The River-Names of Europe Part 12

From the Welsh _wyl_, Ang.-Sax. _wyllan_, Eng. _well_, to flow or gush, (Sansc. _vail_, to move?), we got the following.

1. _England._ The w.i.l.l.y. Wilts.h.i.+re.

_Denmark._ The VEILE, in Jutland.

_Norway._ The VILLA.

_Russia._ The VEL. Joins the Vaga.

The VILIA. Joins the Niemen.

The VILIU, (Siberia). Joins the Lena.

2. _With the ending en._ _England._ The WELLAND, (properly Wellan?) _Russia._ The VILNA. Gov. Minsk.

_Italy._ The VELINO. Joins the Nera.

3. _With the ending er._ _India._ The VELLAUR, Madras--here?

4. _With the ending s._ _Germany._ The VILS, two rivers in Bavaria.

The WELSE. Joins the Oder.

_Spain._ The VELEZ. Prov. Malaga.

A word which appears to have the meaning of water or river, but respecting the etymology of which I am quite ignorant, is _asop_ or _asp_. That it has the above meaning I infer only from finding it as the second part of the word in the ancient river-names Cho(aspes), Hyd(aspes), and Zari(aspis). In an independent form it occurs in the following. Lhuyd, (in the appendix to Baxter's glossary), referring to Hespin as the name of sundry small streams in Wales, derives it from _hespin_, a sheep that yields no milk, because these streams are almost dry in summer. This derivation is unquestionably false so far as this, that the two words are merely derived from the same origin, viz., Welsh _hesp_ or _hysp_, dry, barren. But whether this word has anything to do with the following names is doubtful; it seems at any rate unsuitable for the large rivers, such as the Hydaspes, (the Jhylum of the Punjaub).

From the derivation of Mone, who finds in Isper, as in Wipper, p. 64, a word _per_, mountain, I entirely dissent.

1. _France._ The ASPE. Ba.s.ses--Pyrenees.

_Germany._ HESAPA ant., now the HESPER.

_Greece._ ASOPUS ant. Two rivers.

2. _With the ending er._ _Germany._ ISPERA, 10th cent. The ISPER.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Ilchester (=Ivel-chester) situated on this river, is called in Ptolemy Ischalis, from which we may presume that the river was called the Ischal, a word which would be a synonyme of Ivel.

[2] It seems rather probable that the ending _es_ in these names is not a mere suffix. The APSARUS, ancient name of the Tchoruk in Armenia, and the IPSALA in Europ. Turkey, by superadding the endings _er_ and _el_, go to show this. We might perhaps presume a Sansc. word _abhas_, or _aphas_, with the meaning of river.

[3] This ending is not explained. Zeuss, comparing the endings _er_ and _st_, suggests a comparative and superlative, which is not probable. In the present, as in some other cases, I take it to be only a phonetic form of _ss_, and make Ambastus properly Amba.s.sus. But in some other cases, as that of the Nestus, which compares with Sansc. _nisitas_, fluid, it seems to be formative.

[4] This looks like a mistake for Aca.s.se.

[5] So that there _is_ a river in Monmouth, and another in Macedon.

[6] "Hysa nunc fluvii nomen est, qui antiquitus Hysara dicebatur."

(_Folcuin. Gest. Abb. Lobiens._) This seems not improbably to refer to the Oise.

[7] If, as Pott suggests, the Vedra of Ptolemy = Eng. _water_, the Wetter would naturally come in here also. But some German writers, as Roth and Weigand, connect it with Germ. _wetter_, Eng. _weather_, in the sense, according to the first-named, of the river which is affected by rain.

[8] This ending may either be formed by the addition of a phonetic _n_ to the ending _er_; or it may be from a word _ren_, channel, river, hereafter noticed.

[9] The Scotch ETTRICK and the Germ. EITRACH I take to be synonymous, though the ending in one case is German, and in the other probably Gaelic. (_See p. 25_)

[10] Hence perhaps Anitabha (_abha_, water), the Sansc. name of a river, not identified, in India.

[11] Tacitus gives this name to the Avon--in mistake, as the Editor of Smith's Ancient Geography suggests. But _anton_ and _avon_ seem to have been synonymous words for a river.

[12] Hence the name of Dover, anc. Dubris, according to Richard of Cirencester, from the small stream which there falls into the sea.

[13] Where is this river, cited by Zeuss, (_Gramm. Celt._)?

[14] Hence probably the name of Zurich, ant. Turic.u.m.

[15] Perhaps formed from _ez_ by a phonetic _n_.

[16] I do not in this case make any account of the spelling; the name is just the same as our Lee, and the idea of _lys_, a lily, is no doubt only suggested by the similarity of sound.

[17] Manual of Comparative Philology.

[18] Niebuhr derives this name from a Sabine word signifying sulphur, which is largely contained in its waters. Mr. Charnock suggests the Phn. _naharo_, a river.

[19] Niemen may perhaps = Nieven--_m_ for _v_, as in Amon for Avon, p.

26.

[20] Perhaps to be found in Sansc. _nistas_, wet, fluid. Here we get something of a clue to Eng. "nasty," the original meaning of which has no doubt been nothing but water "in the wrong place."

[21] "One of the sacred rivers of India, a river mentioned in the Veda, and famous in the epic poems as the river of Ayodhya, one of the earliest capitals of India, the modern Oude."--_Max Muller, Science of Language._

[22] I place this here on the authority of Max Muller, who, pointing out that the initial _h_ in Persian corresponds with a Sanscrit _s_, thinks that the river Sarayu may have given the name to the river Arius or Heri, and to the country of Herat.

[23] This name seems formed at thrice--first Sarit--then ov, (perhaps _av_ river)--lastly, the Slavish affix _ka_.

[24] See note p. 29.

[25] In the more special sense of lake, which, it will be observed, is frequent in this group, is the Suio-Lapp. _pluewe_.

[26] The word _asp_ comes before us in some other river-names, but respecting its etymology I am quite in the dark. From the way in which it occurs in the above, in the Zari(aspis), and in the Hyd(aspes), it seems rather likely to have the meaning of water or river.

[27] Also ALLISON and ELLISON, which may be either patronymic forms in _son_; or formed with the ending in _en_, like the above river-names.

For the names of rivers, and the ancient names of men, in many points run parallel to each other.

[28] Following strictly the above Celt. word _uaran_, this might be "Fresh-water Bay."

[29] The Araxes of Herodotus, observes the Editor of Smith's Ancient Geography, "cannot be identified with any single river: the name was probably an appellative for a river, and was applied, like our Avon, to several streams, which Herodotus supposed to be identical." Araxes I take to be a Graecism, and the Mod. name Aras to show the proper form.

[30] Containing the Latin _amnis_, river, or only a euphonic form of c.l.i.tunnus? See Garumna, p. 13.

[31] I think that in this, as probably in some other cases, _st_ is only a phonetic form of _ss_, and that the Mod. name _Aiss_ points truly to the ancient form as _Aga.s.s_, see note, p. 29.

[32] I should without hesitation have taken the PINKA, as well as the Russian PINEGA, to be from this root, with the Slavonic affix _ga_ or _ka_. But the English river PENK in Staffords.h.i.+re introduces an element of doubt. It may, however, also be from this root, with the ending _ick_ common in the rivers of Scotland. See p. 25.

[33] This river seems also to have been called anciently CHOCHARA.

[34] Here also, as in the case of the German Chuchilibach, and the Cocbroc before noted, the ending beck (= brook), seems to have been added to the original name. Chuchilibach appears as the name of a place, but I apprehend that the word implies a stream of the same name.