Re: Etymology of "Warsaw"

From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 34007
Date: 2004-09-05

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
> wrote:
> > On 9/3/04 1:13 PM, tgpedersen wrote:
> >
> > > PIE *wer-s- "rain" ?
> >
> > Far-fetched, and doesn't account for the suffix. Warsaw isn't
more
> rainy
> > than the rest of the country.
> >
>
> It means "humidity" too. If it is that root, then it's from a
> language where *e > *a and after RUKI *s > *s^ (not *x as is
> Slavic). And if it isn't Slavic, there's no need to reject the
> Baltic parallels. Temematic (except I forgot the rules of that
> hypothetical substrate language)?
>
> Torsten
************
Even for me looks more plausible PIE *wer-s 'rain, flood' (cf. Alb.
<vërshoj> 'to ovrflood'), I guess we can't deny the long brotherhood
between Slavs and Avars, so the name could easy be of Avar origin
<varosh> 'subburb of the castle', attested in many place names (cf.
also Vrshac in Banat).

Konushevci