) ''The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained''(p.20 ).〕 Other theories try to connect "Guinea" to "Ghana", but this is less certain. The Ghana Empire is named after the Medieval trading city of ''Ghanah'' mentioned already by 11th-century Arab geographers (e.g. al-Bakri), but it is used distinctly from ''Genewah'' by Arab sources (e.g. they would say "Ghanah in the country of Genewah").〔 Conversely, it remains possible that both Ghana and Djenné themselves owe their original city names to the Berber appellation for the blacks that lived there. A possible reconciliation of the theories is that the Berber ''Ghinawen'' (blacks) was the source of the ''Djenné'' (city), which in turn gave rise to the Arabic ''Genewah'' (land dominated by that city), which finally made it into the Portuguese ''Guiné''.〔Cooley (1841) endorses the theory (p.18n) that Djenné, rather than blacks, was the source of the Arabic term Genewah (and thus Portuguese Guiné), but at the same time (p.20n) recognizes that Djenné itself might originally come from the Berber Ghinawen (blacks).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guinea (region)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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