At 2:54:22 PM on Thursday, September 20, 2007,
fournet.arnaud wrote:
> There's a version of this map at
>> http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/celtpn.htm .
> ============
> Some of the river names have interesting possible
> Paleo-European connections.
> URE from *isura
> Look at Basque isuri "to flow" (water)
According to Watts, *Isura: is a suffixed form of IE
*is-/*eis- seen also in such Continental river-names as
<Iser> and <Isère>. This gives PrW *Ior, borrowed into OE
as *I:or, *E:or.
> NIDD
> why not another form of *nant? "river"
Watts s.n. NIDD derives it from IE *neid-/*nid- 'flow',
pointing to a range of European cognates that suit this form
very nicely. These include the Nethe (Belgium, <Hnita> 726,
<Nita> 1008); the Nethe (Höxter, Germany, <Nithega> 935);
the Nidda, a tributary of the Main (<Nida> [~300], <Nidda>
9th c.); the Nied, a tributary of the Saar (<Nida> [~300],
<Nita> 1018, <Neda> 1121); the Neide (East Prussia, <Nyda>
1343), and the Nitja (Norway).
> LAVER
> why not Basque labur "short"
Because it has a fine British etymology: Watts derives it
from PrW *LaBar < Brit *Labara: (cf. Welsh <llafar> 'vocal,
resounding') and says that it's identical with <Laber>, the
name of four small streams in Bavaria, the Lièvre in Alsace
(<Lebraha> 9th c.), the Welsh <LLafar>, and the <Labarus>
mentioned by Silius Italicus.
> DEARNE
> why not Basque eder "beautiful"
Because apart from anything else, it's a lousy match,
especially for the earliest recorded forms of the name
(<Dirne>, <Dyrne>, <Dirna>).
Brian