Re: [tied] Old Rus' of the many "nationes"

----- Original Message -----
From: "george knysh" <gknysh@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Old Rus' of the many "nationes"


>
> --- Sergejus Tarasovas <S.Tarasovas@...>
> wrote:
> > --- In cybalist@..., "Alexander Stolbov"
> > <astolbov@...> wrote:
> >> > BTW, in Northern Russian dialects "dunaj" means
> > "brook, small
> > stream".
>
> ****GK: According to my sources, it has similar
> meanings in Ukrainian and Polish (and other ones as
> well, but all related to "water"). Seems pretty
> ubiquitous. There is also a little river "Dunaj" in
> Southern Poland, as well as others in the area of the
> Notec and of the Warta****
>
> > >(AS) In the basin of Dnieper there are a lot of
> rivers
> > with names
> > Dunaets and
> > > Dunavets.
>
> *****GK: And "Dunajchyk", "Sukhyj Dunajets" et
> sim.****
>
> > > >(ST) The Dnieper is first mentioned in a Greek
> source
> > in the form
> > > > Da'napris.
> > >
> > > [A.S.]
> > > Do you mean Periplus Ponti Euxini? Unfortunately I
> > know almost
> > nothing about
> > > this source. In which context Danapris was
> > mentioned there?
>
> ****GK: This seems to be a "handbook for sailors" acc.
> to my sources. Dated variously from the 4th or 5th c.
> A.D. Haven't seen it, but it sounds similar to Pliny's
> sequences of towns and rivers. That is also the source
> which offers the "Zoroastrian" name of Crimean
> Theodosia (=Artabda).*****

Then it must has been the Gothic form of the name.

So we have the Dnieper-cluster of variants of the hydronyme in Baltic and
Slavic languages and + in Gothic. We may think that Goths borrowed this name
from local tribes whom they met at Upper or rather Middle Dnieper.

For Lower Dnieper we have the Borysthene-cluster of variants of the name.
Greek Borysthene itself (from an Scythian or Kimmerian not attested form ?),
Pecheneg Baroux, Hunnic Var, and perhaps Erac.

Thus we have 2 different series of the Dnieper name: Dnieper-like one for
the forest Upper part and Borysthene-like one for the steppe Lower part.
Middle and Upper Dnieper is said to be inhabited by Baltic tribes since the
Middle Bronze Age till the middle of the 1st mill. AD. That's why I'd find
it quite logical if it appeared that Dnieper is a form of the Baltic origin
and Borysthene - of the Indo-Iranian one.

Alexander