--- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... wrote:
> Anyway, the
> idea was that *balt- in the word 'Baltic' and the names of the
Danish
> straits of Great and Little belt (Storebælt, Lillebælt) somehow
> fitted in here, and how does that fit in with "100% Slavic"?
>
> Torsten
>
By majority opinion, Late Latin 'mare Balticum' reflexes some
Germanic (?, but OE belt, OHG belt are treated as borrowing from
Latin balteus themselves)name for the sea (semantics like 'to belt,
to ecircle' is usually proposed - which seems a bit folk-etymologish
to me). But.
1. The Baltic languages don't know (and very probably have never
known) such a name (with the root balt-) for the sea. General terms
(like Lith. ju_~ra 'a sea', ma~rios 'big lake, gulf') were applied.
The root *ba'lt- exists in the Baltic languages, but it means 'white'
and the like. Again, the 'Baltic' tribes have never designated
themselves by this name, which is of Late Latin bookish origin. It's
hard to say if the common self designation existed with the Balts,
but only individual tribonyms have survived: *lat-gal-, *gal-ind-,
*kurs'-, *z'eim-gal-, *se:l-, *leit-v-i-, *su:d-v-i-, *ja:t-v-i-,
*pru:s-, *pagud-e:n-, *pamed-e:n- (also *slav-e:n- :))))) etc.
2. Romanian balta is 100% borrowing from Slavic *bo'lto < *ba'lta(m),
which is 100% Slavic. Slavic *ba'lt- 'marsh, pool etc.' MAY BE
connected to Baltic *ba'lt- (see my answer to Girts), by hardly
connected with Latin balteus.
Sergei