The River-Names of Europe Part 24

_England._ The BRATHA. Lake District.

_Scotland._ The BROTH(OCK). Forfar.

_Germany._ The BRETT(ACH). Joins the Kocher.

The BRAT(AWA) in Bohemia.

BRAHT(AHA),[68] 10th century. The BRACHT--here?

_Asia Minor._ PRACTIUS ant.--here?

And from the Ir. _brag_, running water, I follow Mone in taking the following.

1. _England._ The BRAY. Devon.

_Ireland._ The BRAY. Wicklow.

_France._ The BRAY. Joins the Loire.

_Germany._ The BREGE, in the Scharwarzwald.

2. _With the ending en._ _England._ The BRAINE. Joins the Blackwater.

_Ireland._ BREAGNA, an old name for the Boyne.

A root for river-names, to which might be put the following, is found by Forstemann in Old High Germ. _ror_, Mod. Germ. _rohr_, arundo, Eng.

_rush_.

_Germany._ ROR(AHA), 11th century, now the ROHRBACH.

RURA, 8th cent. The RUHR.

_Holland._ The ROER. Joins the Maas.

The word _sil_ in river-names would seem to have the meaning of still or sluggish water. The Gael. has _sil_, to drop, rain, drip; and the Arm.

has _sila_, to filter. (The Old Fries. _sil_, ca.n.a.l, seems hardly a related word; it appears more probably to be connected with Old Norse _sila_, to cut, to furrow.) According to Pliny, the Scythian name of the Tanais or Don was Silis; and several other Scythian rivers had the same name, (_Grimm, Gesch. d. Deutsch. Sprach._) In this point of view the above derivation might seem too restricted, and we might think of _sil_, as of _sal_, (p. 75), as formed by the prefix _s_ from the root _al_ or _il_, to go, (p. 71), in the simple meaning of water. According to Strabo and Pliny the Silaris of Italy had the property of petrifying any plant thrown into it; but as, according to Cluvier, the modern inhabitants of its banks know nothing of any such property, it would rather seem as if the story had been made to fit the supposed connection of the name with _silex_, flint.

1. _Switzerland._ SIL(AHA), 11th cent. The SIHL.

_Italy._ SILIS ant., now the SILE.

_Scotland._ The s.h.i.+EL in Argyles.h.i.+re--here?

_Germany._ The SCHYL (ant. Tiarantus)--here?

2. _With the ending en._ _Sweden._ SILJAN. Lake.

_Russia._ The SHELON--here?

3. _With the ending er._ _Naples._ SILARIS ant., now the SILARO.

The form _silv_ I take to be an extension of _sil_, similar to others previously noticed.

1. _Russia._ The SILVA. Gov. Perm.

2. _With the ending er._ _England._ The SILVER. Devon.

The SIMOIS in the Plain of Troy I have suggestively placed at p. 119 to Gael. _saimh_, slow, tranquil. But, taking the epithet _lubricus_ applied to it by Horace, we might perhaps seek a stronger sense from the same root, as found in Welsh _seimio_, to grease, _saim_, tallow.

The water of the LIPARIS in Cilicia, according to Polyc.l.i.tus, as quoted by Pliny, was of such an unctuous quality that it was used in place of oil. Probably only for the purpose of anointing the person, to which extent the story is confirmed by Vitruvius. Hence no doubt its name, from Sansc. _lip_, to be greasy, Gr. ??pa???, unctuous.

Grimm (_Gesch. d. Deutsch. Sprach._) suggests a similar origin for the Ister, p. 117, referring it to Old Norse _istra_, Dan. _ister_, fat, grease, Gr. st?a?. He puts it, however, in a metaphorical sense, as "the fattening, fructifying river." With deference, however, to so high an authority, this explanation seems to me rather doubtful. For the ending _ster_, as I have elsewhere observed, is common to many river-names, and I have taken it to be, like the Arm. _ster_, formed by a phonetic _t_, from the Sansc. _sri_, to flow.

Also, from the root of the Sansc. _sri_, to flow, I take to be Gael.

_sruam_, and again taking the phonetic _t_, the word _stream_, _strom_, common to all the Teutonic dialects. In these two forms we find the ancient names of two rivers--the SYRMUS of Thrace, and the STRYMON or STRUMON, the present STRUMA, of Macedonia.

FOOTNOTES:

[67] The derivation at p. 120 I must retract, finding _beg_ as a termination of other Irish river-names.

[68] Wiegand, (Oberhessische ortsnamen), refers this name to Old High Germ. _braht_, fremitus.

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

The names of rivers form a striking commentary on the history of language, so admirably expounded to the general reader in the recent work of Professor Max Muller.

When we review the long list of words that must have once had the meaning of water or river, we can hardly fail to be struck with the number that have succ.u.mbed in what he so aptly terms "the struggle for life which is carried on among synonymous words as much as among plants and animals."

We see too how large a portion of this long list of appellatives may ultimately be traced back to a few primary roots. And how even these few primary roots may perhaps be resolved into a still smaller number of yet more simple forms.

I take for instance, as a primitive starting point in river-names, the Sansc. root _i_, _a_, or _ay_, signifying to move, to flow, to go. We have appellatives even in this simple form, as the Old Norse _a_, Anglo-Sax. _ae_, water, river. But whether they directly represent the root, or whether, like the French _eau_, p. 30, they have only withered down to it again, after a process of germinating and sprouting, I do not take upon me to determine.

Then we have the roots, also of the kind called primary, _ab_, _ar_, _ir_, _ag_, _ikh_, _il_, _it_, all having the same general meaning, to move, to go, and from which, as elsewhere noticed, are also derived a number of appellatives for water or river in the various Indo-European languages. I should be inclined to suggest that the whole of these are formed upon, and are modifications of the simple root _i_, _a_, or _ay_, and that the following remarks made by Max Muller respecting secondary roots, may be extended also to them. "We can frequently observe that one of the consonants, in the Aryan languages, generally the final, is liable to modification. The root retains its general meaning, which is slightly modified and determined by the changes of the final consonants." He instances the Sansc. _tud_, _tup_, _tubh_, _tuj_, _tur_, _tuh_, _tus_, all having the same general meaning, to strike.

Again--there are forms such as _ang_, _amb_, _and_, &c., which are merely a strengthening of the roots _ag_, _ab_, _ad_, or _at_, and which also are found in a number of appellative forms.

We might pursue the subject still further, and enquire whether the secondary forms, such as _sar_, _sal_, _car_, _cal_, all having the same general meaning, to move, to go, may not be formed, by the prefix of a consonant, on the roots _ar_ and _al_, and so also be ultimately referred to the simple root _i_ or _a_.

As also the silent and ceaseless flow of water is the most natural and the most common emblem of the efflux of time; so in the same root is to be found the origin of many of the words which mean time and eternity.

The Gr. ae?, the Goth. _aiv_, the Anglo-Sax. _awa_, Eng. _ever_ and _aye_, are all from this same root, so widely spread in river-names, and express the same idea which speaks--

"For men may come, and men may go, But I go on for ever."