Porsanger

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Porsanger

Porsanger (Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
) or Porsá?gu (Northern Sami

Northern Sami

Northern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland as well as northwestern parts of Russia....
) or Porsanki (Kven

Kven language

The Kven language, also known as Kvennish, is a Finno-Ugric language, spoken mostly by the Kven population in Northern Norway. From a linguistic point of view the Kven language is a mutually intelligible dialect of Finnish language, but for political and historical reasons it received in 2005 status of a legal minority language in Norw...
/Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....
) is a municipality

Municipalities of Norway

||}Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called county , and 430 municipality . The capital city Oslo is considered both a county and a municipality....
in Finnmark

Finnmark

or Finnm?rku is a Counties of Norway in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast....
county

Counties of Norway

||-||}Norway is divided into 19 subnational, called county . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 431 Municipalities of Norway ....
, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lakselv

Lakselv

The town of is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Municipalities of Norway Porsanger in the Counties of Norway of Finnmark in Norway....
. Since 2004, the municipality has had three official names: Porsanger, Porsá?gu, and Porsanki, since it has three official languages.

Porsanger (named Kistrand

Kistrand

Kistrand is a village in Porsanger municipality, Norway. It is located at on the western shore of the Porsangerfjord.Kistrand was the name of the municipality Porsanger from 1837 to January 1, 1964....
before 1964) was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt

Formannskapsdistrikt

Formannskaps-distrikt was the name for a Norway local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Charles XIV John of Sweden on 14 January 1837....
). Three other municipalities were later separated from it: Kautokeino

Kautokeino

or Guovdageaidnu , is a Municipalities of Norway in Finnmark Counties of Norway, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino....
(in 1851), Nordkapp

Nordkapp

Nordkapp is a Municipalities of Norway in Finnmark Counties of Norway, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Honningsv?g....
(in 1861) and Karasjok (in 1866).

With a population of 4100 people, many with Kven(Kainu) or Sami background.

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Encyclopedia

Porsanger (Norwegian

Norwegian language

Northern Sami

Kven language

Finnish language

Municipalities of Norway

||}Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called county , and 430 municipality . The capital city Oslo is considered both a county and a municipality....
in Finnmark

Finnmark

Counties of Norway

||-||}Norway is divided into 19 subnational, called county . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 431 Municipalities of Norway ....
, Norway

Norway

Lakselv

Kistrand

Formannskapsdistrikt

Kautokeino

Nordkapp

General information

Name

The Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic languages that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
form of the name was Porsangr. The first element is probably the name of the plant pors or finnmarkspors (Rhododendron tomentosum
Marsh Labrador Tea

Rhododendron tomentosum , commonly known as Marsh Labrador tea, northern Labrador tea or wild rosemary, is a flowering plant in the subsection Ledum of the large genus Rhododendron in the family Ericaceae....
). (Another theory is that is comes from Sami borsi which means "waterfall

Waterfall

A waterfall is usually a geology geologic formation resulting from water, often in the form of a stream, flowing over an erosion-resistant rock formation that forms a nickpoint, or sudden break in elevation....
".) The last word is angr which means "fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by Glacier....
".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
was granted on 16 June 1967. Porsanger is one of the largest municipalities in the Northern Norway that are not dependent on fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
. Instead the local people historically farmed reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou when wild in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer, widespread and numerous across the northern Holarctic....
, which is still an importance source of income. The arms thus show three silver leaping reindeer on a red background.

History

The area has been settled by Sami

Sami people

The S?mi people, are the indigenous people Indigenous peoples of Europe inhabiting S?pmi , which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia....
since time immemorial. In the 18th century, people from Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, escaping famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any faunal species, which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased death....
and war

War

...
, settled along the fjord. These people are today known as Kven

Kven

Kvens are a Norwegian ethnic minority descended from Finnish people peasants and fishermen who emigrated from the northern parts of Finland and Sweden to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries....
. Today, three official languages are in use, and the municipality is named Porsanger, Porsá?gu, and Porsanki (the name in Norwegian

Norwegian language

Northern Sami

Kven language

Finnish language

Economy

Lakselv Airport, Banak

Lakselv Airport, Banak is located 1,5 km from the town of Lakselv in the municipality of Porsanger in Finnmark county, Norway. Apart from Lakselv, the airport also serves Karasjok, some 74 km to the south, with corresponding airport coach six days a week....
has connections to Tromsø

Tromsø

is a List of cities in Norway and Municipalities of Norway in Troms Counties of Norway, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Troms?....
and Kirkenes

Kirkenes

is the centre of the municipality of S?r-Varanger in Finnmark county, Norway....
operated by Widerøe

Widerøe

Wider?es Flyveselskap ASA, branded simply as Wider?e, is the largest regional airline in the Nordic countries, having a turnover of Norwegian krone 1.8 billion and carrying 1.5 million passengers....
, as well as charter flights in the summer season. The airport is also used by the Royal Norwegian Air Force

Royal Norwegian Air Force

The Royal Norwegian Air Force is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian armed forces on 10 November, 1944....
's Station Group Banak, and with the Norwegian Army

Norwegian Army

The Norwegian Army is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for Army operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the Norwegian military....
's garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, of more than 50 men, but now often simply using it as a home base....
at Porsangmoen

Garnisonen i Porsanger

Garnisonen i Porsanger, based at Porsangmoen in Porsanger, is the world's northernmost military garrison at 70 degrees northern latitude, located in the Norwegian county of Finnmark....
, the military presence is quite heavy.

The local newspapers are Finnmark Dagblad and Ságat

Sagat

is a boss video game character from the early editions of Capcom's Street Fighter versus fighting game series. He was later turned into a regular, player character....
.

The northernmost winery

Winery

A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a :Category:wine companies. Some wine companies own many wineries....
is located here, using crowberries

Crowberry

Crowberry is a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit. They are commonly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to Subarctic climate climates, and also in the Andes of South America and on Tristan da Cunha ....
instead of grape

Grape

File:Table grapes on white.jpgA grape is the non-Climacteric #In_botany fruit that grows on the Perennial plant and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis....
s.

Geography

Porsanger is the third largest municipality in Norway by area, with . The fjord is the fourth longest in Norway, and the longest in North Norway.

The municipality is on the shores of the Porsangen fjord, a wide, open body of water with many island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
s. The biggest settlement and administrative centre is the town of Lakselv at the fjord's end, but there are smaller hamlets spread around on both sides, notably Kistrand

Kistrand

Olderfjord

Olderfjord is a village in Porsanger municipality, Norway.It is known mainly as the junction between the European route E6 and European route E69....
, Børselv

Børselv

B?rselv is a village in Porsanger in Finnmark, Northern Norway. It is located along the Porsangerfjord at the outlet of the river B?rselva....
, and Billefjord.

On the western side of the fjord, one finds the Stabbursdalen National Park, with the world's northernmost pine

Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
forest

Forest

File:Stara planina suma.jpgA forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on various criteria....
.

Midnight sun from 16 May to 27 July. Polar night from 25 November to 16 January.

Birdlife

Porsanger is an area of rich and varied bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
fauna. Here one can find such species as Pine Grosbeak

Pine Grosbeak

The Pine Grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator, is a large finch. It is the only member of its genus, Pinicola. It is found in coniferous woods across Canada, Alaska and the western mountains of the United States, and in northern Fennoscandia....
. Away from the woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is an area covered in trees, usually at low density, forming an open habitat, allowing sunlight to penetrate between the trees, and limiting shade....
s, it is the surrounding wetland

Wetland

File:Mangrove trees in Everglades.JPGA wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water....
s that have the greatest diversity. During spring, thousands of Red Knot

Red Knot

The Red Knot, Calidris canutus , is a medium sized wader which breeds in tundra and the Arctic Cordillera in the far north of Canada, Europe, and Russia....
s stop to rest and feed along the shores of Porsangerfjord.

Porsanger

General information

Name

Coat-of-arms

History

Economy

Geography

Birdlife

External links