Aland Islands

TheÅland Islandsor Åland(pronounced "Oh-lahnd")are a group of small islands officially belonging toFinlandin theBaltic Sea, consisting a surrounding archipelago.It is autonomous, demilitarisedand is the onlymonolinguallySwedish-speaking region in Finland.Åland's original name was in theProto-Norselanguage -Ahvalandwhich means "Land of Water". In Swedish, this first developed intoÁlandand eventually into Åland, literally "river land"—even though rivers are not a prominent feature of Åland's geography. The Finnish and Estonian names of the island,AhvenanmaaandAhvenamaa ("perchland"), are seen to preserve another form of the old name.