Re: Digest Number 337

--- In cybalist@..., S.Tarasovas@... wrote:

> --- 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').
>

[snip]

>
> Sergei

I would expect at least that Dvina and Düna were cognates in some way
loosely *Dunea > *Dúina > *Dvína? (You probably know what I'm aiming
for).

Torsten