Re: Pliny's "Guthalus- "Richard Wordingham"

--- In cybalist@..., "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
wrote:

> >
> > Try the really big bodies of water. How were the Atlantic,
> Pacific, Indian,
> > Artic Oceans named? More importantly, how were those names

spread

> and
> > preserved? Historical naming suggests a very difference scenario
> then the
> > "true native name" idea assumed for preliterate European rivers
>
> There was only one 'Ocean' before literacy. It didn't need a name.
>
> Richard.

An example. 'Vesterhavet' in Danish is the North Sea. 'Vesterhavet'
in Swedish is Kattegat. But in my lifetime this designation has been
almost replaced by 'Nordsøen', ultimately from Dutch maritime maps,
probably to reduce this confusion. Even the English seem to accept
this term which only makes sense from a Dutch perspective (as opposed
to the Zuiderzee).

Torsten