--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...>
wrote:
>
> Latin: ri:vus, flu:men, fluvius, amnis
> Greek potamos, rheuma, rheitron
> Germanic strauma-, bro:ka-
> Albanian: amë, pl. emna; lumë, përrua, rrjedhë
> Slavic: reka, potok, *strum-, *struga
> Lithuanian: strove.
> Latvian:
> Old Prussian: ape, apus
> Hittite:
> Sanskrit: sindhu, nadi:
> Avestic: da(:)nu-
> Old Irish: ab, *abann
>
> Irish abhann
>
> Welsh afon
>
> Breton auon
>
Nice list. A few details.
(1) Slavic "reka" should be "re^ka", with a jat' in the first
syllable (reflecting a diphthong). Its accentual paradigm is (b) or
(c) (I wouldn't know which), but in any case not (a).
(2) Slavic "potok" should be "potokU", with a final jer, or rather
*"potòkU", with a short rising accent on the second syllable and
fixed stress. It is a transparent derivation from the root "tek-
" 'stream'.
(3) If it is the intention to include all kinds of non-stagnant
water, big and small (and that is the way things seem to be moving),
it might make sense to include "bystrica" (short rising accent
on "y", accentual paradigm (a)), widely attested in the
meaning 'brook', a transparent derivation from the
adjective "bystrU" 'clear'.
(4) Alongside *strumy and "struga" (accent?) one might want to
include also "struja", or rather *stru:jà, apparently (b).
(5) I vaguely recall a story about western Istrian dialects using the
river name "Sava" as a generic term meaning 'river'. These dialects
are relatively recent arrivals to Istria and the fact has been used
as evidence for their earlier location. I've lost the reference and
am not even sure it isn't an urban myth.
(6) Both English and Dutch have borrowed French "rivière" as a
generic term meaning 'river', despite an abundance of inherited words
and the presence of rivers in the landscape, particularly in the case
of Dutch. Weird.
Willem