The River-Names of Europe Part 9

The Sansc. _il_, to move, Gr. ????, Old High Germ. _ilen_, Swed. _ila_, Mod. Germ. _eilen_, to hasten, Fr. _aller_, &c., is a very widely spread root in river-names.

1. _England._ The ILE. Somerset.

The ALLOW. Northumberland.

_France._ The ILL, the ILLE, and the ELLe.

_Germany._ ILLA, 9th cent. The ILL.

IL(AHA), 11th cent. The IL(ACH).

The ALLE. Prussia.

_Italy._ ALLIA ant., near Rome.

2. _With the ending en._ _England._ ALAUNUS (Ptolemy). Perhaps the AXE.

The ALNE, two rivers.

The ELLEN. c.u.mberland.

_Scotland._ The ALLAN, two rivers.

_Ireland._ The ILEN. Cork.

_France._ The AULNE. Dep. Finistere.

3. _With the ending er._ _Germany._ ALARA, 8th cent. The ALLER.

ILARA, 10th cent. The ILLER.

_Piedmont._ The ELLERO.

From the above root _al_ or _il_, to move, to go, I take to be the Gael.

_ald_ or _alt_, a stream, (an older form of which, according to Armstrong, is _aled_); and the Old Norse _allda_, Finnish _aalto_, a wave, billow. As an ending this word is found in the NAGOLD of Germany (ant. NAGALTA), and in the HERAULT of France, Dep. Herault. Forstemann makes the former word _nagalt_, and remarks on it as "unexplained." It seems to me to be a compound word, of which the former part is probably to be found in the root _nig_ or _ni_, p. 47.

1. _England._ The ALDE. Suffolk.

The ALT. Lancas.h.i.+re.

_France._ OLTIS ant., now the Lot.

_Germany._ The ELD. Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

_Spain._ The ELDA.

_Russia._ The ALTA. Gov. Poltova.

2. _With the ending en._ _Germany._ ALDENA, 11th cent., now the Olle.

_Norway._ The ALTEN.

_Siberia._ The ALDAN. Joins the Lena.

Also from the root _al_ or _il_, to move, I take to be the Old Norse _elfa_, Dan. _elv_, Swed. _elf_, a river. The river ??p?? mentioned in Herodotus is supposed by Mannert to be the Inn by Innsbruck. I think the able Editor of Smith's Ancient Geography has scarcely sufficient ground for his supposition that Herodotus, in quoting the Alpis and Carpis as rivers, confounded them with the names of mountains. The former, it will be seen, is an appellative for a river; the latter is found in the name Carpino, of an affluent of the Tiber, and might be from the Celt.

_garbh_, violent; a High Germ. element, for instance, would make _garbh_ into _carp_. But indeed the form _carp_ is that which comes nearest to the original root, if I am correct in supposing it to be the Sansc.

_karp_, Lat. _carpo_, in the sense of violent action. In the following list I should be inclined to take the names Alapa, Elaver, and Ilavla, as nearest to the original form.

1. _Germany._ ALBIS, 1st cent. The ELBE. Also the ALB in Baden, and the ALF in Pomerania.

ALPIS (Herodotus), perhaps the Inn.

ALAPA, 8th cent., now the Wolpe.

The AUPE. Joins the Elbe.

_France._ ALBA ant., now the AUBE.

The AUVE. Dep. Marne.

The HELPE. Joins the Sambre.

_Greece._ ALPHEUS ant., now the Rufio--here?

2. _With the ending en._ _Scotland._ The ELVAN. Joins the Clyde.

_Germany._ ALBANA, 8th cent., now the ALBEN.

_Tuscany._ ALBINIA ant. The ALBEGNA.

3. _With the ending er._ _France._ ELAVER ant., now the Allier.

4. _With the ending el._ _Germany._ ALBLA, 11th cent., not identified.

_Italy._ ALBULA, the ancient name of the Tiber.

_Russia._ The ILAVLA. Joins the Don.

Forstemann seems to me to be right in his conjecture that the forms _alis_, _els_, _ils_, are also extensions of the root _al_, _el_, _il_.

We see the same form in Gr. ???ss?, an extension of ????, and having just the same meaning of verso, volvo. Indeed I think that this word, which we find specially applied to rivers, is the one most concerned in the following names, two of which, it will be seen moreover, belong to Greece. Hence may perhaps be derived the name of the Elysii, (wanderers?) a German tribe mentioned in Tacitus. And through them, of many names of men, as the Saxon Alusa and Elesa, down to our own family names Alice and Ellice.[27]

1. _France._ The ALISE.

_Germany._ ELZA, 10th cent., now the ELZ.

ILSA ant., now the ILSE.

The ALa.s.s. Falls into the Gulf of Riga.

_Greece._ ILISSUS ant., still retains its name.

_Asia Minor._ HALYS ant., now the Kizil-Irmak.

2. _With the ending en._ _Germany._ ELISON, 3rd cent., now the Lise.

_Belgium._ ALISNA, 7th cent., not identified.

_Greece._ ELLISON or HELISSON ant.

3. _With the ending es._ _Germany._ ALZISSA, 9th cent., now the ALZ.

ILZISA, 11th cent., now the ILZ.

The root _sal_ Forstemann takes to be Celtic, and to mean salt water. No doubt saltness is a characteristic which would naturally give a name to a river. So it does in the case of the "Salt River" in the U.S., and of the Salza in the Salzkammergut. But I can hardly think that all the many rivers called the SAALE are salt, and I am inclined to go deeper for the meaning. The Sansc. has _sal_, to move, whence _salan_, water.

The first meaning then seems to be water--applied to the sea as _the_ water--and then to salt as derived from the sea. So that when the Gr.

???, the Old Norse _salt_, and the Gael. _sal_, all mean both salt, and also the sea, the latter may be the original sense. From the above root, _sal_, to move, the Lat. forms both _salire_ and _saltare_, as from the same root come _sal_ and _salt_. I take the root _sal_ then in river-names to mean, at least in some cases, water. In one or two instances the sense of saltness comes before us as a known quality, and in such case I have taken the names elsewhere. But failing the proper proof, which would be that of tasting, I must leave the others where they stand.

1. _Germany._ SALA, 1st cent. Five rivers called the SAALE.

SALIA, 8th cent. The SEILLE.

_France._ The SELLe. Two rivers.

_Russia._ The SAL. Joins the Don.

_Spain._ SALO ant., now the XALON.

2. _With the ending en = Sansc. salan, water?_ _Ireland._ The SLAAN and the SLANEY.

_France._ The SELUNE. Dep. Manche.

It is possible that the root _als_, _ils_, found in the name of several rivers, as the ALZ, ELZ, ILSE, may be a transposition of the above, just as Gr. ??? = Lat. _sal_. But upon the whole I have thought another derivation better, and have included them in a preceding group.

From the Sansc. _var_ or _vars_, to bedew, moisten, whence _var_, water, _varsas_, rain, Gr. ??s?, dew, Gael. and Ir. _uaran_, fresh water, I get the following, dividing them into the two forms, _var_ and _vars_.

_The form var._

1. _England._ The VER. Herts.

_France._ VIRIA ant. The VIRE.

_Germany._ The WERRE in Thuringia.

2. _With the ending en._ _Germany._ WARINNA, 8th cent. The WERN.