Re: Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language

From: dgkilday57
Message: 70026
Date: 2012-09-05

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@> wrote:
> >
> > > Can you please explain what do you mean by "fit"?
> > > What would be a few salient features of Germanic which does not make it "fit"?
> >
> > Vocabulary. It is generally reckoned to have a very high proportion of non-IE, or at least, hard to recognise vocabulary.
> >
>
> If we look at some hydronyms of Europe we find in the book
> "Poland & Germany": Studies Centre on Polish-German Affairs -
> Poland - Published 1958 on Page 26:
>
> "....for water was wudra (cf. Sanskrit udra) and this locution yields
> the Polish name of Odra for the river Oder.* The word later became woda and a much smaller stream in Pomerania is ..."

What evidence did the politicians provide for that? Do we not have <Adrana> as an old name of the Oder, indicating that the /o/ in <Odra> results from Common Slavic */a/ > /o/, and the name has nothing to do with Skt. <udra>?

> From vedic times Udra means both water and otter:
>
> Rigveda 7.49.1
> samudrájyeSThaaH salilásya mádhyaat punaanaáH yanti ánivishamaanaaH
>
> Samudra = sam + udra (water) ;
>
> Yajurveda 5.5.20.1
> alaja antariksas udro madguh plavas te pam
>
> The alaja is for the atmosphere, the otter ... these for the waters
>
> Thus River Oder is named after Sanskrit Udra meaning an aquatic animal which in sanskrit neuter gender means water. In Polish it is called wydra (read vedra) and in english/german otter (oder).

Why would the same word develop in Polish into both <Odra> and <wydra>?

> Why would European river name(s) have Sanskrit meanings?

Someone with more patience than I must answer that!

DGK