At 10:39:09 AM on Monday, November 10, 2008, tgpedersen
wrote:
> de Vries' Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch informs
> me (entry ey "insel") that Gotland in Finnish is
> 'Voijonmaa, richtiger Vuojanmaa' and 'eig. Insel-land'.
Somehow you failed to mention that this appears s.v. <ey>
because de Vries, citing Karsten, FMS 2, 1934, 50-3, takes
<Vuojan-> to be a borrowing of the Scandinavian word.
Google tells me that Karsten is T.E. Karsten, and FMS is
probably Folkmålsstudier.
The name, of course, may be a topographical description and
need not have anything to do with the <Got-> of <Gotland>.
Brian