Pohjanmaan kautta

Finnish Etymology via Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia; a phrase using fi Pohjanmaa Ostrobothnia as a roundabout way to refer to fi pohja bottom. A story regarding this phrase is that it is a reference to the Finnish Civil War (1918). To prepare for a war of independence, a few thousand supporters of the independence movement received military training in Germany. They became to be called fi jääkäri Jager. According to the story, after the war, it became customary to propose a toast by asking "fi mistä jääkärit tulivat? Where did the Jagers come from?", and to this one was supposed to answer "fi Pohjanmaan kautta via Ostrobothnia" (as they are said to have infiltrated back to Finland via Ostrobothnia) and then the glasses were emptied to the bottom, and that over time the question has become unnecessary. However, this story may be apocryphal. Yet another story claims that the phrase was invented by Johan Ludvig Runeberg around 1830 as an excuse for why he toasted "sv dricka ut polacken!" (his original reference was in reference to the November Uprising Polish uprising). This appears to be a complete folk etymology; such a toast (and that Runeberg got in trouble for it) is mentioned in Strömborg's biography of Runeberg, but fi Pohjanmaan kautta is not. Interjection fi intj Pohjanmaan kautta bottoms up fi kippis