--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
wrote:
> Our brilliant colleagues can sort that out but I'm
> also interested in where Volga is from. Is it related
> to a word for "turn" or what?
It's usually connected to the Balto-Slavic root *val?g-/*vil?g- (? for
the acute tone) 'moisture' < *w(o)lg-. It's not clear whether the
Slavic name is original or borrowed from (hypothetical) Volga Baltic.
Vasmer adduces the river-names (Czech) Vlha and (Polish) Wilga as
parallels, but at least the latter might be West Baltic in origin.
Trubeckoj argued that the Volga Baltic name of the river wasn't from
the 'moisture'-root, but rather from the 'long'-root, thus VB.
*Ílga '(a) long (river)'> East Slavic *VU''lga (a), which is formally
impeccable.
Sergei