User:Burgundaz/Germanic hydronyms

• *ahwō, "river"
• *mari, "sea"
  • The inherited term for a large body of saltwater.
• *saiwiz, "lake", "swamp"
  • From earlier *saigwiz, derived from *sīhwaną, "to filter, strain". The i-stem might be secondary after *mari, in which case the original form was *saigwaz < *soykʷ-ós, an agentive 'τομός'-type noun. The original meaning was "(a) seeping" or "filtering" (of water into a larger body).

*Am(i)siz/*Amisjō, Ems

• Probably originally an s-stem derived from the root *h₂em-, "to pour". The medial -i- is attested in Latin Amisia, and probably by the modern name Ems, instead of *Ens, but appears to be absent in the derived ethnonym *Amsiwarjōz, "defenders of the Ems", hence the epenthetic -p- in the Latin Ampsivariī.

*Rīnaz

• Usually assumed to be a Celtic loan, but the loan would have to have been very early, the Celtic form is *Rēnos, from earlier *Reynos so the loan would have to be pre-Proto-Celtic (before ~800 BC) and quite a ways beyond Proto-Germanic (~500 BC). Assuming Germanic speakers borrowed Celtic *Rēnos as *Rīnaz instead of *Rēnaz makes no sense as Germanic and pre-Germanic possessed a long -ē- in their sound inventories. At such an early point the source language can't be determined between the two languages. The seemingly more "primary" meaning of Old Irish rían, "sea, ocean", is - in view of the etymology - actually secondary, the original meaning was clearly "running water > river".
• If the original source was Celtic, Germanic speakers secondarily altered the vowel to resemble its Germanic cognate, *rinnaną, which original meant "to run (of a river)", which secondarily shifted "to run (with one's feet)". Such a modification is not unprecedented, compare the Germanic variant *lītilaz from earlier *lūtilaz, "little, low", where the vowel was influenced by *mikilaz, "great, big", and *midilaz, "middle, medium".
• If the source was Germanic, then it was a back-formed full-grade to the above-mentioned *rinnaną, which was an irregular verb, a zero-grade nu-present of a root *HreyH-. Ablaut back-formation is fairly common in Germanic due to well-defined ablaut regularity in the language. A Germanic noun *rīnaz < *r(e)i-nw-os would then be cognate to the Celtic *rinnos < *rinwos, "fast, quick".

*Wetrō, Wetter (Germany), Vättern (Sweden)

• While its appearance in Sweden marks it as a genuine Germanic hydronym, its appearance in Germany could be from Germanic *Wetrō or from Celtic *Wedrā (> Germanic *Wedrō), compare the River Wear in North England, reflecting Old English *Wǣr or *Wēr, borrowed from Brythonic *Gweir, from mid- and early Brythonic *Weðrọ < *Wedrā: Brythonic *-Vðr- > *-Vjr- is regular, cf. Welsh eirif, "number, amount", < *eiriβ̃ < *ad-rīmā.

*Wīs(u)lǭ

• Probably from PIE *weys-, "to flow".
• The vast number of forms, OE Wīsle, German Weichsel, Latin Vistula, Visla, Greek Ouistoula and variante Istula, Bisula and Viscla, defy an overall satisfactory explanation. Rather, if the name is Germanic in origin, the Germanic languages almost all agree on a form *Wīslǭ, the outliers, OE Wistla-, probably to be explained as a borrowing from Latin, and German Weichsel, which must then be explained as influenced by Wechsel, "change", Weichsel, "sour cherry", or another form of the shape weich-.
• If from the same root as *Wisuriz, it is unlikely this formation continues a heteroclitic *Wéysl̥. Rather, it could be explained as a substantivization of a deverbal adjective *wīsulaz, "flowing", therefore *Wīsulǭ, "that which is flowing"; although adjectival formations in *-ulaz usually take the zero-grade of the root.
• It is also possible that it represents a formation *Weys-slo-, as nouns in *-sla- usually denote some sort of association with the root. If so, the forms of the name with *-t-, *-k- or *-u- could perhaps represent foreign attempts to break up the cluster *-sl-, which for example is almost non-existent in Latin.

*Wisuriz, German Weser, Latin Visurgis

• From PIE *weys-, "to flow".
• The Germanic form must mechanically be *Wis-V-r- as *Wisr- would have given *Wistr- and *Wizr- would have given *Wē₂r- > German *Wier (cf. G Kien, "resinous wood" < *kizną). In view of this, it is necessary to reconstruct a pre-Germanic collective *Wéys-ōr, obl. *Wis-né- (modelled after *Wédōr?), or otherwise heteroclitic formation *Weys-r̥, obl. *Wis-n̥é-. In view of the attested Latin Visurgis (with uncertain stem -g-), it is preferable to assume the latter, *Weys-r̥, obl. *Wis-n̥é-, which could also be confirmed by Lithuanian Viešinta if related, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *Weišint-(?). If so, then Germanic regularized the zero-grade stem of the oblique with the stress and stem of the nominative/accusative, while Baltic regularized the zero-grade stem *-n̥- to the full grade of the nominative/accusative.

*Witruz, Latin Vidrus

• Could make sense as the oblique stem of *Vetruz, dative *Vitriwi. Other than that, it would appear to be a Germanic loan from Celtic *Wedrus, with un-Grimm's -d- for Germanic -t-.