[tied] Re: IE "River", what are the

The Danish toponym Isefjord probably has an original long initial i
like the Icelandic toponym Ísafjörður. In modern Danish it may be
pronounced both with a short or long i with a typical shortening in
the first part of a compound, but the optional long vowel, the closed
quality of the vowel and the traditional spelling certainly indicate
that we have Old Danish long i. (Furthermore, in Snorri Sturluson's
Heimskringla, Isefjord is rendered Ísafjo,rðr, but I don't know if
the acute is supported by the manuscripts.)

The long i suggests that the toponym is derived from the common
appellative _is_ [i:'s] "ice" and not from the Indo-European root
*ish2-, which would regularily have turned up with a short i in the
Germanic dialects.

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:

> At 7:12:14 AM on Tuesday, April 12, 2005, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> > <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> >> tgpedersen wrote:
>
> >>> Do you propose the same origin for Danish 'ising', that
> >>> strong vigorous flatfish, living among other places on
> >>> the bottom of the strong vigorous inlet of Isefjord in
> >>> northern Sjælland?
>
> >> No, why should I?
>
> > Because is- occurs in hydronyms all over Europe, and it
> > would be nice to have single origin for them all. Do you
> > have any IE proposals for 'ising' and 'Isefjord'?
>
> I don't know about that Isefjord, but <Isefjær> in
> <Isefjærfjorden> (fjord in Lillesand commune) is taken to be
> from ON *Ísafjo,rðr, from the gen.pl. of <íss> 'ice' and
> <fjo,rðr>.
>
> Brian