Re: Sandomierz

On 2008-05-29 10:49, tgpedersen wrote:

> What is the connection between the name of the river San and the town
> of Sandomierz near its confluence with Vistula?
> I was wondering whether that river name might once have been something
> with *sand-, because
> 1) the word for "sand" beheves very strange in various IE languages
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/39637
> <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/39637>
> 2) perhaps the Old European/Venetic suffix *-Vnt- is involved too.

The modern spelling of the town name is folk-etymological (as if from
"San domierza" 'San joins [the Vistula]'). The name is actually a
possessive form of the once popular personal name <Se,domir>
(*soNdo-mirU), like Kazimierz <-- Kazimir, etc. In Old Polish (and still
dialectally) <e,> = [aN], hence Latinised <Sandomiria>. The first
element is *soNdU 'judgement'.

Piotr