Greenlands five municipalities are named ”Much Ice”, ”South”, ”Centre”, ”The one with islands”, and ”Northern”, if you directly translate it from Greenlandic to English.
This article is about the island and autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. For other uses, see Greenland (disambiguation).
Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat, pronounced [kalaːɬit nunaːt]; Danish: Grønland, pronounced [ˈkʁɶnˌlænˀ]) is the world’s largest island,[d] located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the nearby island of Iceland) for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose anc… Continue Reading (34 minute read)
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13 thoughts on “Greenlands five municipalities are named ”Much Ice”, ”South”, ”Centre”, ”The one with islands”, and ”Northern”, if you directly translate it from Greenlandic to English.”
100LittleButterflies
Knowing the irony of Greenland, Much Ice probably has the least ice.
Originally there were two colonies on Greenland, the Eastern Settlement and the Western Settlement. But the Eastern Settlement was actually on the West coast far to the South while the Western Settlement was also on the West coast but farther North. They were really only East and West relative to each other.
Apparently sometime around the 1400s Icelanders went looking for the Eastern Settlement on the East coast, and couldn’t find it. Because it’s on the West coast.
Muchice seems like a perfectly cromulent name in English. It’s got that weird quality where two common words combine into one which brings neither to mind.
It means more like “northen”, “central” and “southern” municipal. Sermersooq might mean big ice, but it is Greenlandic for the inland ice and it is the municipal that covers the inland ice.
That’s kinda bog standard for Scandinavian countries
In Norway we got counties named things like ‘bay’, ‘westland’, ‘northland’, ‘inland’, and while they’re no longer used, there were ones like ‘fjords’ and ‘upland’. And if you go back a language, you get older ones like ‘saami (the native people who live up north) land’, and ‘tall people county’
Yeah turns out when you translate place names they sound less fun and mystical. Same goes for english, or are we just ignoring Avon river aka ‘river river’?
(also, in respective order, Viken, Vestland, Nordland, Inland, Fjordane, Oppland, Finnmark, and one potential etymology of Agder)
Knowing the irony of Greenland, Much Ice probably has the least ice.
Originally there were two colonies on Greenland, the Eastern Settlement and the Western Settlement. But the Eastern Settlement was actually on the West coast far to the South while the Western Settlement was also on the West coast but farther North. They were really only East and West relative to each other.
Apparently sometime around the 1400s Icelanders went looking for the Eastern Settlement on the East coast, and couldn’t find it. Because it’s on the West coast.
**”The one with islands”**
I think all of Greenland’s municipalities should be named like episodes of Friends.
Much ice, very islands.
Greenlandic? That’s what their language is called? Huh. TIL.
Muchice seems like a perfectly cromulent name in English. It’s got that weird quality where two common words combine into one which brings neither to mind.
It means more like “northen”, “central” and “southern” municipal. Sermersooq might mean big ice, but it is Greenlandic for the inland ice and it is the municipal that covers the inland ice.
Im from finland and the area i live is called northern northland.
I’ve visited Sermersooq and Qeqertalik. Thought hard about just remaining in the latter, and still frequently wish that I had.
I imagine this is somewhat like New York having districts called ‘Upper East Side’ and ‘Midtown’.
(Note: I’m from the UK and only know New York from playing Spiderman games. If I’ve made a mistake, please be nice on correcting me)
That being said, I’m terrified to think why Hell’s Kitchen is a thing…
WUHUU! I live on the ‘Qeqertalik’ part! 😀
The placenames are descriptive. [I thought that’s normal.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_names_in_Ireland)
E.g.
Original Irish-language placename: Trá Mhór.
English translation: Strand/beach big/great.
English mutation (Anglicisation): Tramore.
That’s kinda bog standard for Scandinavian countries
In Norway we got counties named things like ‘bay’, ‘westland’, ‘northland’, ‘inland’, and while they’re no longer used, there were ones like ‘fjords’ and ‘upland’. And if you go back a language, you get older ones like ‘saami (the native people who live up north) land’, and ‘tall people county’
Yeah turns out when you translate place names they sound less fun and mystical. Same goes for english, or are we just ignoring Avon river aka ‘river river’?
(also, in respective order, Viken, Vestland, Nordland, Inland, Fjordane, Oppland, Finnmark, and one potential etymology of Agder)