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Minnesota (; locally ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858, created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory. Its name comes from the Dakota word for "clear blue water".〔"Mnisota" ''Dakota Dictionary Online.'' 2010. https://filemaker.cla.umn.edu/dakota/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1630 (September 7, 2013).〕 Owing to its large number of lakes, the state is informally known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Its official motto is ''L'Étoile du Nord (''French:'' Star of the North).'' Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U.S. States; nearly 60 percent of its residents live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"), the center of transportation, business, industry, education, and government and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation. Minnesota is known for its idiosyncratic social and political orientations and its high rate of civic participation and voter turnout. Until European settlement, Minnesota was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe. The large majority of the original European settlers immigrated from Scandinavia and Germany, and the state remains a center of Scandinavian American and German American culture. In recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America has expanded its demographic and cultural composition. Minnesota's standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, and the state is also among the best-educated and wealthiest in the nation. ==Etymology== The word ''Minnesota'' comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River: ''Mnisota''. The root ''mni'' (also spelled ''mini'' or ''minne'') means "water" and "tō" ("ta") means "blue". ''Mnisota'' can be translated as ''clear blue water'' or ''clouded blue water'' depending on pronunciation.〔"Mnisota" ''Dakota Dictionary Online''. 2010. https://filemaker.cla.umn.edu/dakota/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1630 (September 7, 2013).〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = Minnesota Historical Society )〕 Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it ''mnisota''.〔 Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls ("laughing water" (waterfall)), Minneiska ("white water"), Minneota ("much water"), Minnetonka ("big water"), Minnetrista ("crooked water"), and Minneapolis, a combination of ''mni'' and ''polis'', the Greek word for "city".〔 (【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = Minnesota Historical Society )〕 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「Minnesota」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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