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The Gulf of Bothnia ((フィンランド語:Pohjanlahti); (スウェーデン語:Bottniska viken, i.e. Bottenviken + Bottenhavet)) is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea. ==Name== Bothnia is a latinization. The Swedish name "Bottenviken" was originally just "Botn(en)" with botn being Old Norse for "gulf" or "bay";〔http://runeberg.org/svetym/0146.html〕 which is also the meaning of the second element "vik". The name ''botn'' was applied to the Gulf of Bothnia as ''Helsingjabotn'' in Old Norse, after Hälsingland, which at the time referred to the coastland west of the gulf. Later, ''botten'' was applied to the regions Västerbotten on the western side and Österbotten the eastern side ("East Bottom" and "West Bottom"). The Finnish name of Österbotten, ''Pohjanmaa'', or "Pohja"-land, gives a hint as to the meaning in both languages: ''pohja'' means both "bottom" and "north." ''Botn''/''botten'' is cognate with the English word ''bottom'', and it might be part of a general north European distinction of lowlands, as opposed to highlands, such as the Netherlandic region, Samogitia (Lithuanian), and Sambia (Russia). A second possibility is that ''botten'' follows an alternative Scandinavian connotation of 'furthermost'. Thus, the Gulf of Bothnia would be the farthest extent of the Ocean. Julius Pokorny gives the extended Indo-European root as *bhudh-m(e)n with a *bhudh-no- variant, from which the Latin ''fundus'', as in fundament, is derived. The original meaning of English ''north'', from Indo-European *ner- "under", indicates an original sense of "lowlands" for "bottomlands". On the other hand, by "north" the classical authors usually meant "outermost", as the northern lands were outermost to them. The origin of the word is indeed very ancient, belonging to a period before the world discoveries by the Portuguese. Until then, North was not seen as the magnetic top of the world, East being the normal orientation of a map. Also, in Saami, the cardinal directions were named according to the different parts of the typical tent used by this nomadic people. The door of the tent was traditionally pointed South, in the most sunny direction, and the bottom of the tent would be aligned with the North. Thus the origin of the word 'Pohja' in its use as "North". Deriving as well from this logic is the affinity in the Finnish language of the words 'eteinen', meaning "hall" and 'Etelä', "South". 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「Gulf of Bothnia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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