--- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... wrote:
> > (*Dvina, eventually of Baltic origin).
> Please tell me more about the Baltic *dvina.
You've caught me here. It's a usual statement that this Slavic
hydronym is of Baltic origin just because it's hard to offer a
plausible Slavic etymology and because it's basin was mostly Baltic
(Finno-Ugric in it's north part) before the Slavs settled there
(though there're some rather dated theories [eg, that of Shakhmatov]
whose point is the Dvina:Daugava:Duna basin was the Slavic homeland).
But I am not aware of a plausible Baltic etymology as well. May be we
deal with a representative of the Old European hydronymy (of IE
origin, but not associable with specific IE branches) - that's what
you would probably like to here. Interestingly enough, the Balts
themselves call it Daugava (sorry for the typo in one of the last
postings) (< Proto-Baltic *Daug-va: 'great, abundant').
> One counter-philosophic note.
> When people play soccer, half of them try to get the ball into one
> goal, the other half into the other. But they follow the rules of
the
> game (or should, at least). In order to do that it helps with an
> ethno-centric view since it gives you a motivation to kick the ball
> in the first place. Personally I'm not ashamed to admit I do this
at
> least partly ad maiorem Danorum gloriam. Consider it a Eurovision
> song contest.
>
Absolutely agree. The key point here is 'follow the rules of the
game'. That's what I wanted to draw Girts' attention to.
Sergei