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

--- In cybalist@..., "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- 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).

I suspect we couldn't see the ocean for the seas!

My father told me that the North Sea used to be known as the German
Sea, but that that name became unacceptable when Britain and Germany
were at war with one another.

Richard.